News from inside Praxity
Discover our charities and team-building initiatives
Praxity Executive Office in London is stepping up its programme of charitable and social initiatives as part of its commitment to sustainability, community support and employee wellbeing.
The Executive Office team is supporting two inspiring charities to provide food and shelter for the homeless and those in need. The team is also investing in new ways to support employee wellbeing.
Latest initiatives include:
Bedding for the homeless
The Praxity team has donated new survival packs to the Crisp Packet Project, an innovative programme to provide bedding for the homeless.
Under the project, hundreds of volunteers fuse together crisp packets to make sleeping bags, blankets and mats to provide warmer, drier bedding for rough sleepers and people who cannot afford to heat their homes. The reconditioned plastic bedding is heat-reflecting and gives an extra layer of protection from the cold and rain.
Praxity joined the initiative in 2021 to provide bedding as well as essential items for vulnerable people in the South of England. Each survival pack donated contains multiple items such as a crisp packet mat, sheet, poncho, wash kit, bamboo toothbrush made from recycled materials, toothpaste, soap, flannel, hat, gloves, hand warmers, socks and sanitiser.
Inventor and Crisp Packet Project coordinator Pen Huston said: “It’s just epic that something as simple as a crisp packet can help save lives, help the environment and bring people together.”
Praxity Webmaster Jess Honey said: “The Crisp Packet Project plays a crucial role in how we demonstrate our dedication to assisting both individuals and communities. We are committed to regularly assisting the organisation in their efforts to protect the enormous number of vulnerable people living on the streets, because doing so is essential to ensuring their welfare, safety and future.”
“It’s just epic that something as simple as a crisp packet can help save lives.”
Pen Huston, Inventor and Crisp Packet Project coordinator
Food for people in crisis
“Without the foodbank, I don’t think I would be here today.”
Richard, Foodbank recipient
Individual donations of food, toothpaste, nappies and other essentials were made by each Praxity team member to a local foodbank on February 17 as part of ‘Random Acts of Kindness Day’.
The donations were hand delivered to Epsom and Ewell Foodbank to help people in crisis on the outskirts of London.
Every day, people in the UK go hungry for reasons ranging from redundancy to receiving an unexpected bill on a low income. A simple box of food makes a big difference.
Epsom and Ewell Foodbank provides three days’ nutritionally balanced food and support to local people in crisis. Volunteers sort and pack the food donations ready to be given to those in need.
Since opening in 2012, Epsom and Ewell Foodbank has fed more than 50,000 people and now generates 200 hours of volunteering every week. The foodbank is part of a nationwide network of centres where 40,000 volunteers give up their time to help. The volunteers meet clients over a warm drink or free hot meal and are able to signpost people to agencies able to solve the longer-term problem.
One of the recipients, former police force worker Richard said: “Without the foodbank, I don’t think I would be here today.”
The concept of Random Acts of Kindness Day was started in the United States in 1995 by a small non-profit organisation, The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. The first designated kindness day was held in New Zealand in 2004. It is now a global initiative to promote kind acts.
Kevin Bryan, Praxity’s Designer
Natalie Giles, Praxity’s Financial Controller
Team building
Working together more effectively to deliver great support to member firms was the focus of this year’s Praxity ‘awayday’ on February 1 at Wotton House Country Estate in Surrey, England.
The annual event is partly devoted to the implementation of Praxity strategy to help member firms meet their client’s goals. The awayday also provides an opportunity to review performance and look at how to take the high performing team at Praxity Executive Office to the next level.
To improve on performance, the group focused on understanding each other’s personality traits and strengths to identify how best to function as a team and achieve more together.
Praxity Designer Kevin Bryan said: “As a new joiner to Praxity the team awayday was an opportunity for me to learn more about how the Alliance brings its member firms together to share their knowledge and expertise across the globe. It was also great to come together and get to know my new colleagues even better!”
Natalie Giles, Praxity’s Financial Controller, added: “It was a lovely way to spend time with the brilliant Praxity team away from the office. I found it interesting learning that our personalities, and what makes us tick, are different, but that it is actually the blend as a team that makes us successful.”
