A CHIPPING Sodbury-based housing association has revealed that it’s staff volunteering programme has topped £21,000 in the past eight months.

Staff at Merlin Housing have donated nearly 1,500 hours of time to local good causes since the company launched its employee volunteering programme in September 2016. 

The volunteer effort equates to more than £21,500 worth of company time that has been spent helping out - but the good work is not over yet.

“We want to increase this total to £50,000 by the end of March 2018,” said Kay Rose, Community Insight and Investment Officer.

“Our properties are home to more than 16,000 people, so we have a large impact on communities and want to support neighbourhoods where we work. 

“Every member of staff is encouraged to spent one working day volunteering with a local good cause during the course of the year - it’s a brilliant way of showing our commitment to the community.”

Kay added: “We’re always keen to hear from any other organisations that would benefit from our staff helping out during the day."

Over the past few months, staff at Merlin Housing have been helping the community of Chipping Sodbury and the surrounding areas in a variety of different ways, including volunteering at foodbanks, delivering care packages, decorating schools, serving food at luncheon clubs, and sprucing up community attractions. 

Among the recent beneficiaries of the volunteering programme was Watermore School in Frampton Cotterell. 

Merlin employees Sarah Durbin, Carol Infanti, Katie Turner-Clarke, Natalie Mann and David Llewellyn spent an entire day at the school last month repainting playground furniture and equipment.

It was a follow-up visit for the volunteers, who had previously worked at the school in November and wanted to add some finishing touches to the school’s playground.