Giving back

Virtual College has partnered with local organisations and Mind, the mental health charity, in a number of events designed to support and draw attention to physical and mental well-being. Virtual College staff took part in a sponsored lunchtime ‘Mile for Mind Wellness Walk’ with all proceeds going to Mind. A ‘Time to Talk’ lunchtime drop-in event was held for all Virtual College staff, using fun games to draw attention to how good it is to talk. The amount raised by Virtual College’s staff sponsored activities was doubled by the company to create a charitable donation to Hull and East Yorkshire Mind of £600. This was in addition to a £2000 donation already made to this charity as part of Virtual College’s support for Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week where each of five selected charities received a £2000 donation from Virtual College.

Virtual College is supporting Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week (6th- 12th February 2017) with a donation each working day of this week to related charities. Through its long association with safeguarding children organisations, Virtual College has a close affinity with issues related to this sector. Over the last decade, Virtual College has donated over a quarter of a million pounds to support children’s charities. This week, each of the five selected charities - Young Minds, Place2Be, SelfharmUK, 42nd Street and Hull and East Yorkshire Mind - will receive a £2000 donation from Virtual College.

Virtual College is helping Hull-based charity CatZero to equip young people with the skills, belief and attitudes to help them move on in the world. CatZero is a unique, not-for-profit organisation which has expert staff delivering projects for young people who have lost their way. The programmes take young people outside their comfort zone to complete a number of tasks. These include training sessions, introduction to employment and education opportunities, links to local community groups and lead to a sailing challenge on board a 72ft challenge-racing yacht as a full crew member. Virtual College has donated £500 to CatZero to support this work plus 50 online courses to help improve the employability prospects of these young unemployed people from Humberside.

Virtual College is supporting four e-community centres run by Complitkenya in Kenya and the Children’s Entrepreneurial Training Village (CETV) in Malawi. Our donation will provide each of the community centres and the CETV with an e-learning capsule and between 15-20 android tablets. Whilst the Capsule cannot provide the internet, it will be able to allow connected users to benefit from elearning and other resources which, at the moment they don’t have. Both of the projects in Kenya and Malawi recognise that poverty migration is a real risk to their local economies. If people leave to earn a living and obtain skills elsewhere, it will have a detrimental effect on the local economy, which in turn will make life even more difficult for those who remain.

Virtual College donated £2,500 to Leeds-based charity, The Works Skatepark, to enable them to establish a young people business (YPB) which aims to give disadvantaged children a valuable taste of what it is like to run an enterprise.

Virtual College donated £5,000 to help Hive, a community arts charity, to fund a combined woodwork and technology project. Hive uses creativity to promote personal development and well-being amongst the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the Bradford District.

Virtual College donated £1,500 to Streetlife, a youth work charity established in 1982 with the aim of assisting vulnerable young people in the Blackpool area.

Virtual College donated 55 Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene courses, worth nearly £1,000, to help charity Homeless and Rootless at Christmas (HARC). HARC provides homeless and rootless people with 3 hot meals a day and this accumulated into over 2,200 meals over the Christmas period last year. To deliver this service all food handlers must be trained in food hygiene to the appropriate standards.

Virtual College sponsored a ground-breaking Global Online Counter Child Trafficking Conference, which aims to bring together the global community of those who are working to end the trafficking and exploitation of children.

Virtual College donated £2000 to help the Freedom Charity develop their potentially lifesaving forced marriage app for the BlackBerry platform, which was popular among school children. The app contains information for victims, their friends and professionals about the signs of forced marriage and dishonour based violence.

Virtual College donated £2,000 to Together Trusts Woodlands School to fund a new sensory garden for autistic children. Sue Nichols, of Coronation Street fame, attended the opening.

Virtual College marked their attendance at the 8th British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Congress, this year held at Queens University, Belfast in Northern Ireland by supporting The Lighthouse Trust Summer School for sufferers of cerebral palsy with a donation of £2,000.

A £2,000 donation was made to HENRY, which stands for Health Exercise Nutrition for the Really Young. The money is being used to support a research project designed to measure the effectiveness of a course aimed at parents with preschool children.

Virtual College donated £2,000 to Daisy Chain, a unique charity established to address the needs of both children with autism and their families. The money went towards a new day care centre and specifically a sensory play room, which will be used by children with special needs and provide part of the respite services at the farm.

Virtual College donated £2,000 to the Elizabeth Foundation, who work tirelessly in the field of early diagnosis and education of deaf children.

A West Yorkshire solicitor, who dedicated her life to supporting and protecting children and young people across the UK, has been honoured by Virtual College's Safeguarding e-Academy. A cheque for £5,000 in memory of Lynne White, was presented to Martin House Hospice for Children and Young People.