Volunteers give a boost to local community projects through Team Challenge Week.

York Cares Team Challenge Week is all about getting together to support areas of the local community, as well as having fun as part of a team during national Volunteers’ Week.

This week, 21 teams from 10 local businesses will get involved in a variety of local projects including gardening with Friends of York Cemetery and dog walking at York RSPCA.

York Cares newest member, Portakabin, will be getting involved with Team Challenge Week for the first time in conjunction with the launch of their new volunteering policy. The Portakabin team will spend half a day at Greenfields School and Community Garden on Friday.

The Greenfields site was transformed into a vibrant community space during York Cares Big Community Challenge in October 2012 and has been supported by York Cares volunteers since.

The garden has gone from strength to strength. Pupils from the local school, Haxby Road Primary, enjoy looking after their own plots whilst the local community can harvest the garden’s fruit and vegetables.

The success of this project has also been due to York Cares dedicated employee-volunteers. From paving paths to spreading manure, teams of volunteers can make a real difference to Greenfields.

Louise Cantlay, from Greenfields, values the burst of energy that volunteers bring to the project. She said: “We really appreciate Team Challenges because big jobs can be done in one day, leaving our regular volunteers with more time to get on with the everyday garden work. Without the manpower from enthusiastic teams it would take us a lot longer.”

The volunteers from Portakabin, alongside others from Aviva and DE Ford Insurance Brokers Ltd, will be re-enforcing the paths and making the garden more accessible in wet weather ensuring that volunteers can get involved all year round.

For more information about our Team Challenge programme, visit the website at www.yorkcares.co.uk and follow @YorkCares on Twitter.