Across the Divide are pleased to announce the success of our second Just Walk Charity Walk

On Saturday 10^th May 2008 with 400 walkers taking part, 115 of these challenging themselves to the big 60km route. This means that our walkers covered a total of 12,540 km’s of West Sussex countryside between them. Our first 20km walker took only 3 and a half hours to cross the finish line and the first group to complete the 60km challenge took an impressive 11 hours including their stops!

It was a beautiful, sunny day, hot at times, but this did not deter our walkers from completing the most rewarding challenge. Our walkers have raised an estimated £380,000 for around 117 different charities. They deserve a huge congratulations for completing the walk and working so hard to raise money for all their charities; without their enthusiasm and determination the event would not be the success that it was.

Tony Ford the Event Manager for Just Walk had this to say:

‘The event was a great success and considering the warm weather we had few medical situations to deal with. We are all already looking forward to a bigger and better Just Walk 2009.’

So far the feedback from the walkers has been excellent and very positive, examples of comments are:

‘Thanks to the whole team for a great day, it was such a well organised event and the support from marshals etc was excellent and much appreciated.’

‘I just wanted to say that Mum and I had the most fantastic time today doing the 20km walk. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was amazing, and we both thought it was extremely well organised. So many people worked to make it a great day and it really was. Neither of us have done anything like this before, but we’d both do it again!’

‘I just wanted to share our feelings and express how much we appreciated all the hard work that went into making the day such a huge success.’

‘We had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves; this was mainly down to the outstanding organisation and wonderful staff. The atmosphere was brilliant. We will see you again next year.’

‘A short note to thank you and all the Just Walk team for not only an excellently managed day on Saturday but for all the build up information e-mailed to the walkers.’

‘Thank you very much indeed for organising such a terrific day on Saturday. We all thought it was incredibly well organised and enormous fun.’

‘Just to say a big thank you to all the people who were involved in the walk on Saturday. I think maybe they had all been handpicked because each one was nicer than the next with big smiles and so helpful.’

CSR and Community Project Solutions

Appointed RSA Fellow

Mark Hannaford has been invited to join the RSA as a Fellow.

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce) works to remove the barriers to social progress.

‘Corporate social responsibility, once a do-gooding sideshow, is now seen as mainstream. But as yet too few companies are doing it well’ Economist Jan 17th 2008

However, the definition of what CSR actually is actually pretty vague and mainly organisations find the use of the word ’social’ as being too narrow and prefer phases such as ‘corporate citzenship’ and ‘business in the community’ or as it the case with Marks & Spencers ‘Plan A’ because it is more a way of doing business rather than a set of separate policies.

Distilling the messages out of all of these slogans and labels is a drive for business, in its widest definition, to contribute more to the community both local and worldwide with or without employee engagement in the process.  

The organisations that do this best though maximise these policies by not only ensuring that they are indeed feeding back into their communities but also engage their workforce in the process generating additional spin off benefits in terms of staff morale, motivation and satisfaction which in turns increase staff retention rates.

CSR Projects, part of Across the Divide who have over the past decade helped to raise over £27 million for charitable causes, offers community based projects which carry real risk and are of real consequence. It therefore engages employees and carries a focus on personal, team and corporate values never really seen before in conventional programmes. With real time and resource considerations, the community CSR projects present deliverable objectives by which participants and teams can measure their own performance.  Where required, it provides a tangible model for team development at work whilst creating a fun, interactive and engaging atmosphere far removed from the workplace.

In a recent study by the Princes Trust of the ATD corporate engagement the feedback from company participants gave the following feedback

78% | of participating staff said the Challenge improved their team-working
skills, and more than 60% found their organisational, leadership and
communications skills improved.

92% | of employees surveyed have built stronger relationships with
colleagues by taking part in a Prince’s Trust Challenge

68% | of participants feel more engaged with their company

65% | of participating staff have made new contacts within their industry

Good for your business

Actions speak louder than words
Good organisations have a commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). One challenge is how to articulate that commitment to your employees and the wider community. One approach is to do it with actions. Having a team of employees deliver a worthwhile project sends a positive message to clients, customers, stakeholders and colleagues about what your organisation believes in, stands for and is willing to invest in.

Furthermore, the power and energy of a group of colleagues who have worked together to deliver a project of real benefit, can transcend organisations. Their personal stories, photo’s and case studies can raise a huge awareness about what real corporate social responsibility means.

Learning from doing
There is significant research that states that people learn by experiencing. Our CSR projects provide the perfect environment for that learning experience. It involves real people, real risk, real challenges, real output, has real clients/customers and is of real consequence.  With our facilitation, the learning is real and for the long term.

Developing teams
Most organisations are structured around teams and their effectiveness is critical to business performance. Whether it is team building, team development, networking or new project team kick off’s, a CSR project is a great environment for developing team performance. It provides an excellent opportunity for working together to achieve an output of real benefit for both the team and the project partner.       

Good for your Project Partner
Whether it is a community group in the local town or a remote project in Africa, the project partners are the key beneficiaries of the events. It is incredible the difference a group of motivated, committed and enthusiastic volunteers can make at the project site. Our role is to manage the relationship between the organisation and the project partner to ensure a successful outcome for all concerned 

For who
CSR projects are a powerful and moving experience for all involved. You could consider arranging one for:

• Teams | Power team development experience for work and project teams
• Graduates | Increasingly, graduates are using corporate responsibility as a measure of attractiveness in potential employers
• Reward Programmes | Help recognise those employers who deliver an extraordinary performance, both in and outside work
• Supply Chain | Bring together customers, clients, suppliers to collectively deliver a project together
• Clients | Demonstrate a commitment to corporate responsibility by hosting a number of your key clients on a charity project

‘At Tamar we spent a lot of last year thinking about how we as a company can make ourselves sustainable and responsible, and a CSR project was high on our list. Having worked with some of the ‘Across the Divide’ team before on separate projects, we knew how enthusiastic and creative they could be, so we didn’t hesitate to contact them to help make our CSR vision a reality. Piers, Ian and Steve spent over 6 months preparing both us and the project for the tasks ahead, which culminated in a life-changing trip to Cape Town for the entire company, where we helped to upgrade classrooms in a Township school. As well as getting the job done, Across the Divide helped us to make sure our company objectives for the trip were fulfilled as well, making it our most successful CSR project to date’ Tanya Goodin CEO, Tamar.com Ltd

‘I would can not fully express my sense of achievement – it was an incredible event, one of the best corporate teambuilding’s that I have been a part of and one which has left with a sense of having contributed to the community in which I live. Would I do it again- definitely, would I recommend ATD to another company – I already have!’ P. Donaldson, Deutsche Bank

About Across the Divide
Across the Divide is all about social change whether this is via its raft of international charity expeditions, its well respected UK event management or its CSR solutions – its has facilitated the raising over £28 million over the past decade.   Its has in the meantime built up an enviable reputation for the thoroughness of its planning and the safety of its events.   ATD operates has a global reach with projects partners spread across the UK as well as across the globe. Across the Divide Website.

The Prince’s Trust Women’s Leadership Group is an innovative fundraising initiative with a dedicated committee of leading, influential women committed to raising funds to help young women get their lives back on track and ATD have been tasked with providing a unique challenge | team building | networking event.

Prince’s Trust Women’s Leadership Group

ATD CSR Projects

The Prince’s Trust Women’s Leadership Group is an innovative fundraising initiative with a dedicated committee of leading, influential women committed to raising funds to help young women get their lives back on track.

Of the 40,000 young people The Trust helps each year, only 15,000 will be young women. And the majority of our donors are male. Our mission is to involve more women in our work and to motivate our female supporters to help us help more disadvantaged young women than ever before.

Tamar, a London based web design business and ATD are going to be working in Cape Town South Africa in June for 5 days to help support and upgrade the facilities at Vuyuni pre-primary school.

Between now and then staff at Tamar are going to be project planning, fund raising and planning the execution of this exciting project ready to hit the ground running on June 11th. It is hoped that the greatest assistance will be to the classroom form the youngest children, 80 of which are currently crammed in to a temporary room.

ubuntu-tamar.pdf 

A few of the Tamar team attended the prestigious National Business Awards at the Grosvenor Hotel on Tuesday 13th November and  were honoured to collect their ‘Highly Commended’ certificate for the Corporate Social Responsibility category. The competition was very tough and the judge said he was extremely impressed with the standard of Tamar’s entry and the dedication of the whole company to the Tamar goes to Town project.

See what Tamars CSR Program has achieved here

More about Across the Divide’s CSR solutions

After being shortlisted in not one but three categories in the Virgin Responsible Tourism Awards ATD director has been selected as one of the winners in the Essence of the Entrepreneur Award, Mark Hannaford one of the founding directors of ATD was delighted to have been selected as a winner.

This exhibition of photographs showcases the winners of the 2007 Essence of the Entrepreneur campaign, organised by BT Business.

Celebrating 20 of the UK’s most inspiring small companies, the photographs have been taken by celebrity photographer Perou. The 20 winners selected have demonstrated exceptional dedication and have found new direction to succeed in business with the help of technology.

Mark Hannaford one of the founding directors of ATD was delighted to have been selected as a winner, but even more surprised that his image has been used as the main image for the competition (he’s struggling valiantly not to be too big-headed!) but encourage that the significant contribution to society has been recognised by a company such as BT.

Come and see the winners photos, as captured by renowned photographer Perou, in an exhibition at the.gallery@oxo,on London’s South Bank from Wednesday 14th November to Sunday 2nd December

Find out more about Across the Divide here

Maggie’s Metro Life Hike & ATD confirm British Airways London Eye to open for hikers.

Back and bigger then ever for 2006. Maggie’s and Open House have launched the second Metro Life Hike organised by Across the Divide.

On 15th September 2006 visit some of London’s most famous buildings by night following the overland route of the circle line. To celebrate the remarkable difference that thoughtful building design makes to the lives of people across London, Open House will give special access for hikers participating in the Maggie’s Metro Life Hike to a number of high-profile buildings which will be open during the sponsored hike.

We are pleased to announce that both British Airways London Eye and the Royal Geographical Society have confirmed their participation in this event for the first time and will be open for the hikers.

They join The Guildhall, Smithfield Market, The Wellcome Trust Gibbs Building and London City Hall who are lending their support once again to Maggie’s Metro Life Hike.

Find out more about Across the Divide Expeditions here