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The community

The community

We play an active role in the local communities where we operate, not only in business but also in community life, and take our responsibilities towards the community seriously.

We aim to improve access to legal services, support charitable activities that add high levels of value through volunteering and the provision of our expertise.


Charity of the year

Each year, staff choose a Charity of the Year for the firm to support through various fundraising activities and staff volunteering.

Between 2019 and 2022 the firm’s charity of the year was The Prince’s Trust. In May 2022, each office chose a local charity to support, with a theme of mental wellbeing. These were:

  • Bristol - Off the Record, a mental health social movement by and for young people aged 11-25

  • London - Samaritans, a charity providing support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide

  • Birmingham - Birmingham Mind, working with individuals with mental health needs so that they are in control of their own lives

  • Watford - Electric Umbrella, a charity that creates amazing, live interactive music experiences delivered by disabled people

Previous Charities of the Year have included Ronald McDonald House, Bristol, Home-Start, WAITS, The Haven, Peace Hospice Care, the Julian Trust Night Shelter, St Basils, Bristol Children's Help Society, The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, the Rainbow Centre, Avon Outward Bound, MusicSpace, Windmill Hill City Farm, Sailability, St Peter's Hospice, BRACE and St Mungo's Broadway.


VWV Charitable Trust

VWV has its own charitable trust,  the VWV Charitable Trust, which makes regular grants to regionally based charities and provides substantial financial support to our Charities of the Year.

In addition, the Trust also donates funds to Quartet, a charity which manages funds on behalf of individuals, companies, charitable trusts and statutory agencies primarily to meet needs in the West of England.


Volunteering

Staff are encouraged to engage in community support work and projects both during office hours and outside. We do this by granting extra holidays for days spent on worthwhile causes whilst at work and advertising widely the activities. We also match-fund any amounts produced as a result.

A few examples of staff volunteering include:

  • taking part in The Prince's Trust's 'Future Steps' challenge and raising over £18,000
  • helping gather over 800kg of urgent food supplies for Watford Foodbank
  • supporting the 'Permission to Smile' campaign in Birmingham, encouraging positivity in the local community
  • Victoria King cycling 100 miles and raising £5,000 for Home-Start Watford & Three Rivers
  • our HR team cooking dinner for 50 families of critically ill children at Ronald McDonald House
  • hosting The Great VWV Bake Off in our Bristol office, with all proceeds going to our charity of the year
  • abseiling down St Mary's Church in Watford and raising £713.50 for Home-Start Watford and Three Rivers
  • sponsoring well-known Bristol art trails such as Shaun in the City and Gromit Unleashed

In addition, many of our employees mentor students from local schools, colleges and universities.


Pro bono work and 'In-Kind' support

We offer free pro-bono advice to organisations and projects that support the local community, such as law clinics and universities. For example, our Corporate Law team works with the University of Bristol as part of their New Enterprise Competition.

We offer free meeting space to a number of charities, including:

  • Voscur, which provides direct support services and specialist advice to voluntary organisations and social enterprises across Bristol.
  • One25, a Bristol charity which reaches out to women trapped in, or vulnerable to, street sex work, supporting them to break free and build new lives away from violence, poverty and addiction.
  • Square Food Foundation, a community cookery school and kitchen, based in Knowle West, that teach people from all walks of life to cook good food from scratch.
  • SARSAS, a charity that provides support to people who have experienced rape or any kind of sexual assault or abuse at any time in their lives.

As part of the relocation of our Bristol office to Narrow Quay House in November 2015, we donated office equipment and furniture to international charity Meningitis Research Foundation. 

In 2022, we also donated IT equipment to Norton Hill School and other schools across the Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership.


CSR committee

Members of our CSR committee work hard to organise a range of volunteering events and opportunities throughout the year. For example, in 2018, 'Partner Pandemonium' saw a number of our Partners facing jungle-themed challenges in aid of Ronald McDonald House Bristol.

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Compliance

The firm has compliance procedures in place to ensure that all its charity work is documented and recorded, and to prevent conflicts of interest between the provision of advisory services and voluntary activities.