Working in partnership
Zurich Financial Services Ltd, through the Zurich Community Trust, has successfully demonstrated its ability to convene organisations to develop the community investment agenda and has developed a number of long-standing partnerships, which support the Trust’s focus on the key social issues of:
- Young people’s mental health & well-being
- Breaking the cycle of drug and alcohol addiction
- Isolated older people
The Trust also leverages the time and money of Zurich UK employees to support their local communities and has also demonstrated its ability to respond to the changing needs of partners by introducing more multi year funding and volunteering partnerships.
As youth unemployment grows, the Trust has collaborated with the Prince’s Trust to support young people suffering mental health issues. The Prince’s Trust has a proven track record of supporting young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). More than 85% of the young people the charity engages return to work, education or training. Through funding the Prince’s Trusts’ Working for Wellbeing programme, it has supported the training of 500 team leaders and Prince’s Trust staff in mental health issues and will enable 400 student social workers to provide support to 5,000 young people through new and innovative university placements.
Developing employee skills
Developing employee skills is at the heart of the company’s approach to engaging employees in community investment activities. The company has developed the Skillshare programme to enable employees to share their skills in areas such as marketing, information technology, finance and human resources with community organisations. Zurich’s community partners are able to benefit from the skills of the company’s employees. Place2Be, a charity working in schools to improve the emotional well-being of children, their families and the whole school community, have been supported by senior managers from Zurich’s UK Life Marketing Department. Through Skillshare, Place2Be have received support in developing a new communications strategy to help them develop a more compelling brand identity.
Leveraging support
Zurich has utilised its knowledge as a leading insurer of charitable and social organisations to help the sector leverage volunteers by reducing the barriers confronting people. . A key way that the company has achieved this is through the development of My Community Starter, an on-line tool to assist individuals and small groups with activities involving up to 50 people. The Toolkit will help them to plan their activity, provide health and safety and legal advice and direct them to appropriate public liability insurance cover if needed.
For more information on Zurich Financial Services Ltd’s approach to community investment, please visit http://www.zurich.co.uk/home/aboutus/ourcorporateresponsibility/creatingapositivecommunityimpact.htm
For help with volunteering please visit www.mycommunitystarter.co.uk
