ManKind

ManKind

The Man Charitable Trust’s community volunteering programme continues to benefit both our UK employees and the charities that we support.

Employees are given two days extra paid leave a year to volunteer for any charitable organisation that supports the local community, either one of those supported by the Man Charitable Trust or a charitable or not-for-profit organisation of their choice.

We encourage our people to apply their skills in ways that differ from their everyday role at Man. This can be challenging, but also very rewarding, giving our employees the opportunity not only to make a difference and see results, but to do something different within their local communities.

20% of London employees volunteered via ManKind in the last 9 months

Projects undertaken by our employees

Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership

Every week a dedicated team of UK employees spend their lunch hour supporting children with their reading at a local primary school. The children not only benefit from the extra literacy support but improve their communication skills and self-confidence as well as gaining an insight into a life often very different from their own.

“The time I have spent with the two children I was assigned over the last school year has been incredibly rewarding. Watching how quickly they learn and how excited they are to read and feeling that you are part of their early development has given me just as much as I have tried to give them”.

Chris Watson

The Connection at St Martin-in-the Fields

The Workspace team at The Connection provide employment training and education support to London’s homeless. Employees facilitated a number of workshops, helping homeless clients with mock interview and CV preparation, providing advice, guidance and feedback.

“The experience has changed my views enormously. Prior to this I had zero experience with homeless people and would have classic perceptions. These have been shattered. I was impressed by the resiliency of the clients”.

Gordon Coughlan

Community Links

Community Links run community-based projects in the most deprived boroughs of east London for thousands of vulnerable children, young people and adults each year. Working with the Historic Royal Palaces’ outreach team, our employees accompanied a group of children around the Tower of London with a storytelling and educational workshop.

“Volunteers from Man Group regularly give their time to support Community Links. Last year a team of volunteers accompanied a group of 15 children from our Rokeby Community Hub in Stratford on a visit to the Tower of London. Along with having the opportunity to learn about the Tower's lively history, the children really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with the Man Group volunteers. Many of the children we work with will never have had the opportunity to travel to a tourist attraction in central London before, so activities such as this are a great way of raising their aspirations and broadening their horizons”

Anna Mothes, Corporate Partners Manager, Community Links

East London Business Alliance (ELBA) – Journey to Success

In partnership with ELBA our employees delivered a self-confidence workshop to a group of 16-24 year old young adults who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). The workshop covered the key areas to confidence development; overcoming barriers, mirroring positive behaviour, effective communication and assertiveness.

“From a personal perspective I found the workshop a humbling and heart-warming experience and I have to say I felt privileged to have spent time with the students, some of whom come from quite troubled backgrounds”.

Rosalind Howe

The Passage

Volunteers served breakfast at The Passage, a homeless centre in Victoria, London that has been working hard for 30 years, offering basic services such as hot food, showers, laundry, pastoral care and GP services to homeless people.

“Amongst the many services we offer at the Passage Day Centre, we provide a hot, cooked breakfast and lunch to our clients (people sleeping rough in Westminster). Man volunteers have helped to enable us to offer this vital service by serving food, washing up and assisting with food preparation. We very much appreciate their support and enthusiasm”.

Emma Long, Volunteer Co-ordinator, The Passage

Spitalfields City Farm

Located on the edge of the City of London, Spitalfields City Farm provides education and environmental opportunities to local communities. The farm is used to teach young people all aspects of the curriculum, through learning about animal care, gardening and sustainable living in the city. Our employees spent time carrying out tasks to help maintain the site which is such a vital hub to the local community.

“I was amazed that there was such a large farm in the middle of the city and it was great fun to get involved in the work there. Spitalfields Farm does some great work for the community and gives kids in the city an opportunity to learn about farm life. The day was hard work but really rewarding. It was great to get out and help my local community”.

Emma Stevens

The Place2Be

Volunteers spent a morning helping a group of 10 year-old children put their maths to good practice, trading with them on the International Chocolate Exchange. The game helped the children to understand buying and selling, enabling them to apply their maths skills and make informed decisions and was followed by a tour of the AHL trading floor.

“We liked the chocolate trading, me Miracle and Ali, we had twenty-nine chocolates, we spent all our money and were down to our last £10 but we then sold our chocolate for a profit”.

“I learnt to respect money”.

“I learnt that working in the hedge fund is hard but cool”.

“The trading chocolate was great, I’ve never played a game like that before. It really taught me how I can use my money, how wisely I will use my money when I grow up”.

Crisis

Employees spent a day helping set up one of Crisis’ Christmas Centres which provide companionship, hot meals and warmth to homeless people over the Christmas season. Once set up, these centres provide life-changing advice and medical support to help people to take their first steps out of homelessness.

“Helping out at the Crisis shelter, we were mostly folding blankets, and packing them away ready to be used in the shelters and restoring electrical items. To know that we were helping Crisis to help homeless people over Christmas makes you feel like you've made a difference however small. Crisis desperately need volunteers over this period so please think about getting involved if you get the opportunity”.

Katie Beal