Recent volunteering activities 

Water Corporation at Dyslexia Speld

Water Corporation put a team of volunteers together to help Dyslexia Speld Foundation with preparing Phonics Activity Packs which is an expensive and time consuming exercise for DSF. These packs are given to parents to help them work with their child's development. Magnets were glued onto cards with a variety of phonic formations written on them.  There was a lot of cutting, pasting and laminating involved but the volunteers managing to put together 15 packs. The team approached the tasks with enthusiasm and a good dose of humour and DSF were very impressed and appreciative of the efforts!

The Dyslexia-Speld Foundation Literacy Services (DSF) provides a range of services to assist children and adults struggling with learning difficulties and disabilities.

The inability to read and write in our society affects children and adults in multiple ways and also impacts on the wider community. DSF are providing a valuable service to families struggling to support a family member with a debilitating learning disability through information packs and telephone support, psychological services, library resources, tutoring and assessments, professional development workshops and information evenings, support and professional advice to schools and student advocacy.

Freehills at People Who Care

The yard of a People Who Care client was in an unruly and unsafe condition. Freehills volunteers gave their time to will help bring the garden into a manageable state and to convert it to an easy care garden. The task set before the team was to undertake some weeding, pruning, clearing and raking of two properties of clients of People Who Care. The team worked well and seemed to relish the opportunity to work outside. Both clients were delighted with the extra attention of small group of young people. It was a bright spot in their week! Not only did the team perform well with the gardening tasks but also interacted well with both clients and this really great to this warm and friendly interaction.

People Who Care Inc. (PWC) is an independent not-for-profit volunteer organisation which provides services to the frail aged, people with disabilities, carers and others with special needs to enable them to live independently for as long as possible and to avoid premature or inappropriate admission to long-term care facilities.

Dept of Finance gardening project at Parkerville

Parkerville's Youth Programme is an intensive residential Programme for at risk and vulnerable young people aged 12 - 16 years. The Programme is designed to provide a safe living and learning environment for young people.

The project undertaken by a team from the Dept of Finance was to paint the external brick of the residential Cottage which was a very dark 1970s brown brick as well as turn the back paddock into a youth friendly garden. 

Parkerville also designed a garden plan so a few garden beds, some planting; make a nice BBQ area were required. The team made an excellent job of the work put before them. Well done to the Procurement Systems & Standards team!

Fuji Xerox at Manna

Manna Inc is a community based organisation that is entirely run by volunteers. It is run by a board of seven members and their support networks of volunteers are coordinated to provide Manna services into the community. Its primary services are focused on assisting the disadvantaged in Perth and its surrounding areas. These services include; evening three course meals for the homeless six days a week, emergency food parcels to families and disadvantaged individuals.

In late July a team from Fuji Xerox participated in a Corporate Connect® Volunteering morning at Manna. The team represented FXA with the usual excellence. This group not only worked efficiently and completed all task but also worked with a great deal of humour; so they were a fun group to work with. The task before the team was to prepare a Chicken Fricassee and create more protein biscuits. This involved plenty of chopping and dicing of the vegetables for the Fricassee and crushing and mixing for the biscuits. Once the Fricassee was underway the team was also able to get into preparing the vegetables supplies to be utilised the following week.

Bankwest at HOPE

The Bankwest team should be well pleased with their efforts as it was a great success. The task was to prepare a two course meal consisting sausages, chicken satays, marinated steak, potato bake, coleslaw, rice salad, pasta salad, vegies and apple crumble served with custard. Therefore there was a lot of peeling, chopping, slicing and bbqing before serving the meal to the clients with the chance to then sit down and eat with them.

Bankwest's Managing Director, Jon Sutton, and his wife Margaret also came along to help out on the day, preparing and serving to HOPE's clients.

It was really pleasing to see a number of employees engaging in various conversations with those that previously they may have just walked passed on the street.

Rio Tinto at St Patrick's Community Care

A team of 25 volunteers from Rio Tinto took on a painting activity at St Patrick's Community Care's Dorothy Street house continuing to add some life and colour to the shared house for a group of men who have been homeless or at the very least at risk of being homeless.  This project involved a small amount of preparation work before then painting 2 coats on the ceiling in the kitchen, the second coat on the downstairs hallway walls and the first coat on the upstairs hallway walls. Plus the cleaning up!

The 13 guys living at the Dorothy Street house now don't have to keep one eye on the ceiling whist preparing their meals and have an entrance hallway that is bright and welcoming.  More important than that is they have been encouraged by having a group of complete strangers take an interest in them and their surroundings. In fact the head boarder remarked that he just liked having people come around.