The Covid pandemic has led to a bigger take up of a RFCA scheme aimed at encouraging staff to volunteer.
The organisation has in place a policy that gives staff wanting to volunteer on local projects the chance to take three days of work time each year to do so.
And this year, more staff from across the organisation have been using the scheme to support the Covid effort.
Encouraging support for reserves and adult volunteers
“A key part of our remit as an organisation is to encourage local employers to support those who volunteer their time as reserves and cadet force adult volunteers,” said chief executive Jason Wright.
“So it makes sense for us to lead by example and do what we can to support volunteering by our own staff within their own communities.”
RFCA administrative officer Karen Wheeler and finance officer Angela Breen have both been volunteering at a GP practice in York city centre.
“We’ve been helping to track down older patients and call them into the surgery for their Covid vaccinations,” said Karen Wheeler.
“It’s a huge administrative task that practices are required to do without extra help and it’s been nice to be able to play a small part in helping out.”
Other schemes benefitting from volunteering support are Covid-testing for pupils returning to school as well as non-pandemic related efforts such as tree planting.
In step with the military
“We like to think of ourselves as the permanent ambassadors for the military in local communities across Yorkshire and the Humber,” said Jason Wright.
“By supporting our staff to volunteer in this way, we are very much taking the lead from the military itself which, in the past year, has deployed units to aid the flood efforts in South Yorkshire and to help the Covid testing programme.”