Community

Policy statement

As an employer with a national UK footprint we recognise and embrace the significant opportunity this presents to work with many communities across the UK. We aim to seek out both practical and creative solutions to involve our wider community and continue to do this in ways that deliver support that is wider reaching than that of a cash value or donation. This is achieved by working in partnership with a number of charitable causes at both Group, regional, store, departmental and team level.

We will:

provide national charity support through partnering with a charity of the year striving to build long-term relationships;
provide local support for the communities in which we operate through our "charity room in every store scheme";
use our communications platform to assist charitable partners in raising awareness of their cause inspiring others to get involved;
consider requests for community support helping initiatives where we feel our available resources can add the most value; and
meet our charitable partners regularly to nurture existing relationships and objectively consider new charitable requests.

Scope

For the fourth year running we were delighted to partner with Scope as our 'charity of the year'. In addition to the provision of free storage space we were delighted to work with Scope, our colleagues, our customers and wider community on 'Dash to donate' week where bags of donated stock were collected for Scope charity outlets. This year we collected 1674 bags raising £34,000 which is broadly similar to last year.

Crisis

For the third year running we were delighted to partner with Crisis in support of their Crisis at Christmas campaign. This provides centres over the Christmas period offering companionship, hot meals and warmth together with a range of essential services for homeless people. Safestore's support brought together 43 of our stores located in Crisis centre catchments collecting 669 bags and boxes of donated items.

Hands on London

During the year we welcomed a new charity partner, Hands on London, who are committed to community based volunteering. In FY2012 we participated in their Wrap Up London campaign which encouraged Londoners to donate a coat to charity. This year Wrap Up London collected over 10,000 items of clothing and 8,520 coats. Safestore supported the collection and storage of the clothing prior to distribution to shelters, refuges and other charities.

CSR award

We were delighted to introduce a new CSR award at our annual conference in celebration of our regional team's endeavours supporting their local communities. This year's award went to our Regional team located in the north of the UK who undertook a charity walk on Wednesday 4 July climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District in support of Cancer Research. The expedition took five and a half hours to complete and raised £2,267.

John Barnes, Regional Manager for the Region, collected the award together with his team and commented that "this initiative not only raised money for a vital cause but drew on hidden team resources as people worked together supporting each other in their goal".

Local charity support

As part of our working together culture the year has seen us make many positive contributions to our local communities.

"We are extremely grateful to Safestore for supporting Wrap Up London 2012. Not only did the generously donated storage space at three Safestore locations around London make the storage, sorting and distribution of thousands of coats possible, but the help and enthusiasm of all the Safestore team members at head office and in each of the centres made a massive contribution to the campaign's success. Many thanks to Safestore for helping Wrap Up London to keep thousands of vulnerable Londoners warm this winter!"

Elizabeth Grier
CEO and Founder
Hands On London

Corporate responsibility

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