Northgate staff offer support at AMH New Horizons
06 September 2010
Volunteers collaborate with staff and clients to improve their service.
Newtownabbey-based Northgate Managed Services is the first company to take part in a community volunteering initiative with Business in the Community (BITC) and AMH New Horizons, one of Northern Ireland's major mental health organisations operated through Action Mental Health.
A team of 15 from Northgate visited the centre as part of BITC's Cares Challenge, working together with clients to improve the front and back garden areas, recreation room and bistro, creating pleasant settings for AMH staff and clients to meet and train. In addition, the perfect opportunity was created to share some basic advice about employability skills and tips for re-entering the work place.
AMH New Horizons is an innovative and forward thinking project with the aim of supporting those with long term mental health needs move out of hospital and back into the community through the provision of accredited vocational training, supported employment programmes and meaningful work based activities.
Andrew Sutherland, Service Manager, AMH New Horizons, Belfast "We were delighted with support that we received from the enthusiastic Northgate team. They were friendly and professional throughout the day and helped improve various aspects of our service. Our clients benefitted from the opportunity to meet new people and contribute to the improvement of their service in a collaborative way"
Eleanor Lee, Head of Marketing and Communications Northgate Managed Services said:
"As part of our ongoing CSR strategy, we are committed to giving something back to the local community. AMH New Horizons is a fantastic organisation and one Northgate is delighted to collaborate with - our employees obviously agree, as this initiative boasted one of the highest internal sign up levels we've ever had for a one day CSR activity. Being involved in a manual activity with the clients created an ideal opportunity for them to foster informal relationships with Northgate employees and chat about careers and getting back into the employment market. It's definitely something we'd like to be able to do again."
Pictured (left to right) Ray, AMH New Horizons, Ciara McCoy and James Fletcher, Northgate Managed Services
