Swiftclean announces its corporate charity of the year for 2024
As a result of recent discussions, we at Swiftclean decided to focus our fundraising efforts over an annual period on one main charity and we let the team decide and vote on a charity that was close to their hearts.
Abbey Maxwell, the Head of Shared Services and organiser of Swiftclean’s social committee expressed the view that they feel a responsibility to contribute to their local communities, especially during a time when living costs are rising significantly.
Our colleagues were given the opportunity to vote for the corporate charity of the year from a list of organizations nominated by employees.
In 2024, the team chose to support:
Equal People Performing Arts – The Mushroom Theatre Company
This is a fully inclusive performing arts studio centre serving South East Essex. They have created a safe and dignified space where disabled and non-disabled children and adults can work together in all aspects of the performing arts.
The charity was established in 2005 and the work that Mushroom Theatre Company was doing then was groundbreaking as there were no other inclusive performing arts provisions in Essex at that time.
Inclusion at Mushroom saw all barriers to SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) broken down and the benefits for all were clear, their integrated work to this day doesn’t fail to make people reconsider what children and young people are capable of.
Our HR Business Partner, Victoria Page, proposed the charity as both her daughters take part in dance classes and holiday workshops at the school.
Victoria says, “The school is just amazing, my girls have performed in a show at a local theatre which was a few hours of pure joy! As well as having fun, it’s massively increased their confidence and taught them some important life skills. The fact that Mushroom is inclusive has meant that my eldest daughter [who has special educational needs] can not only take part but is included as an individual in her own right.
The waiting list was around 6 months as each child/young person with additional needs has an individual chaperone so places are highly sought after.
I’m so delighted that Swiftclean chose to support this small, local charity. It will really make a difference to everyone involved”.
Swiftclean will be creating a ‘Just Giving’ page at the beginning of 2024 so we can set a fundraising target for the year and monitor our fundraising progress.
We are in the process of putting together a program of fundraising events across 2024. Ideas put forward by the team so far are things such as lunchtime yoga, a Baby photo challenge, Raffle for a day off work, and sponsored runs/walks.
To find out more about the charity we are supporting next year, please click here: https://equalpeople.org.uk/
