OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2012. SSE employees have volunteered more than 26,000 hours of their time to community organisations and charities in 2012.

The figure is the highest since SSE launched its community volunteering programme, Community at Heart, in 2009.

The scheme gives every employee a day off work each year to help a local community project. Employees have carried out a huge range of activities this year including dog walking, tree cutting, litter picking, bulb planting and book stacking.

Since 2009 Community at Heart has helped around 1,100 community groups and charities across Great Britain. This year 417 projects have benefited from 3,510 volunteering days, with 3,200 employees taking part.

SSE is looking to complete even more projects next year.

Cindy Cummings, SSE’s Community Volunteering Manager, who organises the programme, said: “We are delighted with the success our Community at Heart scheme has had to date and it’s fantastic news that we’ve also managed to complete even more projects this year than last.

“We’ve had tree cutters from Inverness and Melksham creating storytelling areas and cleaning up zoos; customer service staff undertaking fundraising activities and events; employees from Uskmouth Power Station helping restore an old barge back to its former glory and a team from our New Forest depot installing bird and bat boxes for a Countryside Trust.

“All our employees really enjoy getting out and about and providing support for all kinds of charities and organisations. Applications are welcome for any type of activity; it doesn’t have to be labour intensive it can be anything from tidying an overgrown garden, cleaning rubbish from a local beach, to crushing boxes or crunching numbers on a club’s behalf.

”We encourage any community group that would like support on a project to get in touch.”

The Community at Heart scheme is part of the company’s pledge to support local

communities in which its employees live and work with all kinds of local organisations, charities, schools and community groups taking advantage of the offer.

Bristol Zoo Gardens is one of the many organisations that have benefited from the scheme. Kate Smith, Development Assistant from Bristol Zoo Gardens, said: “The support SSE has given to us through their employee volunteering programme has been fantastic. SSE employees have helped us twice since October this year to clear our 135 acre Hollywood Estate to support its transformation to a National Wildlife Conservation Park.

“This long-term conservation project is hugely important to the zoo and volunteers like those from SSE, are intrinsic to achieving our goal. We wish to thank all of the SSE team for their hard work and assistance with this project.”

Employees from SSE’s head office in Perth also received thanks recently for their efforts to revamp the grounds of Corbenic Camphill in Dunkeld, which is a residential community campus for adults with learning difficulties. The company has visited three times throughout 2012 with around 60 members of staff involved in tree clearing and creating a new path to form part of a poetry trail.

Jon Plunkett, Estate Team Leader at Corbenic Camphill, added: “I can’t stress enough the difference the SSE staff have made to the grounds of our estate. The newly created path has enabled more residents and visitors to access and enjoy the vast grounds and river. On occasions we’ve even lit the path with candles and torches creating a magical poetry trail finishing at the seating area on the banks of the river. We’d like to thank SSE for their dedication to helping transform our poetry path and look forward to working with them again in the future.”