Work in the community

The small number of charities we support are personally chosen by staff, based on the work each does in the local community. We continue to maintain close relationships with all our local charities providing donations when we can. This year we're delighted to introduce a new charity; I Choose Freedom.

Our chosen charities

Our chosen charities are selected by our staff. Here's a reminder of who they are and what they do.

SeeAbility – Based in Leatherhead, Surrey, SeeAbility provides specialist support, accommodation and eye care help for people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss.

Surrey Young Carers – Offers support to all Surrey's carers, including young carers, adult carers and professionals who work with carers.

Princess Alice Hospice – Has a team of specialist nurses, doctors, therapists, social workers and bereavement volunteers who provide care and support in their hospice in Esher, and also with families in their own home.

Age Concern Epsom – Offers a wide range of services for older residents who live in the borough of Epsom and Ewell.

Epsom and Ewell Foodbank – Founded by local churches and community groups, this project works together towards stopping hunger in our local area.

I Choose Freedom - Is a charity that runs three refuges in Surrey, for women and children fleeing severe domestic abuse.

To date, each of our chosen charities has now received in excess of £5,000 in donations since we first started working with them, but there’s never been a time when they needed help more.

Volunteering and supporting the local community

In 2019, the Society gave every member of staff a ‘volunteer day’, so that they could personally get involved and make a difference to our charities. Our staff took on a wide variety of challenges from digging and planting allotments, to painting walls and ceilings, to packaging up Christmas gifts, and a few even got to play at being Santa, by delivering the gifts door to door.

This year we had hoped to continue with another 'volunteer day', but unfortunately this has not been practical in the current environment, so this will be on hold until government restrictions are eased or lifted.

Environment

Each year, we give all our members the opportunity to share their experience and feedback with us via our Members' questionnaire. For the past seven years we've been partnering with eForests and plant a tree for every 10 questionnaires completed online to help our ambition of reducing our carbon footprint.

To date we have planted 2,865 trees around the UK in community woodlands, nature reserves, community farms and urban areas.

To find out more about the work that eForests do, visit eforests.co.uk