Q2s mission is centered around supporting and building strong and diverse communities. And we purposefully design our approach for global CSR activity to support the causes local to office locations.
With this in mind, earlier this summer the Q2 EMEA team (working with a London-based children’s charity, The Childhood Trust) helped to upgrade a local adventure playground for inner city children to meet and play together. The Childhood Trust, alongside London Play, organises corporate event days, such as the one we organised, to preserve and renovate adventure playgrounds, providing access to supervised outdoor activities for underprivileged children.
We spent the day working hard, digging and constructing play areas to ensure Horniman’s adventure playground can stay open for years to come. Around 700,000 children in London live in poverty, places like Horniman’s provide safe, free spaces where these children can play and socialise together. The adventure playground also runs activities such as fire building, animal care, and gardening to enrich the children's lives, giving them the chance to learn new skills that they might not have the opportunity to otherwise. Places like this can only stay open with the support of volunteers and corporate sponsorship. It was definitely hard work with plenty of physical labour and teamwork to get things done, but we had fun working together as a team.
Post COVID and the new hybrid work environment mean it has been difficult to have everyone in the office at once, but most of the EMEA team were able to get together for this event. I feel privileged to be able to take part in this important day only a few weeks after joining the company as an intern. In fact, during my short tenure at Q2, I have been a part of many CSR events such as supporting Dell Children’s Hospital, creating Birthday cards and March of Dimes by knitting hats for the babies in the NICU. It’s genuinely amazing to see Q2’s dedication to supporting their people and their local communities in action.
Through CSR days, like the one the EMEA team just did and Q2 Spark – (our CSR program designed to ignite a community of philanthropists) Q2 employees who are passionate about making a difference, are able to participate in activities that positively impact local communities too!
It’s been great to be part of a company and culture that flourishes on giving back.