Community spirit is alive and well at Westerhill Homes

At Westerhill Homes we are supporting the local communities where we are building.

Over the last few years we have increased our support wherever possible, as building new or, integrating with established communities is very important to us.  We will be continuing this next year with a high-profile partnership with a local charity; an announcement is expected in December.

‘We are committed to engaging with communities where we are building developments, it’s an important aspect of our business and part of our culture and our ethos. We are creating and enhancing communities and our ambition is to leave a lasting legacy’, says Joanne Richards, Sales & Marketing Director.

We recently sponsored St Peter & St Paul Church in Headcorn with their Autumn Glory flower festival. Thirty-seven spectacular displays drew hundreds of visitors over the three-day event.

‘I just wanted to say thank you again to Westerhill Homes for their generous sponsorship. Your support enabled us to advertise widely and to achieve all the printing and incidentals needed to organise a successful festival, and we were delighted with the outcome’.

Start-up Neighbourhood Watch schemes, additional footpath lighting, sponsored local school sports kits and a number of football team strips have all benefitted from donations.

Staff have taken part in two charity long-distance bicycle rides, most recently as part of a thirty-strong team who cycled from Brasted in Kent to Paris, in extremely challenging weather in aid of SCOPE.

Our support for local charities includes Homeless Care at the Maidstone Day Centre, providing food deliveries from a local butcher each week plus donating various items such as clothing, Easter Eggs, sun cream and non-perishable groceries.

A partnership with the Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance is now in its second year, with £100 donated each time a Westerhill customer moves into their home, together with staff collections and fundraising activities.

The long-term relationship with the Heart of Kent Hospice provided them with a mini-bus, labour and the installation of a new garden at the Magnolia Café at the Hospice. Staff have taken part in fundraising activities such as ‘Afternoon Tea’ and an ice cream parlour, and supported the popular Rainbow Run in Moat Park for several years.

Always keen to work with local schools, offering work experience placements to students, engaging with students who may be the builders of the future, with presentations and activities using the Considerate Constructor, Ivor and Honor Goodsite characters, to promote safety near and on building sites and the environment, are on-going.

We recently visited Coxheath Primary School and received a delightful thank you letter (read the full letter on the news page in June entitled ‘Westerhill Homes meets the builders of the future’).

‘We enjoyed building the houses with the recycled materials you gave to us. We loved the excitement in all the activities. The whole of Scotney class thought you were the most amazing visitors yet’.

The Apprenticeship Scheme is very successful with our employees studying practical based skills combined with college study in a number of disciplines, both on sites and in office roles.

Working in partnership with Kent Wildlife Trust at their Conningbrook Lakes development has enabled us to offer free wildlife walks, bug hotel construction and pumpkin-carving activities to the wider community and these have been very well attended.