In July, teams of Macquarie Group employees and summer interns supported five Islington community organisations with their strategic challenges. Find out more about the programme and read our Evaluation report here.

ELBA and BIG Alliance’s Mentoring Works programme is celebrating the achievements of the 2020-21 Year 10 cohort with a series of 10 Celebration events with our company and school partners, across June and July.

In May 2021, we captured the triumphant return of our Team Challenges in Islington. As part of their annual 'Green Week' initiative, our friends at Euromonitor International encouraged staff to volunteer in person via opportunities sourced by BIG Alliance.

In this short video, we spoke to volunteers and community leaders about the return of Team Challenges.

With the new urgency emerging from all directions, we are working on how we can fit those activities into local carbon net zero and biodiversity gain targets, meeting the goals of both business and local stakeholders, while still involving the community in determining local priorities.

BIG Alliance and ELBA are engaging corporate volunteers to create Ecobricks. — a simple, low-tech solution to put our plastic to good use in short and long term applications. Ecobricks can be reused over and over again and safely secure plastic out of the biosphere to build spaces that enrich our community.

This week is Volunteers’ Week in which the unpaid efforts of people across the country are celebrated. And today, Thursday 3rd June 2021 is the day when we particularly focus on business volunteers.

BIG Alliance is excited to pilot a new digital buddies programme designed to support members of Hillside Clubhouse with basic digital skills. Hillside Clubhouse is an Islington-based mental health rehabilitation project with a focus on mainstream employment, education and social inclusion.

My experience of the difference that mental health services made to my life inspired me to give some of my time to try to help ensure that others that are facing similar circumstances can access support.

BIG Alliance attended VAI’s Wellbeing for All event shining a spotlight on the work that has been carried out to support local residents’ mental wellbeing

Together we can end the stigma of mental health.

Last month we launched the 13th cohort of our annual CoRe programme. Find out more about it here.

This month, The BIG Alliance team caught up with Islington Giving to find out how Islington-based community organisations have been working to address the digital divide in the borough.

Check out the results of ELBA and BIG Alliance's 2020 Community Partner Survey.

With the current disruption to schools, this National Careers Week highlights challenges for us at ELBA and many student-facing staff on how to engage students in employability activity amidst Covid-19.

FoodCycle was one of the nine community partners that joined our CoRe 2020 programme. Over the six month period of the programme, the charity was supported by volunteers from Macquarie and Slaughter and May who helped them further FoodCycle’s expansion plans for their services, especially after the lockdown is lifted.

MMARAP joined our CoRe 2020 programme with the aim of improving their communications and marketing. Working with volunteers from Macquarie and Slaughter and May, they not only learned about website content and efficient use of social media, but also improved their fundraising as well as various policy documents.

The count is in: ELBA’s 2020 Toy Appeal was the biggest ever, with over 22,000 toys donated – that’s more than double the previous record. From that amazing total, over 2,200 toys went to Islington organisations who work with local families.

Our thanks go to the 26 volunteers from Expedia Group, MUFG, Slaughter and May, Euromonitor International, Fooditude and Bolt Burdon for supporting our Time to Talk campaign in Islington schools. For this video we asked the volunteers: "what tips do you have to help people stay mentally healthy?"

As Covid-19 started to impact everyone’s daily life, the importance of supporting staff came into focus even more sharply and our internal wellbeing committee has been there to support colleagues as they have faced new and unexpected challenges

In the run up to Christmas, volunteers wrote cards and letters to vulnerable people feeling lonely and/or isolated.

During a “normal” year, Christmas can be an especially lonely time for many people. Amid a pandemic involving lockdowns and limited social contact, their experiences of loneliness and isolation are understandably more profound.