With the launch of the Ghyston Foundation, we’ve been able to better focus our CSR efforts into the areas where we can have the most impact. This means that this year, for the first time, we have not one, but two charities of the year!
The first is a Community Partner – a charity that’s making a difference here in Bristol. This year we’re partnering with Bristol North West Foodbank. With the cost of living continuing to soar, Ghyston employees overwhelmingly voted to support the local foodbank, which is providing front-line support to those in Bristol who are struggling to meet their most basic needs at the moment.
We’ve already set up a foodbank collection point in the office, and there are lots of other exciting things in the pipeline, from volunteering opportunities, to website enhancement work.
Each week we will be sending round a list of the foodbanks needs for the week, in order to ensure we're helping out in the best way possible.
Our second charity of the year is a Vision Partner – an organisation doing work that aligns with our values. This year we’ve chosen Codebar Bristol, the local branch of a charity supporting people from underrepresented demographics to get into coding. Codebar hold monthly meetups in Bristol, where “students” (adults wanting to learn coding) are paired with “coaches” (experienced developers) for an evening of self-directed learning – and pizza!
A few Ghyston devs have been volunteering as coaches at Codebar for a while, so it’s great to kick off a more formal partnership. This also fits well with Ghyston’s recent push in tech outreach and improving equality, diversity and inclusion both within Ghyston and more widely in the Bristol tech scene.
In February, we sponsored and hosted our first Codebar evening here in our office, and we’re hoping to partner with Codebar Bristol on lots more events throughout the year. Watch this space!
