Welcome to City Gateway's Website.
We provide training and events for young people and women in the Borough of Tower Hamlets working in partnership with a range of other organisations and firms.
Looking to get qualifications or build confidence? Young People Click Here, Women Click Here to find out what we offer.
We provide training and events for young people and women in the Borough of Tower Hamlets working in partnership with a range of other organisations and firms.
Looking to get qualifications or build confidence? Young People Click Here, Women Click Here to find out what we offer.
Volunteering
Opportunities for Individual Volunteering:
Volunteering is a powerful tool that enables us to extend the reach of our work far beyond the limitations of our own staff team and also provides valuable new experiences and development opportunities for the individuals involved.
We welcome volunteers across our projects in anything from one off roles or intensive volunteering projects to regularly weekly engagements. We aim to make the best use of the skills & passions individuals have, rather than treating them simply as an extra pair of hands.
Individuals have previously led sessions on our courses, provided staff training & mentoring, helped our core admin & marketing team, helped out at our youth centre and get involved in a wide range of different ways across the organisation.
Team Volunteering:
We understand that businesses often prefer to concentrate their charitable enagement around one-off team-building days and we are happy to discuss ways of using these to have a lasting impact on our work. A group of volunteers can provide close personal involvement with our beneficiaries ans are a valuable resource to help tackle large challenges at our centres.
Past opportunities have included group trips to sites across London, gardening & decorating projects, business planning exercises, one-off events and training workshops. We've succesfully linked in with established mass enaggement schemes, worked through mediatory companies and even helped firms pioneer new volunteering policies.
'I hope the young people found the bowling day enjoyable and have stuck to the Enagge course! I know the team at GS found the day very fun and rewarding'
Alexander May - Goldman Sachs Community Teamworks Day
'The time at City Gateway has been a great opportunity to put our business skills into practice and to help develop their social enterprises and expand their community work'
Arun Dhar - Deutsche Bank Management Graduate
Supporting Our Courses
Our core training courses are key opportunities where our work most benefits from corporate engagement. Nothing has more impact in helping those we work with aim higher in their own lives than meeting others who've worked their way up and beign treated with respect by senior corporate representatives.
Giving women or young people a tour of your offices
Groups of about a dozen on an 'Insight Tour' - meeting with staff from across all levels of your organisation and having a look at the entry-level positions which make large corporations tick over. These are an easy way for staff to give up just an hour or two of their time and for our service users to be exposed to the professional environment in a non-threatening way.
Your staff running an employability session
A small group of your staff running a workshop on interview techniques, professionalism, CV writing, and other employability skills. The workshops are good opportunities for one-on-one engagement, working through CVs and putting on mock interviews, either face to face or over the phone.
Hosting a course launch or graduation
The start and finish of a course presents a good opportunity for enjoyable team engagement and one on one contact with our women and young people. Course launches typically involve a workshop in the morning and then an outing in the afternoon, whilst graduations feature a hosted presentation and celebratory lunch.
Teaching on our courses
Many of our courses, especially those at our women's project, can benefit hugely from extra hands in teaching classes. Our IT and admin classes are taught by our tutors but volunteers can fit seemlessly into the sessions as extra one-on-one support.
Mentoring
We have found that, with the women and young people we target, mentoring is only usually effective when it is targetted and well planned. We are currently introducing a mentoring scheme connected into our apprenticeship scheme - in as few as 3 mentoring sessions young people will talk about their interests, work through their CVs, look for positions they are interested in and apply for jobs.
We are using mentoring both to smooth entry into the apprenticeship scheme and into placements and then ultimately to try and help young people progress at the end of their time with us.
E-mail volunteer@citygateway.org.uk to express your interest and find out more!
Volunteering 10 minutes from your office:
In celebrating its 10th Anniversary City Gateway launched a new initiative to encourage businesses, office workers and local residents to get involved in a range of opportunities accessible in just 10 minutes from Canary Wharf or the City.
Read about Sir Ian McKellen's visit to launch the new volunteering scheme.
The scheme provides opportunities for lunchtime or after-work volunteering as well as possibilities for half day team building projects or even volunteering at your own desk, in your own office.
With a youth centre by Westferry DLR and a Women's Project near All Saints DLR there's also something for everyone, whether that be helping out with women's 'Literacy Lunches', joining a 'Homework Club' or getting your hands dirty painting and gardening. City Gateway also runs a Social Enterprise hub and youth training facility on the Edge of the City near Aldgate and Liverpool Street.
Volunteering can be a great way of developing new skills or building a team whilst also giving something back to the community and we're dedicated to breaking down the barriers that exist in Tower Hamlets today.
E-mail volunteer@citygateway.org.uk to express your interest and find out more!