A 'brilliant afternoon' at our charity Give Back event
'Valuable', 'a positive experience', very enjoyable & informative', 'mentors were brilliant', were just a few of the comments received from some of the charity representatives who attended our second 'Give Back' event.
Following the success of our first Give Back event last year, around 40 GCHQ volunteers provided one-to-one mentoring sessions on a variety of topics such as IT, marketing, social media, website building, and fundraising, for 23 local charities. There was a great buzz at the event, and feedback from the charities has been really positive: 'tremendous value with promise of continued support. So many ideas to take forward', 'great brainstorming of ideas and excellent advice & tips'.
And from our volunteer mentors: 'fun & positive feelings', 'realisation that I have useful knowledge to share with others', 'a nice opportunity to use external skills I don't get to use as much while working for GCHQ', 'engaging with the community'.
All hope to continue to support their charities in the coming months, as our previous mentors have done.
Our charity partners at the Give Back event this year were: Age UK, Brandon Trust, British Red Cross, Cheltenham Animal Shelter, Churchdown Community Association, County Community Projects, Dr Jenner's House, Footsteps, Gay-Glos, GL Communities, Gloucestershire Credit Union, Goals Beyond Grass, Great Western Air Ambulance, Hope Support Services, IT Schools Africa, Linc Motor Neurone Disease Association, MS Society, P3 (people, potential possibilities), Ronan's Trust, T1 International, The Churn Project, and The Door Youth Project.
