North East business life: community, charity and award events of the week

Junior players at a Newcastle community football club gave struck a kit sponsorship deal with North East law firm Hay & Kilner.

Members of the Heaton Hawks Falcons Under Eights team now have their own sponsored team training hoodie and raincoat, with each player’s initials appearing on their kit alongside the Newcastle-based practice’s logo. Coaches at the club believe the kit has helped underpin the team’s successful season in the Northumberland Football League.

Heaton Hawks Falcons Under Eights coach Steve Kelso said: “The initialled jackets have been a real hit amongst our up-and-coming superstars, giving them extra confidence when they arrive at league games looking like a professional team which they then carry onto the pitch.”

Michelle McBride, senior marketing manager at Hay & Kilner, added: “The commitment of the Falcons’ team, coaches and parents is really impressive, and the enjoyment that everyone gets out of training and playing is clear to see. We’re very happy to be supporting such a great example of a community sports team and wish them every success in the future.”

Avison Young’s Newcastle office picked up two of the three 2024 CoStar Impact Awards for the North East. The CoStar Impact Awards recognise exemplary commercial real estate projects and transactions completed this year. Commercial real estate industry professionals select winners from each market in the categories of lease of the year, sale/acquisition of the year, and commercial development of the year.

It won the commercial development of the year award for Bank House, the first building to be completed as part of the Pilgrim Street development in Newcastle. Avison Young dealt with the development advice, planning, project management and also looks after the on-going property management of the building.

Meanwhile its work with BAE Systems helped it scoop the sale/acquisition of the year award. The defence contractor is the tenant in a warehouse bought by local government pension scheme Teesside Pension Fund for £50.15m. Avison Young advised the seller.

Durham water retailer Wave has seen a record response from employees keen to support local communities. The business said it has smashed its targets for FY23/24, increasing volunteering hours by over 150% as a focus of its Social and Sustainability Promise.

Wave’s volunteering activities include regular beach cleans, litter picking and refurbishment projects for charities and trusts. The team has planted 1,600 trees this year across three planting sessions, with a highlight being the creation of ‘Wave’s Woodland’, in which 600 trees were planted on the banks of the River Browney in County Durham, representing one tree for every Wave employee.

The firm also set a target of increasing the number of goods donations by 150%, a goal which was smashed after reaching a 2,300% increase, with 1,526 goods donated to charitable organisations. After recently downsizing to a smaller office to support its sustainability efforts, Wave donated any furniture not included in the move to Crown Workspace, a project which gives furniture that cannot be reused or recycled to charities, schools and social enterprises.

Wave uses Benevity’s Alaya platform to connect charities with volunteers from its team and record volunteering hours, and the platform also allows employees to suggest and support causes they’re passionate about.

Jane Austin, director of HR at Wave, said: “For us, CSR has never been just a tick-box exercise. We’re always proactively building relationships with schools, organisations and charities to create opportunities where we can make a difference. This past year we’ve seen a fantastic uplift in both the number, and type, of volunteering activities our people have been part of. It’s something we’re really proud of and proof that CSR is becoming part of the fabric of our business.”

Youngsters are helping plant their own secret garden at a Sunderland primary school, thanks to Bernicia. The North East housing association has created a pathway leading from Dame Dorothy Primary in Roker to a grassed area it owns. The grassy plot is now being transformed into a garden after children planted the first 40 apple, pear and plum trees of a new orchard for pupils and their families to enjoy.

Over the next few months, a fire pit, outdoor library, Viking longboat, bug houses, reading tree and zip wire historical time line will be added. Bernicia estates team operatives, with colleagues from renewable energy specialist contractor 0800 Repair, helped children plant the fruit trees, which should be ready to harvest next year.

Gary Byers, Dame Dorothy School business manager, said: “We’ve worked with Bernicia over the past year to look at ideas for the piece of land which we want to make accessible every day for the school and local community. The children will get the chance to try fresh fruit. It will help us focus on healthy eating in school, which can hopefully be local produce grown on site.”

Steven Adey, Bernicia head of tenancy and neighbourhoods, said: “We’ve created a great project with the land repurposed for the community and the school. We can see how much the children are enjoying being involved in bringing their garden to life, and so are our Bernicia team, who absolutely love being involved in what is a tremendous community idea.”

Jason Oakes, 0800 Repair sales director, said: “It was an honour to be asked to be part of this project and see the pleasure the children have got out of planting these fruit trees. It’s great chatting with the youngsters - you can see in their faces that they are getting a lot out of this through the impact of planting these trees and what the ecological implications are as well with the fruits they bear in the future.”

Newcastle law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has achieved Disability Confident Leader status, the highest accreditation in the Department for Work and Pensions’ scheme which recognises and supports employers who recruit and retain people with disabilities.

WBD employs over 1,100 people across eight offices in the UK including Newcastle and Teesside, and has been a Disability Confident Employer since 2018. The ‘Leader’ accreditation recognises the firm’s commitment to lead the way on employing people with disabilities as well as helping other businesses become disability confident.

The firm is one of only five law firms in the UK to achieve the accreditation following an assessment process, reflecting its commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive.

Michelle Essen, chair of the WBD Disability Network said: “Achieving Disability Confident Leader has taken a huge amount of time, effort and commitment from so many amazing people across our business. Changing how we think and do things takes tremendous will and determination, but our WBD community has embraced the challenge - and we can see that in how our business is more accessible, using DEI job boards, celebrating neurodiversity, introducing a reasonable adjustments policy, investing in training, sharing IT tips, and simply talking about disability more openly.”