Blog. Spotlight on: Umbrella Training
May 18, 2021 | Author Giuliana Vittiglio
Charity partnerships are the beating heart of our fundraising programme - the benefits are endless. They help to raise crucial funds to support the industry, raise important awareness for our cause, create a sense of engagement and community, and play an important role in employee wellbeing. One such partnership is our collaborative work with Umbrella Training, the leading nationwide training and apprenticeship provider specialising in delivering meaningful apprenticeships to the hospitality industry.
We caught up with the team at Umbrella Training, sponsors of our forthcoming virtual #HellandBack challenge, to find out what our charitable partnership means to them:
"At Umbrella, we don’t look at our fundraising activities with Hospitality Action as us doing our bit for ‘charity’, we see it as an integral part of our collective commitment to a sector we are incredibly proud of.
Hospitality Action goes beyond charity. It is a force that binds so many of us together and reminds us of the important role we can play in supporting the underlying ‘hospitable’ message within our industry, and of our duty of care.
That’s why we have worked with them across a number of years through a range of activities. These include:
The Purple Umbrella Awards
Each year we celebrate the achievements of our apprentices by hosting the fabulous Purple Umbrella Awards; it is an opportunity for us to recognise the amazing work that our learners do at some of the most outstanding hospitality businesses across the country.
We make it our aim to raise funds for Hospitality Action on the night and to increase awareness of the fantastic work they do. We will be back with a bang this year on 3rd September at the Savoy and will once again be highlighting the positive impact they have had to those that have needed support during the pandemic.
Fundraising
We love a fundraiser at Umbrella and, last summer, the team clocked up the miles as part of The 20,000 Mile Hospitality Challenge. In December, we also invited people to donate towards the Invisible Chips campaign during our Christmas Special ‘When Harry Met Sally’ - a filmed discussion with Hospitality Superheroes Harry Murray MBE, Chairman of Lucknam Park and Sally Beck, General Manager of Royal Lancaster London and Hotelier of the year.
This year we are coming back even stronger and sponsoring the 30,000 Miles To Hell and Back Challenge. To contribute, we will be encouraging our team to step away from their desks and move their bodies to hit our target of 642miles over the week. We have actually mapped out a virtual journey from our southernmost business partner location, travelling up through England, stopping off at several of our client’s sites before landing at the home of our northernmost client’s premises.
Team Umbrella have become true desk dwellers over the past 12 months so we know that this will be one HELL OF A CHALLENGE for us!
Kickstart Scheme
As a Kickstart Scheme gateway, we are helping businesses access government funding to aid with the UK’s recovery and hospitality’s staffing crisis created by the pandemic. As part of this, we are supporting businesses in the creation of new jobs for young people.
We set up with the desire to take away the administrative burden from employers and simplify the process, with a particular focus on hospitality businesses who have been hard hit by COVID. We also wanted to use the scheme to generate funds for charity, therefore we have pledged £10 to Hospitality Action for every successful placement.
We want all businesses of all sizes to take part in the scheme and hope to raise £10,000 in the process!
Our Ambassador
We are thrilled to have an ambassador in our midst, our CEO and founder Adele Oxberry, sees it as a real privilege to represent Hospitality Action as an Ambassador. In her own words: “The charity assists thousands of hospitality people each year, financially and emotionally and I'm proud to be working with them to help countless others as we come out of the pandemic and get the industry back on its feet."
Many thanks to all at Umbrella Training for your longstanding support, we wouldn't be able to help so many if it wasn't for you and we can't wait to travel to #HellandBack with you next month!
If you'd like to work alongside us and add Hospitality Action to your CSR objectives please get in touch.
