New Verve’s Volunteering Initiative with OnHand

Julita Borowik | Tue, February 20, 2024 | 0 comments

We are excited to share the results of our litter-picking challenge, which we participated in as part of our community giving strategy. This initiative, driven forward by our community champions Aleks and Abraham, goes hand-in-hand with New Verve’s strong emphasis on having a positive impact on society. As part of our business philosophy, we strive to lead several initiatives that allow individuals to choose their own way of ‘giving back’ to the wider community.

OnHand, a company that facilitates on-demand volunteering, provided us with the basis of our challenge, alongside a simple way of tracking our progress. Through the months of November, December and January, our team collected 20.5 bags. This active form of volunteering was a great opportunity for our team to get together and trial a new form of giving to their community. As our team is based all over the UK, we were able to bring the benefits of our challenge to a variety of different communities. Through tracking our progress and encouraging each other through Slack, this initiative allowed us to work together and celebrate our achievements as a team. Ultimately, taking part in something community-orientated has brought us closer not only as a community but also as a team.

Below, one of our community giving champions, Aleks, shares her experience of organising and running the OnHand initiative.

What made you choose this volunteering opportunity?

I decided to complete this volunteering opportunity because it was something I could do with my family and see a big, immediate impact on my surrounding area and community. It was also a great opportunity to talk to my son about the environment, recycling and importance of minimising the amount of litter we produce.

How do you feel the initiative impacted our team and the wider community?

I think this initiative showed people that even small acts can have an impact. I feel it also made people think harder about how much we consume and dispose. Talking to my colleagues, we all shared a sense of pride for doing something that will keep our local areas clean. A few people received praise from members of the public for picking the rubbish and how much more pleasant it is to walk around clean areas. Some of my friends were inspired by how clean our local area was and they organised litter-picking with their children around their local green spaces.

What did you learn from your experience?

I learned that you can have a lot of fun with your friends and family while doing something good for the planet and community, it’s just a matter of attitude. Initiatives like this help people to get inspired and push them to do more for the environment than they would normally do.

We would like to thank the effort and consideration that our community giving champions put towards this initiative, alongside all the hard work from our team! If you would like to find out more about how we strive to help our community as a team, get in touch.