We have been a part of the Cirencester community for over 200 years and we are proud to support many local charities and fund raising activities. Our commitment in this area has been acknowledged by the Gloucestershire & Wiltshire Law Society with an award for the corporate social responsibility “firm of the year” award. We also received an award for corporate social responsibility from Cirencester Chamber of Commerce.
Every year, the staff select a Charity which they would like to support for the next 12 months. Then the fun begins as we start organising events to raise funds, learn more about our Charity, and get involved as much as we can in supporting what they do. So, staff participate in Charity Events, hold cake sales and cook up soups and jacket potatoes to sell to colleagues. All these activities give everyone the opportunity to be involved in making a real difference to the Charity we support.
One of our most memorable Charity Events was a ‘sponsored jailbreak’, where members of staff competed in teams of two or three to ‘escape’ from Cirencester Police Station with the aim of getting as far away as they could without any money to pay their way. It was an immense success and reports came in of people making it as far away as the Scilly Isles, Ireland and one team even managed to make it to France! Funds raised went to Children in Need and those taking part were able to hand over the donation live on television!
Home-Start is a national family support charity that helps parents to build better lives for their children. Each year, trained volunteers provide support and friendship to more than 58,000 families and 75,000 children across the United Kingdom.
Home-Start Cotswolds is one of more than 180 local Home-Start schemes which are run as small independent charities under the Home-Start UK umbrella. Our scheme supports families with children under the age of 5 throughout the Cotswolds from our office in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Volunteers work alongside parents in their own homes to improve parenting skills, boost confidence and well-being, help with family management and establish social networks. We have also now joined with two other Home-Start schemes (Stroud & Gloucester and North & West Gloucestershire) to form the consortium Home-Start Gloucestershire (see www.home-startgloucestershire.org.uk).
Home-Start’s monitoring and evaluation captures families’ needs at the beginning of support and then every 3 months until support ends, measuring the impact of how Home-Start has helped in specific areas.
With Home-Start a family can be sure of support that is non-judgemental and confidential. There is no stigma attached to Home-Start’s help which is why so many referrers and parents contact us to ask for support. Once contact has been made, families meet a Home-Start Coordinator who will carefully match them with a trained volunteer and oversee the support.
The wider Home-Start UK network ensures that the same high quality of service is offered at each of the local Home-Start schemes, by:
For 2023, our chosen charity is Cirencester Housing for Young People (CHYP) who provide 24 hour supported accommodation for homeless young people between the ages of 16 and 25 in the Cotswold District area. Their aim is not just to offer the young people a roof over their heads but to also give them the practical and emotional support they need.
CHYP works with the young people to teach them how to look after themselves, help them gain confidence and live a more fulfilling life independently. Residents come from a variety of backgrounds and most have been made homeless due to family break up, abuse or leaving care; many have learning difficulties and mental health issues. Each one has a dedicated key worker and is supported 24 hours a day in the main house to begin with where they learn skills and self care. As they become more confident, they move to the “moving on house” which accommodates four people. They are also helped with further to access education, training or work placement opportunities.
In 2022 our chosen charity was The Cotswold Dogs and Cats Home which has been providing care and support to vulnerable animals in their community for over 80 years. The Charity works across Gloucestershire and supports over 1,000 animals each year, as well as finding families for pets who need a new home and providing access to veterinary treatment for pets living with financially vulnerable families through subsidised clinics to ensure that no animal suffers because of cost of treatment.
Our chosen charity for 2020 is Big Yellow Bus Project. The double decker bus was acquired by Gerry Watkins in 2017 and has undergone a conversion to provide warm, comfortable sleeping and basic cooking facilities for rough sleepers. The upper deck of the bus provides for 7 beds each in their own sleeping quarters including two sleeping quarters specifically designed to provide females with additional privacy and security. A further bed is provided on the lower deck to accommodate the overnight Warden. The aim of the project is to provide rough sleepers with low cost overnight accommodation as an alternative to sleeping on the streets.
We continued to support the Big Yellow Bus for an extra year in 2021 in light of the Covid pandemic and its implications for both the charity and our fund raising.
We have also been delighted to continue our support of a number of local and nationwide events ranging from cake sales and coffee mornings to sponsored runs and walks.
In addition to our Charity work, we have strong links with local Schools, and Colleges, and as part of our ongoing commitment to training the next generation, we support them by offering work experience placements and opportunities to see the work we do first hand.
We are conscious of being as ‘green’ as possible with recycling facilities available throughout the office for all our recyclable materials.
Work related material, such as confidential paper and documents, is shredded for security reasons and then taken away by a firm which turns the paper into a number of new projects. All cardboard is also recycled.
Working in the Cotswolds means that those who are lucky enough to live close by enjoy a wonderful walk or cycle to work, leaving their car at home. For those who live further away in the countryside and therefore require a car, staff share lifts wherever possible.
Tel: 01285 650 000
Fax: 01285 649 898
DX: 39400 Cirencester
Email: info@sml-law.co.uk
