Greenwich Builds

We’ve been continuing to deliver social value for Royal Borough of Greenwich and in April attended its Greenwich Social Value Showcase at Charlton House, which celebrated the positive impact of the social value initiatives being carried out under the Greenwich Builds contract.

We’ve also recently completed several of our Greenwich Builds projects, and we were pleased to attend Royal Borough of Greenwich’s welcome event for the new residents at our Halsbrook Road development back in April. During the event, special tributes were made to Councillor Christine Grice, who sadly passed away last year. A part of the development has been named in her memory. Mayor of Greenwich, Jit Ranabhat, and Leader of Greenwich Council, Anthony Okereke, were in attendance, alongside other councillors, Christine’s family and the new residents, plus our MD, Ray Elkins.

Work placements

We continue to work with YouthBuild to provide opportunities for local young people to get into the construction industry. At the end of May, our HR & Learning Development Advisor, Sarah, attended Youth Build’s mock interview and CV writing session at their Thamesmead Centre. Following this, we had five of the candidates join us for a week of work experience from 2^nd-6^th June as part of our commitment to providing work placements for local residents under our Greenwich Builds contract. Anisa worked in our HR department, Tobi and Kylan in Site Management, Jaden worked with our RLO team and Summer with our Multi-Trade team.

We have recently been joined by another YouthBuild candidate, Matt, who will be with us for work experience every Monday until he goes to university in September. He’ll be working with Site Manager, Dave Conroy, at our Buckhurst Street site and observing the various trades associated with delivering a modular new build project.

In June, we also hosted a site visit for Youth Build partners at our new build site, The Brooks, where the candidates got to see the project in progress and learn more about the modular construction process. At the end of the month, our Social Value Manager, Ayesha, will also be attending Youth Build’s ‘Young People Building Community Together’ event.

In our last update, we announced we were providing work placements for London South East Colleges’ first intake of Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction T-Level students. We were pleased to welcome Tyler, Che, Jada, Madeleine, Vito and Adam to start their placements in June. They will be working with our Site Manager, Ian Stubbs, Quantity Surveyor, Chris Pierce, and Project Manager, Keith Hill, one day a week across two of our Greenwich Build sites for the next 40 weeks.

We’ve also been continuing our work with local schools to inspire young people into careers in construction. Ayesha conducted mock interviews with students in years 10 and 12 during a session at Eltham Hill School and attended Haberdashers’ Borough Academy’s careers networking event with Construction Youth Trust, where she spoke with Key Stage 4 students about the different routes into the construction industry. In mid-June, Ayesha, our HR Manager, Sarah, and Labourer, Alex, attended Bygrove Primary School to deliver a ‘Going to Work’ assembly to students about the various roles in construction.

Community initiatives

We’ve been working on several projects with local organisations to improve community spaces over the last three months. We’re working with Kasbah, an organisation providing support services for people with disabilities, to renovate its centre’s outdoor spaces as part of our social value commitment to Gravesham Borough Council. Improvement works include painting fences and benches, installing a new picnic bench and garden table, tidying up flower beds, weeding and supplying new flowers.

In June, we arranged for improvement works to three war memorials in Thanet – Bourner Memorial, the British Legion Memorial and the War Memorial at All Saints Church. The works are part of Thanet Council’s project to protect and restore some of its most significant statues and monuments. Andreea Plant, Head of Property at Thanet District Council, said: “The ultimate aim is to ensure that all statues and monuments on public land are preserved for future generations, and that the events or people that are commemorated are remembered for years to come. […] The contributions of our contractors WW Martin, AD Construction, Elkins, PJ Mears and BSW have made this project possible, and I would like to express my thanks to them all.”

We are also in discussions with local organisation, Sports 4 Change, to see how we can assist with internal improvement works required to its hub. The organisation does important work to facilitate sports and activities that transform lives and encourage healthier, happier futures for local communities.

Local donations

In addition to offering our services, we’ve also been supporting community organisations with their work through donations over the last three months. Under our recently awarded contract to build new homes for Gravesham Borough Council, we have made an early start delivering social value, with £1,500 worth of donations to four organisations helping distribute food and other essential items to people in the local community – Hive Hope Food Bank, Gravesham Food Bank, Salvation Army and the Community Cupboard.

Over the last few years, we’ve been committed to encouraging young people into sport by supporting local youth teams in the areas where we work. Continuing this commitment, we’ve also donated £500 towards running Gravesham Council’s free tennis and basketball sessions as part of its summer fun programme running during the school holidays.

Earlier this month, we agreed to donate four iPads to three local charities as part of our social value commitment for Tower Hamlets Council: Jubilee Street Practice, which delivers a wide range of health and wellbeing activities for local residents; Globe Community Project, a grassroots charity providing services to some of the borough’s most disadvantaged communities; and Turners and Locksley Community Centre, which provides a vital local hub promoting community cohesion. Mohammed Kenawi, Projects & Operations Officer at Globe Community Project said: “We are incredibly grateful for the IPad donation from Elkins Construction. This will have an immediate positive impact on our operations. Specifically, we plan to use it for our project’s weekly registration process. For a long time, our volunteers have managed this with paperwork, so transitioning to the tablet will save significant time and effort, allowing them to focus more on supporting our community members.”

This summer, we’re also excited to support two summer festivals for local people as part of our social value commitment under our Greenwich Builds contract. We have donated £2,500 and will be the principal sponsor at Hornfair ParksFest on 22^nd June and we will contributing over £4,000 to cover the entire cost of Kidbrooke Community Festival on 13^th July. Both festivals are key events in the summer calendar that provide a free day out for families and help bring local communities together.

Stay up to date with all our latest news and on social media – follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Social Value Round-Up: April to June 2025 appeared first on Elkins Construction.

Alzheimer’s Research UK

Back in February, our HR Manager, Sarah Silburn, and Admin Assistant, Thomas Nicholls, both took on the challenge of running 28 miles across the month to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK. The cause is one close to Sarah and Thomas’s hearts as both have family members who have been diagnosed with dementia.

As a result of their efforts, Sarah raised £1,570 and Thomas raised £525 for the charity. With the first treatments to slow Alzheimer’s now on the horizon, every penny raised will go towards funding the search for a cure.

2wish Cymru

In April, our Site Manager, Kalvin Morath-Gibbs, took on the challenge of running the Newport Half Marathon in aid of 2wish Cymru. He raised £280 for this incredible Welsh charity, which offers immediate support and counselling, and provides and essential resources for anyone dealing with the sudden loss of a child or young person.

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Charity

After completing 28-miles in February for Alzheimer’s UK, Thomas will be taking on another challenge in September, when he runs The Big Half in aid of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) Charity. The 13.1 mile route begins at Tower Bridge and passes through four London boroughs – Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich – before finishing at the Cutty Sark.

As one of the world’s best orthopaedic hospitals, the RNOH Charity raises money to provide grants above and beyond NHS funding, which contribute to pioneering research, state-of-the-art buildings and equipment, and patient and staff wellbeing services. Thomas has chosen to fundraise for the charity after the hospital supported one of his relatives when she had to learn to walk again.

If you’d like to donate to support Thomas’s half marathon for this fantastic cause, follow this link.

Stay up to date with all our latest news and on social media – follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Elkins Staff Fundraising for Charities appeared first on Elkins Construction.

Community support

Over the last year, we’ve been supporting Dulwich Wood Primary School with various initiatives. The school is close to Kingswood Estate, where we’re currently carrying out a major refurbishment programme for Southwark Council. Back at the start of July, we donated some amazing prizes for its Summer Fair raffle, including a Nintendo Switch, hoverboard, Bluetooth speakers and a karaoke machine.

Kingswood Arts Centre is a fantastic new not-for-profit cultural hub for the local area, and we’ve been excited to get involved in its programme of projects and events. Following our donation to purchase palm trees for a new courtyard area earlier this year, we also donated £1,000 to provide food for the Family Fun Day event at the end of July.

As well as providing specific donations, we’re also looking at ways to make a lasting impact and deliver long-term improvements for the local community at Kingswood Estate. Our Social Value Manager, Ayesha, and Contracts Manager, Paul, have been meeting with Dulwich Wood Primary School to discuss building an outdoor science classroom, which will be used by the students for many years to come – stay tuned for updates!

It’s not just Kingswood we’ve been supporting; at the end of August, we provided £300 of Tesco vouchers to supply food and raffle prizes for CDS Co-Operatives’ summer event at Phoenix Place, where we are carrying out significant repair and maintenance work. Repairs and Maintenance Contracts Manager, Guy Ellis, and Voids and Repairs Coordinator, Lori Payne, got involved on the day and said: ‘It was great to see the residents at Phoenix Place coming together and enjoying the event.’

Charities

This year we’ve also continued to support our long-term charity partner, Link Age Southwark, which does fantastic work with over 700 older people in the borough who are feeling lonely or isolated. The charity is 30 years old in 2023 and has organised a programme of events to celebrate the occasion.

We were pleased to support several recent events, covering the cost of venue hire for the charity’s Sunset Soiree at Dulwich Picture Gallery in July and, more recently, providing water and flyers for its Strollathon event – an accessible, family-friendly, sponsored walk, with distances to suit different ages and abilities, in Dulwich Park.

Sustainability

We’re committed to minimising our environmental impact and are currently working towards reducing our carbon footprint with Positive Planet. We’re in the process of collecting data about our emissions, which will be analysed and used to create a carbon reduction plan that we’ll work towards over the next few years.

In the meantime, we continue to look for opportunities to recycle materials, particularly when it is for a good cause. In August, we donated our end-of-life electrical items, including smartphones and computer equipment, to Catbytes – a non-profit community interest company that teaches local people how to use technology and provides devices to help them develop their skills.

Employment and Training

It’s been quiet over the summer holidays, with education and training providers taking a well-deserved break, however we have some exciting opportunities coming up. We continue to work with Greenwich Local Labour and Business (GLLaB) and have committed to providing four work experience placements for their latest bootcamp. We are also working with Shooters Hill Sixth Form College to provide work experience opportunities for their newly-enrolled construction students – watch this space for updates!

Keep up to date with all of our latest news here, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Social Value Round-Up: July to September 2023 appeared first on Elkins Construction.

Back in 2019, while carrying out major refurbishment works to Rye Hill Estate on behalf of Southwark Council, our team refurbished the Rye Hill TRA kitchen, as part of our commitment to delivering social value to the local residents.

Since then, the kitchen has been used by community group, London Senior Social Club, to provide a hot meal for over 30 local older people every week. The club does fantastic work in the borough, supporting over 60s through a programme of social activities designed to prevent isolation and improve their mental and physical health.

This time of year, particularly over the winter period, can be a lonely time for older people and many are currently facing additional struggles due to high energy bills and the cost-of-living crisis. With this in mind, we’ve teamed up with our fellow partnering contractors, Saltash Construction, to provide London Senior Social Club with over £1,500 of kitchen equipment – including a mobile hot cupboard, toasters, and a tea urn.

Our Social Value Manager, Ayesha, delivered the items to Rye Hill TRA before Christmas to the delight of LSSC’s Manager, Brenda Wade: “We’re so grateful to Elkins and Saltash for gifting us with new equipment for the TRA kitchen, which will make it easier for us to continue providing hot freshly-cooked meals for vulnerable older people in Southwark through the cold months ahead.”

Keep up to date with all our latest news here and follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Elkins Helps London Senior Social Club Provide Hot Meals for Older People This Winter appeared first on Elkins Construction.

In December 2021, we were approached by the charity Emmaus, who do fantastic work providing support, meaningful work experience and accommodation for those experiencing homelessness.  Following their initial contact, our Social Value Manager, Ayesha Wright, visited the charity’s Greenwich centre in February to find out more about how it has helped local people.

Emmaus Greenwich provides 35 homeless people with a safe place to live and work for as long as they need – in fact, some residents have stayed for over 10 years! There is a shop attached to the centre, where all items donated to the charity are re-sold to the local community at a low price.

The site was acquired by Emmaus some years ago and has been repurposed from its previous life as a children’s home. It has recently undergone some much-needed refurbishment work, however, improvements to the domestic kitchen were not included.

This is where the Elkins team saw an opportunity to help. The kitchen is a vital hub of the centre, used regularly by the residents, particularly in the evenings, as a place to prepare nutritious meals and socialise. As it was in a state of disrepair, we decided the best course of action would be to install a brand-new kitchen.

The project was overseen by our Assistant Site Manager Kalvin Morath-Gibbs. Elkins provided the electrical and plumbing services and worked with a number of contractors, who also kindly supplied their services for free – Rollalong (kitchen supply), Alexander James Contracts (kitchen fit out), Armour Hart Group (decoration) and SME Building Services (flooring).

Keep up to date with all our latest news here and follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Elkins Provides New Kitchen For Homelessness Charity’s Greenwich Centre appeared first on Elkins Construction.

The partnership has been a long time in the works. Our Social Value Manager, Ayesha Wright, initially contacted Pecan because their work reaches many people in and around Southwark, where we are currently carrying out a number of projects under our LBS framework contract. We first supported the charity in February 2020 with a food donation for their foodbank on Peckham High Street. This helped to provide assistance to vulnerable families whose children miss out on free school meals during the school half term.

Unfortunately, when the coronavirus pandemic hit a month later, we were forced to put our plans to work with Pecan on hold. We were therefore delighted when they recently reached back out to us to resume discussions about a long-term partnership.

Since we were last in contact, Pecan have also started a new venture – Peckham Pantry – to provide food at a discounted price for local residents. Members pay £4.50 for a variety of perishable and non-perishable goods worth £15.00. Not only does this allow them to save money to put towards other essentials, but it also gives them the opportunity to maintain a healthier, more balanced diet. The emotional wellbeing of those needing support is just as important as their physical health, and Pecan have found that this initiative helps people to feel more dignified, as if they are simply visiting their regular local shop.

To kick off our continuing partnership, we recently made another donation to Pecan’s foodbank to coincide once again with the school summer holidays. As well as continuing to make further donations, we will also be providing Elkins employees with the opportunity to volunteer for the charity by taking time out of their work day. Our Customer Services Manager, Louise Mullarkey and Resident Liaison Officer, Patricia Charles, recently helped collect donations at London Bridge station. Pecan’s Shahrukh Sohail said, “we really appreciate Elkins’ support and are delighted to announce that Louise and Patricia’s efforts helped raise £645!”

You can learn more about Pecan’s incredible work here and be sure to stay up to date with all our latest news.

You can also find us on social media – we’re on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Elkins Construction Partners With Local Charity Pecan appeared first on Elkins Construction.

For the first of these, Edible Rotherhithe will be working with a group of adult SEN learners to build a food and herb garden on the roof of one of Southwark College’s buildings. The project is being carried out in partnership with the College and Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garett. Not only will the creation and maintenance of the garden offer a fantastic multi-sensory activity for the students, the new garden space will also be a zen area where they can come and relax, providing real benefits to their mental and physical health and wellbeing.

The charity’s second new project is setting up a new gardening club at Dog Kennel Hill Primary School. This will be similar to its gardening project at Surrey Square, where it has been running a weekly food growing and gardening after school club for a number of years. The club will offer children a safe and supportive environment where they can have fun, spend time outdoors and learn about the benefits of growing and cooking their own sustainable produce. Activities are also linked to the curriculum, to provide a practical element to their everyday learning.

Edible Rotherhithe Trustee and Volunteer, Christina Wheatley, said, “We have worked with Elkins for a number of years and are always grateful for their continued support. This generous donation will help us get these two exciting new projects off the ground, which will have a really positive impact on students at the school and college. We look forward to getting started at the beginning of the next academic year in early September.”

Find out more about the work Edible Rotherhithe do here. See more of our work with the charity below.

Keep up to date with all our latest news here and follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

The post Elkins Donation to Support New Edible Rotherhithe Projects appeared first on Elkins Construction.