Community
Introduction
For many years the Newcastle Building Society has been committed to helping the community that is local to its offices and branches. Our community projects cover a number of areas which aim to make our society a better place. Some of the key projects include donations to local community groups and organisations, art projects and exhibitions, volunteering schemes and promoting the use of fair trade and ethical suppliers.
The Society is also highly committed to the employees working throughout the organisation and through this policy aims to support and develop the staff in order to establish an engaged workforce and develop an employee culture.
The Cobalt Art Project
Hassockfield Art Exhibition
The Art project was launched in our brand new offices located at Cobalt Business Park to support and encourage artistic talent located in and around our region. As well as commissioning art work from professional 'up and coming' artists we have a regular exhibition space that we use to support and display the work from a number of groups. We are the proud hosts of an annual student art competition and engage with student artists from local colleges and universities. We also host exhibitions from other sources such as the North Tyneside Art Studio and Hassockfield, the young offender's institute.
We believe that by promoting the use of our exhibition space to various organisations we can help them to achieve their various goals whilst providing a pleasant environment for our staff to work in. If you have some artwork that you would like to display in an exhibition please email CSR@newcastle.co.uk.
Fair trade and ethical suppliers
Our commitment does not just stop in the North East, the Society is passionate about helping those people a little further from our business environment. Throughout our offices fair trade tea and coffee is used by staff and it is our goal that all materials we use are sympathetically sourced.
Staff Welfare
Travel incentives
To encourage the use of sustainable methods of transport and make the journey to and from work a little easier for our staff we provide subsidised metro and bus passes. Staff have access to annual passes for public transport via an interest free loan.
Volunteering
We established a volunteering policy in 2008 allowing staff the opportunity to participate in projects that are outside their usual working role. Our staff have the opportunity to take a half day's paid leave every year and volunteer their services to groups such as the Society's charity of the year, Tyne and Wear Museums, Seven Stories the Centre for Children's Books and various other local charities. Through the volunteering schemes we can not only make a difference to a charity but help our staff learn new skills.
Past Achievements
NBS staff prepare to send uniforms to Burundi
The Voyages Project
'Voyages' from Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books, was a three year long project initiated by the Universal Building Society and completed by the Newcastle following the merger in 2007. The Voyages project was commissioned to encourage and inspire literacy amongst young children throughout our region. The project involved a partnership with 4 schools and included storytelling, arts and crafts, workshops and the design and installation of a magical boat on the river Ouseburn.
The Voyages project was recognised for its success and was awarded Best Arts and Business Partnership at the Journal Culture Awards 2008.
Branch Uniforms
In 2008 our branch staff returned all their old uniforms which were being phased out to make way for a new uniform. These old uniforms were sent to Burundi helping people in third world countries.