The Route to Making a Social Impact 

Following a positive experience at her first event, Sadie registered for the Value in Volunteering event held at Virgin Money. The purpose of this event was to bring third sector and private businesses together to work together to achieve change.

Whilst at this event, Sadie was introduced to Jenni Willows from the Booth Centre, Manchester.  Jenni invited Sadie to visit the Booth Centre, a community centre run with people affected by homelessness, to see all the work that goes on there. Working with people experiencing differing circumstances, Sadie was able to see the positive impact that the centre is having, and the level of time and resources being dedicated to its running. Having been inspired by this, Sadie registered for their upcoming Sleep Out event. The purpose of this event was for people to brave the cold and wet weather and sleep out in Manchester, this was to highlight the conditions which homeless people are exposed to.

Raising awareness of the Booths Centre and increasing sponsorship towards her participation in the event, Sadie also inspired her colleagues at Three UK to contribute towards her final fundraising total of £600.

By participating in this sleepout, Sadie was able to experience some of the situational circumstances of sleeping outdoors, for instance, how there’s unfamiliar external sounds, the feeling of not knowing the people sleeping around you and how ultimately you don’t get a proper night’s sleep as you’re constantly alert to the surroundings, and this was an experience was in a controlled environment.

This sleepout event achieved over £21,000 in donations for the Booths Centre and raised awareness of the Booths Centre to a much wider audience.

 “Getting an invite for a networking Matchday volunteering event has by far been one of the best events I have attended, being introduced to Jenni Willows from the Booth Centre  truly opened my eyes up to how networking should be.  I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the Booth Centre for a guided tour and then participated in their annual ‘sleepout’.  It was a great opportunity to see how businesses in Manchester really pull together to give back to their city and raised over £21,000 in the process.  It might have started off as ‘Networking’ but to meet meaningful people that I now consider to be friends is really the icing on the cake!”

How Match is a catalyst for change and impact

Our free Match networking event was the catalyst for this amazing outcome and proves the power of the close-knit Manchester community and its ability to make differences far beyond the connecting with local professionals at a local event.

Covering all areas of Greater Manchester, our Match dates for 2024 are now online. The first event of 2024 will be from our new Match ‘Changemaker’ series where we will focus on topics that are applicable to all, the event on Thursday 25^th January will be ‘Social Value and Volunteering’.

Register now to see where our Match networking events can lead you BGH Match | Free Business Networking Event | Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Tameside, Trafford, Salford, Rochdale, Stockport, Wigan | GM Business Growth Hub

You can find more information about the Booth Centre here and visit Three’s site here.

The photos were taken by Harley Bainbridge. You can find out more here.