‘I know how rewarding it is to support something close to your heart’
‘IT’S FANTASTIC TO BE ABLE TO SAY YOUR GRANT APPLICATION WAS SUCCESSFUL’: Anna Harvatt. Picture by Neil Holmes Photography
Hull-based safety supplier Arco donates one per cent of its pre-tax profits to charity every year. Simon Bristow spoke to Community Engagement Manager Anna Harvatt to find out more about the good causes that funding supports
In a market-leading company that employs 1,600 people across the UK and more in China, it’s quite something to say you’ve got “the best job” of them all.
That is how Anna Harvatt describes her role as Community Engagement Manager at Arco.
But when you learn what it entails - overseeing its volunteering programme, its community and charitable work, and helping to build new lives for victims of modern-day slavery – you begin to understand where Anna’s passion and enthusiasm comes from.
In addition to its core purpose of keeping people safe at work, the Hull-based safety supplier is committed as a matter of policy to giving back to the communities it serves, donating annually one per cent of its pre-tax profits to charity, which last year was a very handsome pot of about £100,000.
The bulk of the awards are delivered by the Arco Community Panel, which Anna chairs and which is now in its 19th year.
ATTAINMENT: Students being presented with their scholarship certificates in ceremony at Datian No.1 Middle School in Xiamen, China. Arco has supported 1,364 students since launching its Hard Work and Enterprise Scholarship
The 12-member panel was established by the Martin family, which runs Arco, but is independent of it, with grant-making decisions taken by colleagues from around the business, who sit on the panel for two years. Members make a commitment to attend quarterly meetings and also get additional volunteering days to be able to go to see projects they support. The panel meets to consider internal and external applications for support.
“It’s absolutely fantastic to be able to ring a colleague and say your grant application has been successful because they get to go to the charity or community group personally and tell them,” Anna said.
“I walked out of the meeting on Thursday onto the floor, saw two colleagues and was able to say your grant was successful. They get to go and give that good news to the charity and that means something to them. And that grant can be a real boost to some organisations. It’s just a nice way of giving support to communities all over the UK.”
Elsewhere, in support of the community around its office in Xiamen, China, Arco has supported 1,364 students since launching its Hard Work and Enterprise Scholarship, which celebrates achieving educational targets and a positive attitude towards learning. The initiative forms part of Arco's commitment to providing a sustainable teaching community for the people and families working in and around its offices, whether in the UK or further afield.
In Hull last year, the panel awarded a £5,000 grant to children’s literacy charity Ready, Steady, Read to help it restart its activities after the Covid-19 pandemic. The charity works with Hull primary schools to help identify children whose reading is falling behind, and supplies reading mentors to provide one-to-one support to children to help them gain an age-appropriate reading level.
‘OUR COLLEAGUES KNOW WHAT THEIR COMMUNITY NEEDS MORE THAN ANYBODY’: Anna Harvatt. Picture by Neil Holmes Photography
Anna said: “Lockdown completely changed the way they engage with schools. Children who need support the most might not get that outside of school, and literacy impacts on other subjects and areas of their life. The charity had continued to work remotely and we funded their reading scheme for returning to school.”
The Arco Community Panel also considers colleague grants of up to £500 for projects staff are personally connected to or involved in. Examples of this include the funding of a team-building exercise for a girls’ football team in Cottingham, who went to Welton Waters to bond as a team; the funding of a defibrillator at a primary school in York; and a grant to support a school library in the East Riding.
“They could be really small projects like that,” said Anna. “It gives colleagues the opportunity to help the community groups and charities that mean most to them. Because we are based around the UK, we are not the centre of everybody’s community; they are. They know what their community needs are more than anybody. And small pots are hard to come by.”
Arco also provides charitable match-funding for colleagues up to the value of £500, which could support anything from a book sale in the office to running a marathon. This is something Anna has been able to access on two issues close to her heart.
She held a sponsored silence for the Motor Neurone Disease Association after her father was diagnosed with the condition. Anna pledged to stay silent for 12 hours on a workday, which was quite a task, she said, “with quite senior colleagues coming to try to talk to me”.
To help her cause she placed signs in the office and had a T-shirt printed announcing the feat, as well as being supported by her immediate colleagues. “My team were amazing, anticipating people trying to talk to me,” Anna said. She raised £1,100, with the company giving her £500 of that.
POSITIVE IMPACT: Arco volunteers at Pickering Park in Hull
Anna said: “Motor Neurone’s Disease can affect your voice box and diaphragm and your vocal cords. Not being able to say ‘I love you’ to your child or ‘please can you help me’ is a really difficult dynamic for people suffering Motor Neurone Disease.
“We were incredibly lucky with Dad; he didn’t lose his ability to speak but he passed away ten days after diagnosis, and the support we received was palliative. But for those people who are diagnosed early, the physical limitations are one thing but there are other limitations; to be able to feed yourself and swallow and be able to speak.
“Rob Burrows, the Rugby League player with Leeds Rhinos, was able to use an emerging technology so he could still talk to his children. The money I raised funded an app people can have access to so they can talk to their loved ones and medical professionals.”
She added: “For me personally, it was the business giving back to me; that means something to me. It brought our community programme to life and that’s what it’s about.”
Anna was also among a number of Arco employees who ran the Hull 10k last month for good causes. She raised over £2,000 for the Leeds Hospitals Charity as a way of saying thank you to staff on Ward 52 at Leeds General Infirmary for the support they have given a two-year-old boy called Roux, to whom Anna is an “honorary aunty”. Roux had been diagnosed with a brain tumour aged just four weeks and needs ongoing support. Arco runners raised £5,000 for various charities during the Hull 10k.
‘OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH YORKSHIRE AIR AMBULANCE BRINGS EXPERTS IN SAFETY TOGETHER’: Anna Harvatt. Picture by Neil Holmes Photography
In addition to financial support, another way Arco gives back to the community is by providing staff with two days of paid leave each year for volunteering. For example, anyone enjoying the sensory garden at Pickering Park in Hull this summer will see the results of an 11-strong group of Arco volunteers who spent time gardening and carrying out general maintenance at the site in May.
Another big community contribution from Arco is the significant and ongoing support it gives to Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) as part of a long-standing partnership. The air ambulance is an independent charity, with the only resources it receives from the NHS being the paramedics seconded to it. It requires £12,000 a day to operate.
Anna said: “We are about keeping people safe and making sure families go home safely at the end of the working day, and by supporting Yorkshire Air Ambulance we are helping families across Yorkshire get urgent medical care, and hopefully to get home safely to their families.
“Arco gives them £20,000 a year, £5,000 worth of clothing and products, and product support. We give them a budget to be able to buy products from us. We also supported their volunteers when they did the Tour De Yorkshire [cycling event].
“Our total contribution since the partnership began nearly ten years ago is £300,000. That for me is one of the partnerships that brings experts in safety together. They are the experts in what they do and obviously Yorkshire is a large area and we’ve got a number of locations in the region.”
She added: “I get goose bumps every time I hear the helicopter go over my house or see it on TV, and to think we are helping an amazing team and charity do what they do best.”
IMPROVING CHILDREN’S LITERACY: From left, Joanne Walker, founder of Ready, Steady, Read; Anna Harvatt, community engagement manager at Arco; and Rachel Weeks, trustee at Ready, Steady, Read
Arco is also a member of Bright Future, a charity which supports victims of modern-day slavery and provides safe work placements for survivors through its City Hearts initiative.
“Many modern slavery survivors struggle to find employment because they’re vulnerable and may lack a history of official employment. The Bright Future programme gives an individual the opportunity to gain valuable work experience,” Anna said.
“The charity works directly with our HR colleagues to ensure the confidentiality of the candidate is maintained. This also ensures that the individual receives the same experience as all other new colleagues; and their safety is maintained.
“I speak with the charity every month and make sure we are doing everything we can to place candidates. Through our ethical trading practices, we work hard to ensure there is no slavery in our supply chain. It's only fitting that we do what we can to support survivors and it fits with our core purpose of making the world a safer place.”
Another way in which Arco works with partners to benefit the community is through meeting the social value requirements of customers, such as NHS Scotland. As part of that, Arco has funded two roles at national charity Action for Children and one in Ayrshire Cancer Support.
‘BEING ABLE TO SEE THE IMPACT ON THE PEOPLE YOU SUPPORT IS A REAL PRIVILEGE’: Anna Harvatt. Picture by Neil Holmes Photography
Anna is now in her ninth year at Arco and has been in her current role since the post was created a year ago. Nothing else has given her such job satisfaction, she said.
“I’ve got the best job at Arco,” she said. “I get to help and support colleagues give back to their communities and what matters to them, and I know how rewarding giving back to something you are passionate about is.
“When you’re a large employer and help some of the smaller charities, the fact you’ve helped them gives them confidence; that someone of your size believes in them and wants to help them because they’re having an amazing impact.
“I’ve been on the receiving end of Arco supporting me, and I’m given the time to get out and give back to the things that matter to me. Being able to see the impact of what you do on people, charities and communities is a true privilege.”
Anna is currently looking to revitalise the company’s volunteering programme after the restrictions placed on it by the pandemic. Any outside organisation with volunteering opportunities to offer, can email: volunteering@arco.co.uk