Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility or Not for Profit / Pro Bono Programmes

Summary of work

DePaul is the largest charity for young homeless people in the UK, helping over 5,000 young people every year to find a place they can call home. But providing shelter is only half the battle.

This vulnerable group often has multiple health needs yet lacks the confidence and sense of purpose to seek care.

It’s been shown that participating in meaningful activities can improve people’s mental and physical health as well as their sense of well-being. As part of its wider global Young Health Programme, helping young people in need, AstraZeneca has partnered with DePaul to engage young people in a Meaningful Activities Programme.

Three Activity Programme Coordinator roles were created within DePaul and together with AstraZeneca and Hive Health, a Meaningful Activities toolkit was developed to ensure that the new staff had everything they need to get the programme off the ground.

The toolkit included information on the value of meaningful activities, guidance on identifying appropriate suppliers/volunteers as well as capturing outcomes within an existing framework.

With direct input from a group of young homeless people, the toolkit also provided materials for publicising the programme as well as a range of materials for those participating in the activities.

Judges comments

Simple well-executed programme in an unsual space, this was a particularly innovative example of CSR, with excellent use made of co-creation in a hard-to-reach group, through work that was underpined by valuable research and a great ongoing, sustainable corporate relationship with pharma.