Community: Volunteering
Our firm has a long history of volunteering, and this is a key part of our culture and life at Arthur Cox. Over the past year our volunteering activities have concentrated on reinvigorating our long-term partnerships and expanding the scope of our team volunteering days.
In 2024 we introduced the concept of giving back to the community through team building volunteer days. We have also worked more closely with our three charity partners on volunteering activities – assisting with the provision of volunteers for events and activities when needed. As a result, we can report that our overall number of volunteering hours for FY24/25 has increased 2.7% on the previous year.
Total number of volunteering hours:
Number of staff involved:
Number of volunteering activities:
Volunteering Highlights FY24/25
SPECIAL OLYMPICS
This year we were pleased to re-ignite our group volunteering activity with Special Olympics following a hiatus during the Covid years. To do this, we kicked off a recruitment process for new volunteers in July 2024, when we had the pleasure of welcoming two Special Olympics athletes to the firm for a volunteering information session. Deirdre Nevin and John Butler joined Vikki Geldard, Regional Development Officer for Special Olympics, to talk about their personal experiences of participating in sporting events that really depend on volunteers to ensure their success. The firm has a long tradition of providing a group of volunteers to assist at the Special Olympics swimming event. At the end of November, 20 volunteers travelled to the Watershed Leisure Centre in Kilkenny to manage and volunteer at a day-long event. We were delighted to have such a large group from the firm helping to ensure the day was a success and to bring back this volunteering highlight in the Arthur Cox volunteering calendar.
CHILDREN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION
At the end of 2024 we worked with one of our charity partners, Children’s Health Foundation, on a new seasonal volunteering opportunity for the firm. Our Arthur Cox group of ‘Santa’s Helpers’ travelled to Crumlin Children’s Hospital to assist with Ho Ho Day at the hospital - a very busy day as Santa arrived with lots of gifts and special Late Late Toy Show pjs for all the young patients on the wards
ST VINCENT DE PAUL
The firm was also pleased to volunteer once again this year with St Vincent de Paul in the run up to Christmas 2024. Our volunteers assisted with the task of responding to its many donors who receive letters and cards of appreciation each year.
DAYS OF SERVICE
This year, our team volunteering days, or ‘Days of Service’, successfully expanded our range of activities and impact in the community.
We had five teams from across the firm volunteer with organisations that included Friends of the Elderly, DSPCA and Flossie and the Beach Cleaners.
Not only did these team volunteer days help the charity organisations, but it also built a strong sense of team connection and spirit amongst our people. The opportunity to give back to the community was not only rewarding but also fun!
Education
PRIME WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAMME
Since 2011 we have developed and run our own work experience programme, PRIME (based on the UK initiative under the same name), aimed specifically at second-level students from less fortunate backgrounds. The programme is managed and resourced by Arthur Cox staff who give up their time to make the initiative a success each year. The PRIME programme delivers high-quality work experience to students from communities and backgrounds that would not traditionally have had exposure to a professional services environment, or indeed in some cases an office setting. The aim of the project is to open the eyes of participating students to a world of possibilities that they might not necessarily have dreamed of and to encourage them to stay in and strive for greater success in their education. For the academic year 2024/25, 40 staff volunteers participated in our PRIME work experience programme, involving 33 students from five DEIS schools.
EARLY LEARNING INITIATIVE
We continued our long-term volunteering partnership with The Early Learning Initiative (ELI) at the National College of Ireland in 2024-25. Our volunteers supported various volunteering initiatives during the year, working with young people from Dublin’s Inner City to encourage them on their educational journeys. During the course of this year, 20 of our volunteers supported a range of ELI programmes. These included activities focused on Restorative Practices during "Restorative Justice Week" in November 2024, and they also supported ELI’s Education Guidance programmes, including "Discover University", ‘A Day in the Life’ round table careers event, and acted as judges for ‘Dragons Den’ projects and final project showcase and graduation events.
“We are appreciative of Arthur Cox’s sustainable partnership and significant support and would like to acknowledge your role in expanding ELI from 400 participants in 2008 to over 19,000 in 2024. Arthur Cox has supported vulnerable children and young people in Dublin's inner city to develop key language, literacy and social skills, and to believe in the value of education. Your support changes lives and empowers communities, using education to level the playing field for children and families. Thank you again.”
Dr Josphine Bleach, Director, The Early Learning Initiative