Accu Gives 142 Volunteering Hours to Local Charities
In just six months, Team Accu collectively donated 142 hours of their time by volunteering for charity work across the local community. Together, they’ve taken on everything from admin and Gift Aid paperwork to gardening and riverside conservation. The effort was split between two causes close to the business: 102 hours supporting The Kirkwood, Accu's charity of the year, and 40 hours helping to restore natural habitats alongside local environmental group EPIKS.
Every colleague who took part used their one paid volunteering day, an annual benefit that gives the whole team the chance to step away from their desks and give something back to the town Accu calls home.
A Year of Support for The Kirkwood
The Kirkwood is the Huddersfield hospice Accu chose as its charity of the year. It provides specialist care for people living with life-limiting illnesses across Kirklees and supports their families alongside them.
Like every hospice, it depends on fundraising to keep those services running. Gift Aid is a meaningful part of that income. Every eligible donation can be topped up by 25p in the pound, but only once the HMRC-required paperwork has been checked and processed. It’s unglamorous, time-consuming work, but it’s important and exactly the kind of job a large group of volunteers can help to clear quickly.
That’s what Team Accu set out to do across June and July, working through the backlog so the charity's own staff could spend their time on providing the care that matters most.
"It's been great to keep supporting The Kirkwood this year. We sent 21 of the team down to the hospice over June and July to help out with some Gift Aid paperwork, even our new CEO, Dan Jack, got the opportunity to meet the incredible team at the hospice. It's a really important cause for us and it's brilliant to see so many of the team using their paid volunteering day to make a real difference for such an amazing local charity."
Demi-Leigh Mitcheson
Head of Employee Experience, Accu.
Restoring Nature at Kilner Bank
EPIKS, which stands for Environmental Projects in Kirklees, is a not-for-profit group working to protect green spaces across the district and improve public access to them. Around ten members of the team spent a morning with them at Kilner Bank, the green corridor that sits directly behind the Accu Stadium.
The session opened with a briefing on the habitat itself, what lives there, what threatens it and why a stretch of hillside next to a football ground is worth protecting at all. The practical work followed, with the group clearing debris, litter picking and opening up sections that had become overgrown. None of it looks dramatic in isolation, but on a space used by this many people every day, the cumulative effect is important.
"Volunteering with EPIKS was a fantastic opportunity for the team to step away from their desks, connect with nature and make a tangible difference in our local area. Whether it was sprucing up riverside paths or creating healthier wildlife habitats, the day was not just about the work itself, but about coming together to improve the environment for everyone in our community to enjoy."
Alicja Woolhead
Employee Experience Coordinator, Accu.
Volunteering Rooted in Huddersfield
The paid volunteering day is one of the ways Accu encourages its people to connect with the local community throughout the year. It reflects a business that has always seen itself as part of Huddersfield, from its global headquarters in Brockholes to its partnership with the town's football club at the Accu Stadium. That commitment goes beyond employment and economic contribution. The aim is to actively improve the place Accu is rooted in.
Whether it's a morning by the river or a shift at the hospice, the message is the same. The team recognises the real impact these efforts can have, and they intend to keep making it.
The Kirkwood relies on the support of people across Kirklees to keep its care free at the point of need. You can donate to the hospice directly.