Inspiring the next generation and supporting our communities

Workspace has played a key role in the employment-led regeneration of areas across London for over 30 years now, and building communities and improving our neighbourhoods over the long term is an important part of our business strategy.

As well as bringing employment into emerging areas as we launch new or refurbished properties, we also go out into the local communities to offer employment-focused support to disadvantaged young people, such as careers workshops and work experience.

In addition to the ESG Committee, we have a Charity, Social & Wellbeing Committee, which oversees fundraising, volunteering and social activities for employees and customers.

Social sustainability

InspiresMe

Through our InspiresMe programme, we work with our customers to support disadvantaged young people in London, offering CV workshops, interview practice and work experience placements.

Food banks

We hosted 23 food bank for the Trussell Trust across our centres. We have since created a step-by-step guide for centre managers with information on how to get involved in their nearest local food banks.

Charity support

We donated £35,000 to our new charity partner, Single Homeless Project, in 2021. All of our staff are encouraged to get involved in educational sessions designed to help young people escape the cycle of homelessness.

social impact review

This year, we conducted a review of our social impact activity to help us build on our existing social impact strategy around employment-led regeneration in London. We understand that our communities need businesses like ours to help them, particularly as they recover from the pandemic.

The review resulted in prioritising the following initiatives:

Scaling up our InspiresMe programme: a rolling programme of inspiration, knowledge, support and experience aimed at motivating those in our communities with the greatest barriers to employment. Initiatives include inspirational talks hosted at our centres, CV and career workshops, one-to-one mentoring and structured work experience and apprenticeship programmes.
Partnering with a new impactful charity partner: the Single Homeless Project (SHP), a London-wide charity working to prevent homelessness and help vulnerable and socially excluded people transform their lives. Volunteering opportunities for our employees will include career workshops, outdoor activities, including sports and gardening, and cooking lessons. All employees will be given up to three paid volunteering days a year to get involved in these activities.