- Eleven SGN volunteers tackled painting, cleaning, and repairs at a specialist preschool in Portsmouth.
- The team’s efforts saved The Elizabeth Foundation thousands in maintenance costs.
- The work was completed through SGN’s Community Action Programme, which supports local charities.
Eleven volunteers from energy company SGN visited The Elizabeth Foundation, a preschool for deaf children, at their Family Centre in Cosham to give it a fresh look for the summer.
The Drayton-based team spent the day in glorious sunshine painting fences, outdoor furniture and children’s play equipment as well as tidying the basement, cleaning the minibus and pressure washing the paths and patio.
The Elizabeth Foundation, rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, is the UK’s largest single provider of education services for babies and preschool children catering for all degrees of deafness. They offer nursery services at their Family Centre as well as home learning and support through their innovative Let’s Listen and Talk online programme.
The Foundation holds a special significance for Brian Barr, a Business Analyst at SGN. Brian said: “The Elizabeth Foundation has given so much to my family, with both of my children attending for three to four years each. The benefit they have achieved in language development and confidence is incalculable, and I am very grateful for SGN and the Business Architecture team in particular for allowing me to give back to the Foundation. It is such a unique and valuable resource, doing a great deal for supporting families with children with hearing loss, and any support that can be given is very worthwhile.”
John Atherton, Director of Finance and Operations at The Elizabeth Foundation, said: “It was great to see the team from SGN, who brought the sunshine with them and got a huge amount done. Getting the work carried out commercially would have cost thousands of pounds and would have had to be done in stages, but instead we got all our outdoor maintenance up to date in a single day, just in time for the children to enjoy when the summer term begins. Many thanks from everyone at The Elizabeth Foundation for all their hard work and good humour, not to mention determination – a couple of the team wouldn’t leave until their tasks were finished!”
This is the second time in three years that Brian and his colleagues have helped out at the school. The project was part of our Community Action Programme (CAP) which gives our people a day of company time each year to help a charity or organisation of their choice, with hundreds of colleagues helping their local communities every year.
