Volunteer to help at the Big London Night Walk 2016!

This a great opportunity for The Big Issue Foundation’s supporters to see the capital in a whole new light and meet some of its most charismatic residents

Starting off in central London at St John’s Church, Waterloo (home to one of The Big Issue magazine distribution points), the unique route through central London will take you on a tour of the iconic sites at night. Walkers will visit locations connected with our important work, and get the opportunity to hear personal insights from Big Issue vendors along the way.

We are looking for up to 70 fabulous volunteers to help us make this an amazing experience for all our walkers. We would welcome teams of volunteers as well as individual helpers. We need people to take on the following roles helping out on different shifts between 6pm and 6am from Friday 11th March – Saturday 12th March.

Could you help us by:

• Registering participants on arrival

• Talking to participants about the challenge, their training, and what has motivated them to take part before the start?

• Welcoming walkers to the rest stops, serving refreshments, listening to how their walk is going and encouraging them along their way?

• Celebrating the finishing line with walkers when they finally make it back to base?

In particular, we are looking for volunteers who are available to help from 9.30pm-12pm at Beaconsfield, Vauxhall.

Last year’s volunteers had great fun and told us they found it a really worthwhile experience:

“Charged by everyone’s excitement and passion about the cause, it filled me with a great sense of achievement by volunteering to meet and greet the participants of The Big London Night Walk. Look forward to meeting new people and connecting with everyone next year!”

For more information or to register your interest please email us at events@bigissue.com or call 020 7526 3459 or the website.

Reduced First Aid courses for Vauxhall One members

One day first aid course from £43 with lunch – 3 day course from £115 with lunch

It is a requirement of the Health & Safety law that employers should provide a safe and healthy environment for their employees.

If the assessment of First Aid needs highlights the need for qualified First Aider’s, then this Level 3 qualification (Level 6 in Scotland) will provide you with suitable, highly trained personnel.

This comprehensive three-day course covers a wide range of First Aid emergencies, enabling all participants to deal with an emergency situation with confidence in a prompt, safe and effective way.

This course will give the participants a qualification to the highest level.

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Business funded Police slash crime rates in Vauxhall

Roy Smith, Chief Inspector responsible for local policing for the borough of Lambeth, has praised the work carried out by Vauxhall’s business funded Police Officers over the Christmas period.

The traditionally busy month of December saw a reduction of up to 50% for reports of anti-social behaviour and violence against the person offences, with the total number of reported crime dropping by 30%.

Vauxhall One, the business improvement district (BID) for Vauxhall, an organisation owned, funded and led by the local business community, has been joint funding two additional fulltime Police Officers for Vauxhall since August 2015. An innovative piece of private/public partnership working, the agreement sees Vauxhall One pay for the cost of one Police Officer with the Met matching that funding for an additional officer.

PC Robinson and PC Watts both formally of the Lambeth response team have a combined 20 years’ experience policing in the local community and understand the nature of the issues that face Vauxhall.

Roy Smith, Chief Inspector responsible for local policing for the borough of Lambeth stated:

“PC Watts and PC Robinson have been working with great success over the past five months, as part of an ongoing effort to target individuals specifically traveling to Vauxhall with the sole intention of committing crime. December, especially over Christmas and New Year, is regularly one of our busiest periods and to see a reduction in crime at this time of year is extremely encouraging. The team’s robust response to sometimes dangerous individuals coupled with their in-depth local knowledge has delivered these fantastic results for Vauxhall, meaning we have fewer victims of crime and freeing up resources for other issues.”

Bernard Collier, Chief Executive Officer of Vauxhall One adds:

“Fostering relationships between local businesses and the local police is one of the most important roles that Vauxhall One has to play. I feel that this is a brilliant example of partnership working between our member businesses and the police that has actively helped make Vauxhall a safer place to work visit and live.”