Last October eighteen employees from Highways England, North West division, volunteered to help maintain Trafford Ecology Park as one of their corporate social responsibly action days.
Employee volunteering is an important activity here at Trafford Ecology Park; ensuring that the park is well maintained for both wildlife and park visitors.
The Ecology Park is a great location for companies to bring their employees for team building as the outdoor location aids employee health and well-being and is conveniently only 10 minutes’ drive from Manchester City Centre with ample free parking on site.
The volunteers from Highways England were supported throughout the day by Groundwork’s Project Coordinators, Nina & Julie, who ensured the event ran safely and enjoyably with risk assessments and training undertaken for each task.
The main project completed by the Highways England volunteers was to renew several site paths within the Ecology Park. Firstly the team cut back excess vegetation, dug off the top surface of soil to expose the timber edging of the old paths. They then transported and placed a recycled aggregate surface on top, providing a smooth pathway for visitors. This task has improving accessibility to the park as the surface is now suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs.
In addition, volunteers removed saplings and overgrown vegetation from the wet meadow to re-establish the natural habitat and improves the areas biodiversity.
Activities were made enjoyable for volunteers with tasks and challenges throughout the day; providing lots of opportunities for team building.
The team from Highways England dedicated 108 hours of volunteering time to the Ecology Park; all participants felt like the work they had made a difference to the park environment and felt more engaged with colleagues after the task.
Here’s what the employee volunteers said about the day:
“Brilliant day and a great sense of achievement to build something together”
“A well organised event with interesting work & enthusiastic members of staff”
“A good opportunity to work together outside the office environment”
Improvements are always needed in the Ecology Park and employee volunteers are always welcomed. A suggested donation is required for all corporate volunteering events to help cover Project Coordinator costs and to contribute to the running costs of the park and the wider charitable work Groundwork Greater Manchester delivers.
Please email [email protected] to enquire about your employee volunteering event.
