Across County Durham, more and more businesses and organisations are stepping up to support their communities through Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV).
ESV allows employees to volunteer during working hours with the backing and support of their employer. This can include skills-based volunteering, with staff using their professional expertise to help a charity, or team volunteering for one-off projects that can make a real difference in the community. The County Durham ESV Network has been created to better harness these efforts for greater impact on our voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations.
Why Employer-Supported Volunteering Matters
When employees volunteer, it brings clear benefits to the voluntary and community sector – from fresh skills and capacity to new perspectives and energy. For employers, it can also strengthen staff morale and build stronger connections with their local communities.
Most importantly, ESV helps VCS organisations access additional resources and expertise that can make projects happen faster, reach more people, and deliver greater impact.
Why a County Durham ESV Network?
While the benefits of ESV are clear, setting up and sustaining these initiatives can be challenging. Companies and organisations may struggle to balance staff volunteering with workloads, and charities might not always know how to tap into local businesses’ volunteer offers or coordinate large volunteer projects. This encouraged Durham Community Action to work in partnership with Durham University to develop the County Durham ESV Network – a growing collaboration between companies and organisations delivering local projects and services in designing and tackling these challenges together. The network’s key aim is to better utilise the ESV offer for greater impact on local voluntary organisations, ensuring that employee volunteer efforts meet real community needs.
This network builds on a strong foundation of current ESV provision in County Durham. Current members include:
What the ESV Network Does
The County Durham Employer Supported Volunteering Network is a partnership that brings together employers across the county with an ESV offer. Working collaboratively, the network helps to:
- Bridge communication – connecting businesses with voluntary and community groups, so they can easily find and plan volunteer opportunities together.
- Share best practices and learning – members swap ideas, success stories, and lessons learned to improve ESV programs for everyone involved.
- Shape future projects – by communicating regularly, the network can develop new volunteering initiatives that work for both employers and community organisations, creating projects that deliver mutual benefit.
Share Your Opportunities
If your organisation could benefit from support through employee volunteers, please complete our ESV Volunteer Opportunity Form or contact volunteering@durhamcommunityaction.org.uk
