Volunteers Make Chatter Matter

Last weekend at the Baby Show in Manchester, eight Openreach people, including volunteers from our engineering community, helped to run a stand and distribute educational resources on behalf of I CAN and Openreach.

For the first two years of our relationship with children’s charity I CAN we focused on developing two important educational resources aimed at pre-school aged children.  Having completed that phase, we are now running a series of roadshows to distribute the resources and to spread important messages about small children’s communication development to parents, child minders and other child care professionals.

This was the first time the Baby Show had been held in Manchester and it proved to be hugely successful for us. With our bright and engaging stand we attracted roughly 3000 visitors over the three day period (14th to 16th November) and gave away equal numbers of resource bags.  The bags were packed with our fantastic Chatter Matter DVD and Ready, Steady, Talk resources as well as an Openreach Ollie story book, colouring sheets, stickers and other information.  Also on the stand was a giant Wall of Words built high over the three days by children and adults alike.

Being at the show was part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.  As well as making a real difference to families in the UK, the programme helps to build trust and familiarity for Openreach in the community. This in turn helps us serve our Communications Provider customers better.

“We initially chose to sponsor I CAN because we both share a passion for supporting communication development in the UK,” said Caroline Hughes, who leads Openreach’s Brand and CSR programme.  “Research shows that young children who build strong communication skills early in life are better equipped to learn and socialise when they reach school age – just as a robust infrastructure enables the communications industry in general to flourish”.

“We talked virtually non stop to an endless stream of parents, grandparents and parents-to-be who were keen to find out more about children’s speech, language and communication development. 

“Of the 3000 visitors to the stand over 900 of them agreed to participate in research over the next few weeks.  Many were also very pleased to see Openreach supporting such a good cause and really understood the connection. The research that follows will help us to fine tune the roadshows, build on the success and ensure that our CSR programme continues to contribute positively to the awareness and perception of Openreach”.

Eight Openreach people volunteered on the Baby Show stand over the three day period - including five from our engineering community.

I CAN was also pleased with the event and has even sent a letter of thanks to each of the Openreach volunteers.

“We are delighted that the I CAN and Openreach stand at the Baby Show was so popular. We will have made a huge impact on visitors and raised awareness about the fundamental importance of communication as a life skill − one of the key things that our partnership is trying to achieve together,” said Virginia Beardshaw, Chief Executive, I CAN.