National building and maintenance contractor United Living has put forward more than half of its entire workforce – 350 members of staff – to each donate a day of their time towards community projects across the country. From Altrincham to Bristol, Swansea to Wolverhampton and West London, the employees of
To mark this year’s International Day of Charity, Linden Homes is celebrating the hundreds of charity events and challenges hosted up and down the country from opening food banks and hosting Macmillan Coffee mornings to volunteering at YMCA and holding a charity boxing night, raising over £100,000 since January 2018.
A leading housebuilder raised money for a much-loved charity at a launch event at its Houghton Conquest development. Kier Living Eastern welcomed guests to Meadow Croft to enjoy cupcakes and other treats in aid of its new charity partner, The British Heart Foundation (BHF). The housebuilder raised more than £700
The windows supplied by the leading UK architectural glazing systems supplier, Kawneer, have helped meet a host of complex criteria for the UK’s first dedicated healthcare facility for adults with autism. The Mitford unit at Northgate Hospital in Morpeth, Northumberland, where fenestration was led by architectural glazing specialists Polar NE,
hub South West Scotland, the construction and infrastructure-focused partnership, has raised £14,171 on behalf of Shelter Scotland as a result of its first, highly successful Summer Charity Golf Event held at East Kilbride Golf Club earlier this summer. Supported by its Tier 1 Contractors Graham’s, Kier Construction, Morrison Construction
A multi-disciplinary construction consultancy is helping to inspire children into construction by backing a new innovative pilot project in Essex. Daniel Connal Partnership, with offices in Colchester, Norwich and London, is supporting Writtle Junior School in Writtle, Chelmsford, on their Junior Hard Hats initiative. Born out of the school’s involvement
A charitable organisation helping children and families in the North East by giving them help to improve and build new relationships is now moving to the next phase of development. Changing Futures North East will deliver its Hartlepool Healthy Relationships scheme, which was supported by a £1.56 million grant, as
National building and maintenance contractor United Living has put forward more than half of its entire workforce – 350 members of staff – to each donate a day of their time towards community projects across the country. From Altrincham to Bristol, Swansea to Wolverhampton and West London, the employees of United Living, whose company headquarters are based in Swanley, Kent, were involved in everything from laying concrete slabs to painting fences, gardening, helping with foodbanks and supporting homelessness charities over the course of a typical 9-5 working shift on Friday 7 September. With support from 20 sub-contractors, United Living employees worked together to donate more than 2,800 hours – equivalent to a full year’s worth of work for one person (including weekends). The projects included: Improvement works to the outdoor areas of a Dementia inpatient ward at Grenoside Grange Hospital in Sheffield. With the support of 11 volunteers including United Living staff and members of the Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust, work was undertaken to install an outdoor tap and an electrical point, and to paint outdoor fences and planters and install a new working shed. Upgrading the Venture Community Association’s site in Wornington Green. To save the management team from applying for additional funding, United Living employees refurbished and redecorated a dilapidated stage area at the community arts centre, as well as building new storage units, removing unwanted items and making improvements to the interior décor. At Rhodes Moorhouse Court – military charity Haig Housing’s biggest new build development in the UK since the 1950s – the site team extended a patio paving area for a shared apartments block. The extension of the space was much-needed for the elderly, ex-military residents who live in the 12 surrounding properties and had previously made use of a relatively small outdoor area. Supporting Swansea City Council with the refurbishment of Brynmelyn Community Centre, which is run by a voluntary management committee and provides a range of services for local disadvantaged people in the community. United Living staff painted and decorated the external building and doors, and railings leading to the single storey property. Improving facilities at a Nursery in Retford with the support of ten members of staff. This included tidying up the garden and play areas, painting fencing and putting up outdoor screening. One of United Living’s joiners built a wooden container to store children’s toys and has built a small kitchen area. Another joiner made some planters and a new game was created by the team to fit to an outdoor wall. Working with Merlin Housing to help re-instate a local children’s reflective garden at a Primary School in Pucklechurch, Bristol. United Living staff weeded the entire site, painted the surrounding fencing, and repaired benches and planters to bring the garden back to life. Supporting Manchester Central Foodbank, with United Living staff volunteering for the day to help with sorting and delivering food parcels, arranging new donations, and meeting and assisting with the foodbank clients. Revamping a large section of grounds within The Kingswood Trust’s outdoor learning centre in Wolverhampton, which is used by local schools and charities. Supporting Kent homelessness charity Porchlight by laying decking and painting at a community garden in Northfleet. The team of United Living staff spent the day cutting, painting and laying decking and also painting garden fencing to create a space for the community to use. Refurbishing a scout hall in Crockenhill. A team of 65 people spent the day painting walls, ceilings and the outside of the building, as well as hanging noticeboards, tiling the bathrooms and giving the garden area a makeover. Ian Burnett, chief executive of United Living, said: “People and communities are at the heart of everything we do as a construction and maintenance business. That’s why every year, we ensure that one day in September is dedicated exclusively to supporting projects and initiatives which are making a real difference in the areas where we work. Our community day is a way of celebrating our core values and bringing our team together to dedicate extra time towards some of the many projects that we strive to support as a business throughout the year. These are projects in which all of our staff can contribute in some shape or form; whether that’s by making donations, volunteering time, proactively transforming residential and community spaces, or providing work opportunities through training and apprentices.” United Living’s Community Day took place on Friday 7 September.
To mark this year’s International Day of Charity, Linden Homes is celebrating the hundreds of charity events and challenges hosted up and down the country from opening food banks and hosting Macmillan Coffee mornings to volunteering at YMCA and holding a charity boxing night, raising over £100,000 since January 2018. In addition, this month will see the top-10 housebuilder, along with Galliford Try Partnerships participate in the mammoth Housebuilders Mountain Marathon Challenge. The team will cover a gruelling 26 miles across the rugged terrain of Snowdonia in North Wales, with the aim of raising £25,000. The money raised by the housebuilders will go to the Youth Adventure Trust. The Trust helps vulnerable children, aged 11 to 14 years old whilst giving them the chance to take part in a number of residential adventure camps. The programme enables the participants to experience success and learn to go beyond their own expectations whilst growing in confidence. Linden Homes’ charitable side does not stop with this challenge with Linden Homes West Yorkshire recently hosting a charity dinner for Macmillan Cancer Support. The evening included a three-course dinner, charity auction, raffle and live music from award-winning band ‘Undercovered’. The dinner raised an impressive £12,500, taking Linden Homes West Yorkshire’s total fundraising to date to £14,420, with the target of raising £20,000 by the end of the year. At the other end of the country, Linden Homes South West hosted a charity golf day in May, which raised a staggering £24,000 for Torbay Hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital’s Neonatal Unit. Linden Homes South West has since hosted another charity golf day, raising £30,000. The funds were split with half being donated to FORCE Cancer with remaining funds used to install defibrillators in the communities that Linden Homes have built in the region. Tom Nicholson, Divisional Chairman of Linden Homes commented: “As well as taking part in wider charitable events such as the Housebuilder Mountain Marathon Challenge, it’s also fantastic to see that our business units across the country are showing such generosity to support so many worthwhile causes to give something back to the areas that we build our homes in. “In addition to direct fundraising, Linden Homes’ teams around the country have supported their communities by sponsoring sports teams, local events and schools. Groups who can often get overlooked have found the help they’ve needed and it’s rewarding to see the range of organisations we’ve assisted.” International Day of Charity is observed annually on 5 September and is an awareness day proposed by the United Nations (UN inviting organisations and individuals to commemorate the day by encouraging charitable acts in their communities. To read the full story and to donate in support of Linden Homes’ Mountain Marathon Challenge, please visit: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/HBMM18LindenHomes
A leading housebuilder raised money for a much-loved charity at a launch event at its Houghton Conquest development. Kier Living Eastern welcomed guests to Meadow Croft to enjoy cupcakes and other treats in aid of its new charity partner, The British Heart Foundation (BHF). The housebuilder raised more than £700 for the charity, with more money pledged from its supply chain. “It was wonderful to welcome everyone to Meadow Croft and raise money for such an amazing charity at the same time. We will be supporting the BHF for the next two years and we have many more fundraising and awareness events planned,” said David Thomas, sales and marketing director at Kier Living Eastern. “We’ve worked extremely hard to create an outstanding new community for Houghton Conquest and visitors were just as enamoured with it as we are,” he continued. Meadow Croft is a collection of two, three, four and five bedroom homes, currently with prices starting at £325,000 for a two-bedroom bungalow, £450,000 for a four-bedroom home and £600,000 for a five-bedroom detached home. Show homes and the sales office are open at Meadow Croft on Chapel End Road, Houghton Conquest, Thursday to Monday between 10am and 5pm. Kier Living Eastern ensures the highest possible standards of quality, value and presentation from design through to construction and after sales care. It offers a wide range of new homes from one-bedroom apartments to luxury five-bedroom homes. Kier Living Eastern is renowned for its quality and attention to detail. Innovative and forward thinking, the company has more than 70 years’ experience in new homes construction.
The windows supplied by the leading UK architectural glazing systems supplier, Kawneer, have helped meet a host of complex criteria for the UK’s first dedicated healthcare facility for adults with autism. The Mitford unit at Northgate Hospital in Morpeth, Northumberland, where fenestration was led by architectural glazing specialists Polar NE, uses a variety of Kawneer window and framing systems including a bespoke secure healthcare window specially fabricated for the £10 million project. This specialist window – based on the Kawneer AA®3110HW horizontal slider – has been used in the bedrooms and some communal areas alongside Kawneer’s AA®540 fixed casements in corridors, AA®541 top-hung casements in offices and reception, and 451PT framing in communal areas and corridors. Supplied in moss grey (RAL 7003), they were specified by Medical Architecture in conjunction with Kawneer dealer Polar who had a team of two specialist installers on site for 11 months. “Mental health inpatient windows are a very specialist product and we have developed designs with one of the few manufacturers/fabricators over a period of 11 years. Polar chose Kawneer’s AA®3110HW system components as a basis and we adapted the successful design to the particular needs of the autism unit,” said Medical Architecture director Paul Yeomans. The new BREEAM “Excellent” Mitford unit for Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust provides 24-hour inpatient support and treatment for up to 15 adults with severely complex autistic spectrum disorders. Built by Kier under ProCure21+, the accommodation comprises eight single-person and two and three-person shared flats within four fingers of accommodation linked at their southern end by a band of shared spaces interspersed with staff facilities. Patients typically stay 18 months to two years, during which time individual stimuli and appropriate therapies are used before they return to the community. The trust’s key objectives included incorporating best practice from around the world and becoming a leading-edge national autism service, enhancing the facilities for research and development to provide a national centre of excellence, and building a sustainable commercial model to ensure the capital costs of the building were recuperated over an eight-year period.
hub South West Scotland, the construction and infrastructure-focused partnership, has raised £14,171 on behalf of Shelter Scotland as a result of its first, highly successful Summer Charity Golf Event held at East Kilbride Golf Club earlier this summer. Supported by its Tier 1 Contractors Graham’s, Kier Construction, Morrison Construction and Morgan Sindall, hub South West welcomed over 100 attendees to the fundraiser which saw 22 teams compete in a Texas scramble style golf event and for some fantastic raffle and auction prizes donated by contractors and by members of hub South Wests’ wider supply chain and professional service providers. Shelter Scotland provides advice and practical support to thousands of people each year who are struggling with homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness and campaign to prevent it in the first place. The £14,171 was presented to representatives from Shelter Scotland’s services and charity shops from Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway on 22nd August 2018. Graeme Brown Director of Shelter Scotland said: “This is a tremendous donation from hub South West through its Summer Charity Golf Event. Shelter Scotland relies on the support of members of the community so we can continue to offer help and advice which means no-one has to face homelessness or bad housing alone. “We’d like to thank everyone involved for their generosity.” CEO of hub South West, Michael McBrearty, said: “The event was a great success and we are hugely gratified by the number of companies who took part to raise a fantastic sum for a worthy cause. “Shelter Scotland is a wonderful organisation which is marking its 50th anniversary this year. They offer invaluable support and services to vulnerable families and individuals in communities across Scotland and we are so pleased to be able to present them with this donation.”
A multi-disciplinary construction consultancy is helping to inspire children into construction by backing a new innovative pilot project in Essex. Daniel Connal Partnership, with offices in Colchester, Norwich and London, is supporting Writtle Junior School in Writtle, Chelmsford, on their Junior Hard Hats initiative. Born out of the school’s involvement in the Greenpower – Inspiring Engineers campaign, Junior Hard Hats aims to attract youngsters into construction by involving the students in all aspects of planning, designing and construction of a building as part of the school curriculum. The plans involve an innovative Technology Learning Pod to be built in the school grounds as a pilot project for the charity, with future proposals to roll-out the concept nationwide. The school children have been involved in the whole process including choosing the name of the charity, meeting with planners at the planning department, attending meetings with local Parish Councillors and having a say in the design of the building. Future activities will include pitching the scheme to sponsors, devising a marketing strategy, meeting with bankers, lawyers and industry professionals etc – all supported and mentored by the charity’s trustees. DCP is providing health & safety advice and Construction Design Management (CDM) services on the project. The health and safety team delivered an H&S presentation to Year 6 children, which introduced them to the basics of CDM and site safety. They also provided hands-on first aid training, including the use of a defibrillator. Jonathan Dennis, Partner, at Daniel Connal Partnership, said: “This is an extremely exciting project and one that we are thrilled to be involved in. Inspiring youngsters into construction by addressing the perception of the industry as dirty, dangerous, low paid and male dominated is extremely worthwhile. By doing so, we can hopefully introduce the idea of a career in the construction sector as a credible option for those who may not have considered it before.” Headmaster Nick Taylor said: “This is a truly inspirational project that is capturing the imagination of all our children. It is opening doors to future careers and showing the power of a local community working together. We can’t thank the Daniel Connal Partnership enough for all of their support!” The construction of the pod is currently underway.
A charitable organisation helping children and families in the North East by giving them help to improve and build new relationships is now moving to the next phase of development. Changing Futures North East will deliver its Hartlepool Healthy Relationships scheme, which was supported by a £1.56 million grant, as two new experienced professionals join their management team to help carry on its pioneering work. The organisation was set up under its current system two years ago and was initially set up as ‘Headland Future’ before being rebranded and opened up to people who live throughout the North East region. Along with carrying out ground breaking work in their Healthy Relationships project, the organisation has a team of staff and volunteers who support and help families and children who need help to overcome challenges they face in their lives. The charity also provides family mediation along with other types of help under their Moving On scheme to separated couples, including mediation to help them avoid going through court. The Early Action Neighbourhood Fund has provided the £1.56 million grant, which is a funding pot contributed to by the Big Lottery Fund, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Comic Relief. With this investment, Changing Futures North East is well positioned to help people have even healthier relationships and hopes to ultimately ease the demand on public services. Graham Alton, Chief Executive of Changing Futures North East, said: “We are in an excellent position, and our aim to make sure we are always helping everyone involved in Hartlepool’s Children & Families Workforce to build on the good work they do and be even more effective at helping families and children have a range of happy, healthy relationships. “Hartlepool, like other areas, faces huge social and financial challenges, and limited money means that it can be difficult to support people early enough, before their problems get worse.”
