COGNICA Boosts Community Spirit with Hospice Volunteering Challenge!

As part of our RSK global sustainability strategy Second Nature, our aim is to create a lasting positive impact for our planet and our communities. To help us make a socially positive influence, COGNICA employees are offered one day of paid volunteering time per year to support community organisations and charities.

Our COGNICA sustainability rep contacted local charities to identify opportunities where we could support our local community, and after reviewing the options we all agreed that we would love to support The Prospect Hospice. Most of us have had friends and family that have been looked after by them, so it is a charity we were all keen to support.

Last week, 6 of us volunteered our time for two fantastic charities The Prospect Hospice and The Samaritans. As many of those local to Swindon will know, the hospice is under genuine threat of closure. The funding from the NHS hasn’t risen in 10 years, whilst everything has become more expensive. It’s left them one million pound short of what they need this year. 

Prices have been rising fast over the last few years, the cost of medical care is climbing, the price of energy to power the equipment has rocketed and this means that whilst their inpatient unit has room to look after 12 people, they can only afford to look after six. And the hardest part is that more people than ever need their care. 

Distribution Centre

Some of us worked in the distribution centre, this was full of clothes and donations that needed sorting for the charity shops and other avenues.  Last year alone, sales of ladies’ clothes raised a staggering £668,461.47 for the charity!

We spent the day sorting clothes that had not sold in the shops into size order for their first Kilo clothes sale, this will be held on Saturday 24th August at 10am at the Prospect. All items are sold by weight and you can grab yourself a bargain at £7.50 per kg! Hopefully they have a great footfall on the day, clearing stock and raising lots of money.  More details can be found here >>

https://www.prospect-hospice.net/events/kilo-sale/

Memorial Gardens

The rest of the team helped in the hospice memorial gardens alongside their regular fantastic gardening volunteers.  Looking after this area is really important. This is a beautiful, peaceful area that residents and families can spend time in whilst there, or to visit and remember loved ones that were cared for by the Prospect.  

Everyone was super grateful for their hard work and it was great timing as they were being assessed by Swindon In Bloom the next day for a competition, so they managed to get so much more done with the extra hands on board.

Samaritans

As a current volunteer for The Samaritans, we also attended the Royal Welsh Show 2024 to help run the Samaritans stall, helping to promote the profile of the charity, its service and its presence in our communities.  Every 10 seconds The Samaritans respond to a call for help, offering listening and support to people and communities in times of need.

Overall, it was such a positive day for us all and it was great to see and be involved with the incredible work these charities do all year round to support our communities.

You can find out more on ways to support both charities here:

Prospect Hospice

Samaritans