Voor Elkaar
First year of Achmea Voor Elkaar
At the start of January 2019 we launched Voor Elkaar (for each other) at Achmea. This is a platform that allows employees to sign up for voluntary work or even start their own voluntary project. It’s a kind of online marketplace for good causes and voluntary work. This year 592 employees made a social contribution through the platform.
On 14 January the Non-Life & Income Protection division became the first to join the platform. In mid-September, the divisions Achmea Bank, Interpolis and Pension & Life joined as well. With all these divisions on board, the platform’s reach is now 5,500 employees. In the first quarter of 2020 Zilveren Kruis joined too.
Voluntary work as a team day out
The platform is certainly popular with teams wishing to organise a team day out with a socially beneficial purpose. Many teams have chosen to do voluntary work at a nursing home. There are lots of tasks to be done there: tidying up the garden, painting or taking residents for a walk. Some teams have decided to do voluntary work that is aligned with their own expertise. For example, Creative Services worked on organising a tasting session for civil-society organisations and consciously applied the outcomes of the Real Drives in doing so. Division chairman Frans van der Ent decided that he and his team would do voluntary work at a nursing home for patients with chronic psychiatric problems. The team helped out with the bingo.
‘It’s heartwarming to see the smiles on the residents’ faces,’ Frans said, looking back on the afternoon. ‘You offer them some warmth, human contact and attention. Due to their chronic psychiatric problems, these people have a really tough time. Bingo afternoon is something they look forward to. We’re grateful that we were able to make this contribution. What I’ll remember most, is that it’s more fun and easier than you would expect. And the appreciation you get is more than you expect too. I found it moving and so did the whole team.’
Popularity of mentoring or guest teacher role
Individual employees make a wider range of choices when it comes to voluntary work. But three categories are especially popular: working with children, mentoring, or taking on the role of guest teacher. Some examples of working with children would be organising a party for children who have grown up in poverty, or arranging a dream day-out for a child who has been through a traumatic experience. Stichting LEF is an organisation that offers opportunities for guest teacher roles. Guest teachers can help to financially empower pupils at vocational secondary schools. Giving Back offers mentoring opportunities.
Mohamed Foujay recently began mentoring a pupil in their fourth year at a ‘HAVO’ general secondary school.
The pupils who benefit from this programme don’t always have someone at home to set them a good example. Many of them lack someone to guide them in this important year before their exam year. Mentoring can also extend beyond educational subjects. The pupil may simply want to talk about something that they don’t feel comfortable discussing with their parents. Mohamed says: ‘I’ve seen this myself at first hand: friends who had the potential to get a general secondary or pre-university diploma (HAVO/VWO), but didn’t succeed. If they’d had some guidance at home and a good example from someone close to them, they might have managed it. That was a key trigger for me to become a mentor for Giving Back.’