Hampshire community charity partners with global engineering giant to tackle Social Exclusion
Church Crookham & Fleet Men’s Shed has been awarded £3,000 by the VINCI UK Foundation to help upgrade and secure their new ‘shed’, a health & wellbeing workspace.
The Foundation is supported by Basingstoke-headquartered Axians UK, part of the VINCI Energies group; the Axians Sponsor will volunteer his time to oversee the practical work needed to complete the project.
The charity will receive financial support from the VINCI UK Foundation to erect a security fence and CCTV cameras at its new site. A newly-built ‘shed’ will provide a space to promote health and wellbeing among local people by fostering community inclusion through practical activity. Andrew Mulheirn, a consultant at Axians, will act as the charity’s project Sponsor and volunteer his time to help with building work at the new site.
The VINCI UK Foundation, funded by VINCI businesses across the UK, supports groups and charities which work to tackle exclusion, foster community integration and improve access to employment and housing. Launched in early 2016, the Foundation is unique in its support for good causes due to its specific focus and provision of skilled volunteers.
Rochdi Ziyat, Board Director, VINCI UK Foundation and CEO, VINCI Energies UK & ROI, said:
“The support provided by the staff at VINCI’s businesses, as well as the generous funding grants provided, is what sets the VINCI UK Foundation apart as a supporter of community cohesion.”
“For a second year, the Foundation will make a real difference to the lives of the most excluded in society and help to strengthen communities across the UK.”
Allan Walker, Chairman, Church Crookham and Fleet Men’s Shed, added:
“Our new shed will allow our members to come together and collaborate on practical projects, giving them a way to engage with people in the community and boost their health and wellbeing.
“Financial support from the VINCI UK Foundation, as well as the time volunteered by our Axians project Sponsor, will be invaluable in helping us to deliver a vibrant and stimulating space for our members.”
Through the Foundation, all VINCI’s employees, from apprentices to senior management, can use their experience and skills to benefit their local communities.
Businesses supporting the Foundation include VINCI Energies UK & ROI, VINCI Construction UK, VINCI Concessions, Eurovia, Bachy Soletanche, VINCI Construction Grands Projects, Nuvia and Freyssinet.
More details can be found at www.vinci-uk-Foundation.co.uk.
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About the VINCI UK Foundation
Full details on the projects receiving support are available on request. For further information and to get involved, please visit the VINCI UK Foundation website: http://www.vinci-uk-Foundation.co.uk/
VINCI companies in the UK are committed to supporting the communities in which they work. The VINCI UK Foundation is part of that commitment.
The Foundation will be Sponsoring 24 charities for a total of £190,647. Individual grants range from £3,000 to nearly £18,000.
The original VINCI Foundation was established in France in May 2002 and since then has supported more than 1,600 projects, each receiving an average grant of £10,000 and the support of up to 4 employees. The Foundation distributes over £2 million globally to good causes every year.
Businesses supporting the Foundation include VINCI Energies UK & ROI, VINCI Construction UK, VINCI Concessions, Eurovia, Bachy Soletanche, VINCI Construction Grands Projects, Nuvia and Freyssinet. These companies and their subsidiaries turn over in the region of £2.5 billion per annum and employ around 9000 employees.
Like the original VINCI Foundation, the VINCI UK Foundation will enable our employees to become personally involved in initiatives by using their experience and skills to benefit the local community. The goal is to provide fresh opportunities for people suffering social exclusion by providing access to employment, increased mobility, and integration through housing and strengthening social cohesion. This will be achieved thanks to employees’ involvement and the financial help granted by the VINCI UK Foundation.
About Axians UK
Axians is the brand of VINCI Energies dedicated to Information and Communication Technologies. Axians supports its customers — private-sector firms, public-sector agencies, operators and service providers — throughout the digital transformation of their organisation. We provide a comprehensive portfolio of solutions: telecommunications infrastructure, enterprise networks and collaborative solutions, data systems and data centres, software solutions, cloud-based and managed IT services. In 2015, Axians generated revenues of €1.6 billion. Axians comprises an international network of 150 business units in 14 countries and employs 7,000 people.
About Church Crookham and Fleet Men’s Shed
The organisation exists to promote health and wellbeing by preventing social exclusion through practical activity. A ‘Shed’ is similar to a shed in a garden, but in this case one where other members come together to collaborate on projects, either for the community or for themselves. It offers this to a group of such men where members share the tools and resources they need to work on projects of their own choosing at their own pace and in a safe, friendly and inclusive venue. They are places of skill-sharing and informal learning, of individual pursuits and community projects, of purpose, achievement and social interaction.
More details about the “shed” can be found at: