Each year, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) contact centre staff in central southern England raise money for a chosen charity and over the last twelve months have been raising funds for Samaritans.
The teams, based in SSEN's Customer Contact Centres in Cosham, have now officially handed over £10,285 to the charity, which provides round-the-clock, one-to-one confidential advice to callers from across the UK.
Samaritans takes a call every six seconds and its staff and volunteers provide an essential service to people in need across the UK; because of the work done by SSEN's contact centre colleagues, they had an insight into the challenges faced by Samaritans and decided to set their own challenge to help the charity that reaches out to so many.
Committing themselves to a fundraising target of £10,000, SSEN's year-long race to raise the total included Tough Mudder challenges, completing the Great South Run, Contact Centre Bake Off and over sixty Be the Difference days used to raise money and volunteer.
Throughout the year, SSEN gifts its staff Be the Difference days to enable them to take time away from their day jobs to volunteer for charities and good causes, and during the team's £10,000 charity challenge, one of their dispatchers used Be the Difference to go one step further.
Or a million steps further, as James Flynn explains: "By using my SSEN Be the Difference days - along with some donated by other colleagues, and my holidays, I was able to complete the 630 mile walk along the South West Coast Path. It's the longest national trail in the country and is estimated at over one million steps."
"Thankfully, my dad was able to join me on the challenge, keeping my spirits up when my feet were sore and helping me raise £1,800 towards our total."
SSEN's Lorraine Barber, Contact Centre Performance Manager (South) and Liz Elkins, Customer Service Advisor and Organiser were instrumental in setting the target, helping organise the events throughout the year and providing all the encouragement needed to keep their colleagues focused on reaching their goal. And, while they knew the £10,000 target was ambitious, they had no doubt that they could meet their challenge by working together as a team.
Sam Gale, who received the SSEN cheque on behalf the of Samaritans added: "We are so grateful for everyone's efforts at the contact centre in raising an incredible £10,000 for Samaritans! It's been amazing to see how enthusiastically everyone has supported the charity throughout the year and come together to achieve the challenging target."
"The money raised will help us be there for more people struggling to cope. Samaritans are available 365 days a year, 24 hours a day for someone to turn to when they are feeling overwhelmed."