The EU Referendum is imminent as the teams face the final battle between the ‘Leave and go it alone’ camp versus the ‘Britain stronger together’ side.
But here in Stockport a new ‘better together’, collaborative approach to CSR has been rolled out by the Stockport Economic Alliance supported by Stockport Council, Manchester Airports Group and Marketing Stockport.
Many local businesses are keen to engage within their communities as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility policy but identifying a good cause that fits in with the aims of the business, the employees and the projects themselves can be both challenging and time consuming.
Seeing is believing
Last week the working group, led by Christian Mancier, chair of the SEA, hosted a ‘Seeing is Believing’ half-day tour giving businesses the opportunity to visit a sample of the types of community projects looking for support from businesses. These covered three areas: projects that assist young people in their career development; initiatives that assist individuals who have been unemployed to get back into work and assisting communities to become more entrepreneurial to safeguard the future of their venture.
This inaugural tour gave Stockport College, Ingeus, Smart Works, Wellspring, Offerton Community Café, Enterprise Stuff and Mellor Country House the chance to demonstrate how they are benefitting the local community, a taste of the many excellent causes that provide an essential service for Stockport people.
Working to develop a programme
Over the next few weeks, the group will be working collaboratively to develop a programme that will assist businesses to access information about the many causes looking for support, the nature of the support required and create an easier way to link-up.
If you would like to find out how your business can get involved please email me, helen@marketingstockport.co.uk
And whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s referendum, it is good to know that in Stockport we believe that it’s better to work together.