College Diversity Group redecorates community centre

Team building exercise benefits the local area - News

Thursday 2 August 2007
By Naomi Weston

A community centre in Brixton set up to provide educational and recreational activities for female refugees and asylum seekers, has been redecorated by some of the Staff Development Team at Imperial College London.

Christine Yates, Subo Shanmuganathan, Rose Brown, Kalpna Mistry, and Kani Kamara, all took part in the College Diversity Group Team Challenge on Wednesday 25 July. Organised by the College Volunteer Centre, the team helped paint the skirting boards, write endorsements and the mission statement for the Baytree Community Centre. In addition they wrote welcome signs in different languages and helped frame and hang up pictures.

The challenge brought the team together and enabled them to work together in a different environment, according to Christine Yates, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Consultant. She explained: "We are a very close-knit team and it was lovely to be able to contribute our efforts in this way. We discovered the ex-academic amongst us, Subo, had the best handwriting; Rose was the ultimate painting professional; Kani and Kalpna used their improvisation skills to trim and frame certificates and pictures whilst also supervising painting operations, while I discovered the joys of spray-painting and a renewed ambition to visit the DIY shop."

Teena Ollington, the Volunteer Centre Coordinator who helps to arrange the Team Challenges, said: "The team did a fantastic job of revamping the entrance area to the Baytree Community Centre, working alongside a young person from the centre who had offered to give them a hand. Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun judging from the amount of laughter during the day!"

Christine added: "It was inspiring to learn that the Centre was started by female volunteers. It was wonderful being able to play a small part in such a valuable project and see first-hand a community project aimed at providing learning, training, and social inclusion skills."

The Volunteer Centre offers a range of team challenges for staff wanting an alternative team building day that also benefits the local community, and would encourage anyone who is interested in taking part to get in touch: volunteering@imperial.ac.uk