Informa Team Build

Informa

4th November 2009

INFORMA OFFICE STAFF HELP BUILD HOMES IN LIVERPOOL

A TEAM from Informa, officially one of Britain's best companies to work for, has been putting its teamwork credentials to the test during a volunteer build for housing charity, Liverpool Habitat for Humanity.

Informa

Informa plc, the leading international provider of specialist information and services for the academic and scientific, professional and commercial business communities, has participated in the independently verified ‘Britain's Top Employers' project for the last two years. Indeed, in the 2009 report, Informa's biggest plus was said to be the fact that it was a "company full of fantastic team players".

A group of six of those team players came together from a number of subsidiary companies at Liverpool Habitat for Humanity's ground-breaking site in Granby-Toxteth, to help build 32 new homes that are targeted at low income families.

Would-be home partners must invest up to 500 hours of ‘sweat equity', physically helping to build their future home, instead of a £10,000 cash deposit. They work alongside other home partners and volunteers, including individuals, students, church and community groups, plus corporate volunteers like the Informa crew.

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Informa has over 150 offices in more than 43 countries and employs 8,500 staff around the world; it is the largest publicly owned organiser of conferences and courses in the world, with an output of over 8,500 events annually. Informa is giving every one of its employees worldwide a day off work to volunteer as part of its ‘Be Involved CSR' initiative, although on this occasion the employees gave up a Saturday to support LHFH.

The impetus for this group to volunteer with LHFH came from Tanya Laird, who works for Datamonitor, one of the Informa group companies. Having previously worked in the Habitat for Humanity Great Britain office as part of the marketing team, she knew about the organisation's struggle for domestic rather than international volunteers.

Tanya said: "I decided to ask around at Informa to see if anyone wanted to go to Liverpool and help build on site. I did this for a number of reasons - I was new to the company and this was a good way to meet a wide cross section of people; Informa are passionate about their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and I knew that Liverpool Habitat for Humanity were in desperate need of on-site volunteers."

Among those who took part was Pri Adhikari, from Datamonitor, in Manchester, who said later: "It was an excellent day. I had been planning to do some volunteering and I am so glad that my first taste of volunteering was with Liverpool Habitat for Humanity. It was an excellent day out and what is even better is that the people running the show and home owners were amazing, so it was enthralling to be there.

"The results of our (previously) untrained efforts were there for us to see straight away and now I can do any amount of "cladding". It was very well organised and everyone on the LHFH team was generous, warm and truly believed in what they were doing."

For more information about volunteering for Liverpool Habitat for Humanity, whether as part of a corporate group or as an individual, call 0151 707 9440 or visit www.liverpoolhfh.co.uk.

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Captions:

1. Emeka Obiodu from Ovum
2. Matthew McCann, of T&F Journals
3. Vikki Rose (left), from T&F Journals, and Adora Egenti, Informa group technology

Editor's notes:
Liverpool Habitat for Humanity is building 32 homes for partner families on just over two acres of land generously donated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, on Kingsley Road, in Granby/Toxteth. The project has also received significant funding from NewHeartlands, the Housing Market Renewal Initiative (HMRI) on Merseyside.

To date, Habitat for Humanity International has built over 300,000 homes and operates in over 92 countries. The Granby/Toxteth site is the first such project in the Northwest and the largest in Britain at a cost of circa £1.9 million.

The Habitat for Humanity model - including the distinct "sweat equity" component - enables families traditionally excluded from home ownership the opportunity to own an affordable home. LHFH is offering these affordable homes on a ‘shared equity' basis.

LHFH has a comprehensive procedure for selecting families. There are three main criteria for qualification: to have a strong connection with Liverpool (eg. live and /or work in the city); to be willing to partner with LHFH to put 500 hours of "sweat equity" into building on the project and to have an income between £10 - £20k. Applicants who live, work or have a strong connection with the Liverpool 8 postcode area will be preferred.

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Issued for & on behalf of Liverpool Habitat for Humanity by Active PR. Press information from Linda Bright / Rachael Davies, tel: 0151 236 2120 / 0771 002 0026 - email linda@activepr.co.uk
Ref: apr2008/liverpoolhfh/releases/informa1709lb