Community Benefits - Good news stories
“Over the last couple of months, we have been so delighted by the response from our feature on the social benefit Wishlist. Within weeks of each other we received two very large donations totalling £2080, which is amazing!!”
David C. Watson, Empower Project Service Co-ordinator
The first donation of £1000 we received was from Sidey, and after long discussions with our service users they decided to spend the money on improving their chill out area within the project. We are so looking forward to, any day now, receiving our new seating!
The second donation of £1080 came from ENVA and again we were all so grateful and surprised to receive this further donation. In late November we had a visit from Chris and Connor from ENVA, who spent time chatting with our service users, who explained that we would love to buy an interactive smart board with their donation. We gave Chris and Connor our homemade thank you card which was signed by all our services users. ENVA have offered us support in the new year with our litter picking activities, which is great.
We cannot thank Sidey and Enva enough for the very generous donations which will make a long lasting very positive difference to all.
Lomond Community Pantry would not have been able to be open to our community today if it were not for grants, funding applications and the kindness of donations from local businesses and social benefit contractors through West Dunbartonshire Council’s Working 4U team.
When we met David Wilkie , he advised us to create a Wishlist of things we would need to enable the project to continue. We listed skips, slabs, edging stones, builders' sand, shelving, fridges, freezer, painting and of course money to enable us to buy food to set up our initial stock.
The donations started to come in thick and fast. David arranged a meeting with Leigh from JM Murdoch who provided the skip needed to clear the hall and later the building sand required for a new pathway to be laid from pavement to hall plus a cash donation. David continued on behalf of the pantry to liaise with WDC contractors to work his way through our wishlist. The pathway and slabbing of the outside area required 400 slabs which were kindly donated by McConnell which was a cash Equivalent of £3792!!! The edging stones were donated by McNairs Building Supplies. We then received further cash donations from Walker Love, Allsports Construction & Maintenance, Hawthorn Heights, FCA Fostering, NEC Software Solutions, Enva, and a very generous donation from Arnold Clark.
Without these donations and funding, the Lomond Community Pantry would not be able to help ease food poverty in our local area. Since opening in October 2024 we have 80 members registered and can foresee the numbers rising as we hit the winter months.
The pantry offers a warm space, a space to chat, to meet others and to let our members know that our community cares as reflected in all our kind donations received which allowed the idea of the pantry become a reality.
“Working4U have been invaluable in setting up the Lomond Pantry. They sourced building and landscaping materials from donor companies. These materials helped to make the building and the surrounds safe for people to use. Without its help we would not be in a position to help people in need throughout the Lomond Ward.” Councillor Hazel Sorrell
McLays Foods supported local West Dunbartonshire foodbanks Food for Thought and West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare with deliveries of fresh fruit and vegetables over a 4 week period as part of their social benefit offer.
"The donations of fruit and veg we received from McLays were fantastic and greatly appreciated. It helped us provide nutrition in our emergency food parcels that we give out to people affected by food poverty in West Dunbartonshire" - Food for Thought.
"West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare were delighted to receive donations of over £300 worth of fruit and vegetables each week from McLays Foods. Having healthy, fresh fruit and vegetables to include in our emergency food parcels was wonderful, and our recipients were delighted to receive such a great selection of good quality food. We appreciate the support that McLays Foods gave to the residents of West Dunbartonshire experiencing Food Insecurity." - West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare.
Inspired Energy provided a £200 donation to Alternatives Community Based Recovery. Please see below how this donation was put to good use to benefit their Knowetop project.
'The donation we received from Inspired Energy is being used to purchase a fridge and microwave for our horticulture and wildlife project at Knowetop, a 15.5-acre site in Castlehill, Dumbarton. They will temporarily be at Alternative's unit at the Leven Valley Enterprise Centre, where our tools are stored, and our recovery clients meet whilst we are waiting for our workspace on site to be in place. We share this with Alternative's Upcycling & Recycling project, so staff and clients from both projects will be able to use them. Once we've got facilities on site at Knowetop we'll be moving them up there and they'll be used by staff, recovery clients and volunteers. If we get another long spell of hot weather cold drinks, rather than lukewarm ones will be appreciated by everyone!' – Alternatives
Carers of West Dunbartonshire recruited a member of staff from West Dunbartonshire as part of their social benefit offers. They also made a very generous donation of £500 to Y Sort It.
‘On behalf of Y Sort It I would like to say thanks very much to Carers of West Dunbartonshire for their generous donation of £500. This money will be put towards our “Helping Hand Fund” which was created by our youth management board to support families in times of hardship and also promote health and wellbeing. Many of our young carers have accessed this funding and has used it to purchase bikes and sports equipment.' - Y Sort It.
CCG worked with West Dunbartonshire Foundation Apprenticeship Team to organise a site tour of the new Clydebank Care Home for the young people currently participating in their Foundation Apprenticeship Civil Engineering Programme.
Skanska team dropped into Church Street to donate a fantastic food donation worth £250 to the WD Community Food Share.
As part of their ongoing commitment to supporting our communities and the people who live in them, Story and Network Rail recently hosted three Industry taster days on site at Exxon Bowling, welcoming 34 pupils for an engaging and educational experience. The pupils from St Patrick’s Primary School and two FA Construction & Civil Engineering cohorts participating in the Working 4 U programme joined site teams for a day of hands-on learning. Activities included meeting the project team, learning about the construction of the underbridge, taking part in a STEM workshop involving a bridge building challenge (with prizes!), and a site tour.
The pupils were fascinated to see the works taking place in their local area, and the day was filled with curiosity and thoughtful questions. There was also an opportunity to discuss career pathways in construction, highlighting roles such as Civil Engineer, Quantity Surveyor, Ganger, and Works Superintendent, among others. Staff volunteering efforts totalled 70 hours, directly contributing to the pupils’ learning and development.
Stephen Knox, Working4U – “Emma and the team at Story Contracting, in partnership with Network Rail, delivered an engaging session for our Foundation Apprentices at the Exxon site. Pupils spoke with industry professionals, took part in a bridge-building activity to develop key skills, and gained valuable insight into engineering on a live site. A highly beneficial and enjoyable experience for all involved.”
Elizabeth Mooney, Dumbarton District Women’s Aid
“City Technical very kindly provided us with two teams of 10 volunteers for two days who came and gave our garden a badly needed make-over. We were amazed by the amount of work they covered, including weeding all our flower beds and putting in some plants, trimming back some bushes and digging others, lopping trees and power washing all our paths and paving. When they were finished, we discovered a beautiful little haven at the back corner of our garden! We had received some funding from the B&Q Fund, so we have ordered a gazebo to put in this corner. We can’t express just how much we appreciate what City Technical have done. The garden is always on our to-do list, but with the number of families we support, we rarely get the chance to get round to it. We have also just had our new playground completed, so our garden looks amazing. A great big Thank you to everyone involved!!!”
Balfour Beatty, in partnership with West Dunbartonshire Council's Working 4U recently engaged with the CITB funded Scottish Pathways to Construction Programme to deliver a targeted local initiative to tackle skills shortages within the construction industry, particularly focusing on those entering the sector. This initiative went beyond traditional classroom learning, incorporating crucial on-site work placements for participants with both Balfour Beatty, Story Contracting, and McTaggart Construction. These placements offered invaluable real-world experience, enabling individuals to apply their newly acquired skills and knowledge within a live construction environment under the guidance of experienced professionals. This practical experience was vital for developing job readiness, bolstering confidence, and making participants highly attractive to employers in the local construction sector.
The success of this program demonstrates the power of combining tailored training with hands-on work placements. It not only helped bridge local skills gaps and increase the employability of participants but also provided a vital pipeline of skilled workers ready to contribute to projects, bolstering our local workforce and delivering significant community benefit.
The initiative supported 11 local people to access accredited training including Abrasive Wheels, REHIS and Health & Safety, Working at Height, and CSCS Green card training and assessment.
Moira O’Kane, Working4U Officer.
“Watching participants grow in confidence and capability through their site placements & training has been incredibly rewarding. It’s clear this approach makes a real difference in people’s lives.”