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Side by Side, Peterborough’s Corporate Social Responsibility network, has organised a week of volunteering with local businesses to help city charities and not for profit community projects. Support was offered from a range of Peterborough companies including Thomas Cook, Perkins and Enterprise, as well as a number of sole traders, and their help benefited three local projects Railworld, New Ark adventure playground and Peterborough’s Foodbank.

Peterborough’s CSR week coincided with national ‘pro-bono week’ which took place earlier this month, and included two days of volunteering per project, with a collection of food produce running through the full week for Foodbank.

In total 13 different companies contributed to the Side by Side CSR week, with more than 25 volunteers taking part. Contributions were varied and at Railworld involved building fully functioning bird boxes for their wildlife haven, and at New Ark, digging out and relaying the ground under a zip-wire to create a safe play area for the children. Companies that couldn’t offer time support kindly donated through food collections for the Foodbank project.

Neil Darwin, chief executive of Opportunity Peterborough the city’s economic development company responsible for coordinating the Side by Side network, said: “Side by Side, which was launched in May 2012, aims to bring together Peterborough’s charitable organisations and projects and match their need for support with the much appreciated goodwill already offered by local companies. Since then, lots of great work has gone on but this week of CSR activity helped to raise the profile of the network and boost the level of support even further.”

Brian Pearce, Chair of the Railworld Centre and Wildlife Haven trustees, said: “I had a truly enjoyable 2 days and we got so much done. I really appreciate the support that was provided to us.”

Find out more about Side by Side at www.sidebysidecsr.co.uk