Released On 15 January 2018
News from Cityparents HQ: January 2018
Happy 2018 to all our members and partners! We hope you are starting the year feeling refreshed and raring to go.
New Year cheer or winter blues?
January can be an exciting time of year, with new plans and resolutions underway. It can also be a tough time of year, thanks to the short days, post-Christmas bills, and grey skies. Mindful that yesterday was Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year, we’re looking to help spread a little kindness across the City to help overcome the winter slump:
- How kind are you to yourself? Our Citywellbeing seminars aim to help you stay healthy in 2018. Milly, our Network Manager, gives us a snapshot of these and other seminars coming up in the Events diary.
- We’ve been exploring what kindness means in City firms and what the benefits are to individuals and companies alike. Kim, our Social Media Manager, has been asking people about their experiences of kindness in the City – you can find out more here, plus catch our conversation with author, storyteller, and kindness expert Bernadette Russell.
- We’ll be celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Day on 17th February and would love to hear about your random acts of kindness via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram .
- Our weekly blogs, where members share their personal experiences in work and at home, are very popular. Here are 3 recent blogs touching on the themes of kindness and self-care:
- Caroline’s blog ‘Surviving or thriving?’
- Freddy’s blog ‘For the shy kids’
- Wendy’s blog ‘The benefits of headspace’
Giving – and walking - in the City
We’re delighted that our charity partner Working Families raised an incredible £64,716 in funds during The Big Give’s Christmas Challenge, a matched funding campaign. This will make a real difference to the support Working Families can provide struggling families, and they extend their thanks to everyone who made generous donations to help
them raise these much needed funds.
Do you want to get yourself moving this year? Working Families has a team taking part in the London Legal walk 5-7pm Mon 21 May, 2018. This sociable, fun event is a relatively easy stroll of 10k around the beautiful historic sites of central London https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/WorkingFamilies18
Please email fundraising@workingfamilies.org.uk if you would like to join this great initiative, enjoy some fresh air and raise money in aid of Working Families.
If you’d like to read more about Working Families’ work or get involved in other ways, click here.
Help us plan our future events
We’d love to get your feedback on past Cityparents events and hear your ideas for future seminars, including our next conference, so please do take a moment to participate in our member survey which is currently open. Here’s the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Cityparents2018Survey
Getting ahead and giving back
In October, we welcomed the newest participants in our City-wide Mentoring Scheme which opens twice a year (spring and autumn) for new applications from both mentors and mentees. We’re looking forward to bringing this new cohort together at an event later this month run jointly with our Mentoring Scheme partners, Women Ahead. If you think some mentoring might help you progress your career ambitions in 2018, or are interested in helping others to get ahead, click here for more information about how our scheme works. The next application window will be opening in March.
Happy 1st Birthday to Cityworks –
Our employer forum Cityworks launched a year ago as a resource for firms committed to supporting their employees across a range of work and work/life policy areas. We are delighted to have welcomed 17 new corporate members so far representing a range of City industries including finance, law and consulting. Over the past 12 months we’ve hosted a number of events from roundtable peer discussions on current workplace policies to guest speakers sharing leading practice from inside and outside of the City. HR, Wellbeing and Diversity & Inclusion professionals are welcome to attend Cityworks events and we have some exciting speakers confirmed for 2018. Membership options are detailed here.
And a new addition to the Cityparents family…
Cityflex, our most recent initiative, is now welcoming new registrations from employers and individuals following its launch in November. Cityflex is our new jobs board specialising in flexible role recruitment across the City and Canary Wharf. In this article, Louisa explains how we hope Cityflex will support and promote the growth in flexible roles for experienced hires across ‘City’ industries.
Let’s keep talking
We look forward to chatting with many of you at a Cityparents networking event soon. In the meantime, you can follow us on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to catch the latest news and online discussions. If you’ve got a specific enquiry or are planning an initiative that we can help you with, please get in touch with one our team.