This new initiative aims to help college staff connect with their local communities and collectively generate £1m of social value.

Crucially, the establishment of a sustainable programme of community action across the UK will also support the wellbeing of staff – as helping others has been scientifically proven to have a positive impact on mental health.

The two strands of this new initiative are:

Encouraging volunteering activity within and outside each college community, harnessing the huge amount of work already being undertaken by staff for good causes and encouraging others to get involved.

Developing corporate and charitable partnerships to help sustain a longer-term vision and impact.

The impact of the campaign will be measured in monetary terms via London South East Colleges’ social value calculator . This system has been developed using the National TOMS framework, independently verified by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and the Social Value Portal (link).

Other key performance indicators, including the number of food items and the amount of volunteering hours are also being captured to highlight the full impact – see [Link]