Online Privacy

County Council staff give back to the Community

On 4th August 9 Devon County Council Apprentices spent their day transforming the garden at Exmouth Children’s Centre. The Council is giving staff time as part of the Business in the Community - Cares campaign. ‘Cares’ is Business in the Community’s employee volunteering scheme that matches community projects with particular skills and resources of a company and its staff through team building challenges.

The Exmouth & District Children’s Centre aims to provide an inclusive range of services to children under five and their families. They provide a range of services including: early education, health services, and family support and Jobcentre Plus advice. These services are available whether you’re a mum, dad, grandparent, carer or childminder.

The Children’s Centre is managed by the Children’s society and their services are funded by Devon County Council. Unfortunately neither the council nor the Children’s Society can fund the garden improvements as it’s not part of their core work. That’s where the County Council volunteers came in!

The volunteers managed to transform the garden in a day, firstly clearing the area, then planting an array of plants and other garden features. The area had to be kept low maintenance for the centre as they haven’t the staff or facilities to maintain the garden. Membrane was installed and woodchip laid to make the area look as tidy as possible.

Watching first hand the garden being transformed by the apprentices was Rhonda Jones, volunteering co-ordinator for the centre; she said “I am really pleased that the team chose The Exmouth & District Children’s Centre for their challenge. In one day the team worked together well and extremely hard to get the work done despite really atrocious weather! The garden looks so much nicer and will be more welcoming to the families & children that use the centre. We are very grateful for all their efforts. A massive Thank You to each of the team.”

Amy Chapman, the apprentice who led the project said “It was a really tough challenge as there was a lot of ground and a lot to do but I think the team worked really well and really pulled together to really transform the garden.”

Katie Edmondson, a Partnership Broker at Business in the Community said “This was another fantastic project for the apprentices at Devon County Council to get involved in. It’s great that the team have come together outside of the office environment to give something back to the local community. Cares challenges are a good way to interact with your colleagues outside of the workplace, whilst teambuilding and providing support to those who need it at the same time.”

Brenda Taylor, the local councillor, also aided the apprentices in the transformation and was a great help on the day. Brenda has been a huge supporter of the work of centre over previous years offering both her time and some of her community budget to help renovate the area for the children and families of the Exmouth area.

A big thank you goes out from the apprentice team to Vital Pet Supplies, Totnes Pet and Garden, Trago Mills for their donations, My Devon Customer Contact Centre who managed to raise £75 to go towards materials and other members of the council who donated goods, without your help the project would not have been possible. Also thanks to Brenda Taylor for all her hard work and support.