Work-Life Balance and Social Value: Celebrating National Volunteering Week
- Jun 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 5
In today’s fast-paced working environment, work-life balance is increasingly about more than stepping away from work; it’s about feeling that the time we spend has purpose and positive impact.
At Principle One, this belief is embedded not just in the work we deliver to our public sector customers but within our social value programme, where we actively support a range of partner organisations and create opportunities for our staff to contribute to causes that matter. By making space for volunteering alongside day-to-day responsibilities, we enable our staff to engage with wider social issues while maintaining a healthy and sustainable balance between professional and personal priorities.
As a team, we work with organisations focused on areas such as mental health (particularly relevant during PTSD Awareness Month), community safety and diversity and inclusion and have long standing partnerships with Police Care, White Ribbon and Coding Black Females. These partnerships give us opportunities to come together as a team, for instance through our annual Quiz night and auction; one of the most enjoyable and competitive events of our social calendar.
This June we look forward to continuing our annual tradition of supporting Police Care UK through its Walk the Beat campaign, helping to raise both awareness and funds for those in policing affected by trauma. With many of our staff coming from a policing background, this is something very close to many, and walking together gives a change to reflect and show support for our customers in policing.
We also offer staff up to three volunteering days each year, giving them the opportunity to get involved across a wider range of causes that reflect their own interests whether through mentoring, fundraising, awareness initiatives or hands on support.
These personal volunteering initiatives are a key element of our approach to social value. They strengthen communities, support important causes and allows our staff to connect with something beyond their day-to-day roles, and contribute to causes they are passionate about. This World Volunteering Day is a chance for us to recognise not only the impact of giving back, but also what it brings in return supporting wellbeing and contributing to a more balanced way of working.
To mark National Volunteering Week, we’ve asked two of our staff to share what their volunteering work means to them.
Cannelle is currently involved with Rahab’s Daughters, a charity dedicated to
supporting victims of human trafficking. Through her role, she has contributed to the organisation’s call centre, helping to coordinate the rescue of individuals affected by sex trafficking and supporting their enrolment into programmes that provide access to safe housing, education, and the tools needed to regain independence and control over their lives.
In addition, she has supported the charity’s digital presence by contributing to its website and has developed training materials for hotel and airport staff, equipping them to recognise signs of abuse and respond appropriately.
Cannelle also serves as a Panel Coordinator for Talking Forward, a peer-support charity for individuals whose adult family members are or have been investigated for online sexual offences. In this role, she helps facilitate a safe and supportive environment, ensuring all participants can have their voices heard and that discussions are conducted with sensitivity, care, and a focus on wellbeing.
Cannelle finds these experiences highly fulfilling both personally and professionally, as they enable her to develop and apply valuable, transferable skills in a work environment.
Ben Holden has been volunteering with the Sailing Vision Trust, a not-for-profit charitable organisation dedicated to enabling visually impaired people to experience the empowerment and freedom of coastal yacht sailing, since 2022. It brings together visually impaired sailors of all experience levels with sighted volunteers, skippers and crew to form a supportive and inclusive community.
Its flagship event, Sailing Vision Week, involves around one hundred participants and twenty yachts each year, sailing in fleets of four to five vessels along the south coast of the UK. The event is designed to be fully inclusive, welcoming participants ranging from those fresh out of school to retirees, complete beginners to sailing gold medallists, and individuals at all stages of sight loss. For some, it provides an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, for others, it offers the chance to build support networks of likeminded people. For everyone involved, it is an enjoyable and rewarding week on the water.
With prior experience sailing with visually impaired sailors and many years of general sailing experience, it felt like a natural opportunity for Ben to contribute to the charity’s work. This June marks his fifth Sailing Vision Week, and he feels extremely fortunate to continue supporting this community since joining Principle One.
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