City-based volunteering scheme is to be extended
Lord Mayor of London David Wootton says City Action project could help the growth of the social enterprise sector
A City-based scheme that matches charities with corporate volunteers is extending the programme to include social enterprises.
City Action, which is run by the City of London Corporation, allows City-based business to send volunteers to work with community organisations in the City and in neighbouring boroughs. It placed 567 volunteers in 2011.
The project, with which organisations can register for free, will start to offer its services to social enterprises with immediate effect.
Community organisations can register to take part in the scheme on City Action’s website. They must write a summary of the technical expertise they would most benefit from, which would then appear on the City Action online database.
Corporate volunteers then browse this database to select the organisations to which they are best matched.
Launching the expansion of the scheme, the Lord Mayor of London, David Wootton, said: "The social enterprise sector is growing and worth £24bn to the UK economy annually. There is significant growth potential for these enterprises if they can be strengthened through schemes like City Action."
