Law firm Addleshaw Goddard is launching a trophy for corporates to play each other at GoalBall – a game created for people with visual impairments. The firm’s CSR manager Marcus Jamieson-Pond explains how the trophy will help the GB GoalBall team and provide an excellent networking opportunity

Marcus Jamieson-Pond, CSR manager, Addleshaw Goddard

In the Autumn of 2007, Addleshaw Goddard, a UK based law firm, took the decision to set up local office Charities of the Year. The intention was to focus some of the energy being spent on the firm’s community involvement programme and to provide a vehicle for doing good works.Each office in London, Leeds and Manchester already has a Community Involvement (CI) Team. These were set up at the launch of the firm’s CSR programme in early 2007.

The CI Teams were asked to draw up a shortlist of charities, which were then reviewed by each team against a set of criteria. From this a list of nominations was put to the whole firm for a vote.

In the London office, as well as selecting to support the homeless charity Centrepoint, the office voted for an organisation called the London Sports Forum for Disabled People (LSF).

LSF was known to the firm through Adam Johnson, one of our associates in our employment team, who had a personal connection to the charity. Following the vote Adam subsequently became the account manager for this relationship. LSF is a charity that is designed to raise the awareness of disability issues in sport, specifically in Greater London.

They are keen that sports providers consider all aspects of their offering – for example, a leisure centre may improve lighting in changing rooms to assist people with visual impairment and be compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act requirements for access and egress to their building, but have they thought about how visitors will get to and from their facility?

Stewart Lucas, the chief executive of LSF, posed this question to the firm at an initial meeting and suggested that AG could help him by creating a large number of advocates who could take these type of questions back to their sports clubs and leisure centres.

It was felt by Adam and myself, that giving Stewart a meeting room and asking people to come along to hear him talk about this subject, would not get the support that he needed. After all, one area that Stewart had also indicated would be helpful to him would be to get his message into the City more widely, given that his network of contacts was quite limited.

Addleshaw Goddard gave LSF a commitment to help them with some advice on a re-brand that the charity was about to undertake and also to advertise for a Trustee position that had come about as a result of a strategic review of the charity’s objectives. In addition the firm’s Charitable Trust presented LSF with a cheque for just over £9,000 to help them in their work.

These were relatively easy wins and could be delivered quite simply. However, the question still remained about how best to engage the people of Addleshaw Goddard and people beyond the firm, in the work that LSF was seeking to undertake.

Our solution was to turn the issue on its head. LSF is about integrating disabled people into mainstream sport. What if a way of providing able bodied people a chance to experience disability through sport could be found? Surely this would have a greater impact.

Adam had previously spoken about GoalBall, a three-a-side game played by people with visual impairment, using a ball with a bell in it on a basketball court. The sport tends to be played at school level, and it was thought that there was no GB team likely to go forward to the 2012 London Paralympics. This was the opportunity.

Along with a great deal of evangelising within the firm, we formed ideas for an event that would provide Addleshaw Goddard people an insight into disability issues and be broad enough for the LSF to have it’s burning platform.

As a part of the firm’s 'Big Week Out', an annual burst of volunteering activity undertaken by Addleshaw Goddard people, the City GoalBall Trophy has been created. This will take place in May and June 2007 and if successful, it is hoped that a City GoalBall League will be set up, in much the same way as firms take each other on at 5-a-side and netball.

The Trophy has two elements to it:

• Firstly a 'Skills Workshop', which is taking place on the evening of 1 May, run by British Blind Sport. This will enable people who are interested in taking part in the sport to get used to playing a game wearing black out glasses.

• The Trophy Competition itself, sponsored by LSF, is due to take place in London on 13 June, pending a suitable venue. On that day, the GB GoalBall team (it turned out that there was one, despite there not being a formal league) will be in attendance and may either captain or coach the four or five teams from corporate contacts that will be fighting for the Trophy. 

Addleshaw Goddard hopes that the teams taking part in the inaugural City GoalBall Trophy will invite contacts and clients along to the event as spectators, giving Stewart Lucas and LSF access to a number of influential people and developing their network further.

If successful, Adam and Marcus have a vision that the City GoalBall league will create a grass roots support from disability groups throughout the UK, providing the GB Team with much needed awareness of their sport and potentially, new players. This will hopefully carry through to 2012 and provide a team that can bring home gold at the London Paralympics.

The GoalBall project moves beyond good intentions to a tangible and innovative solution.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON GOALBALL

If you would like to get involved in the GoalBall cup or put together a team, or for more information on the sport, please contact Marcus Jamieson-Pond:

Tel: 020 7544 5475
Email: marcus.jamieson-pond@addleshawgoddard.com

 Marcus will also be speaking at the Green HR Conference on 15 May.

FROM FRIDAY 2 MAY

WATCH OUT FOR THE FILTH COLUMNIST - cutting through the crap in CSR

Marcus Jamieson-Pond is by day the CSR manager at UK law firm Addleshaw Goddard. On his commute home he often reflects on why he hasn't been able to change the world as much as he would like that day. Marcus captures some of his deliberations in a regular blog for his firm's award winning CSR website and from Friday 2 May he becomes HR Circles' weekly "Filth Columnist". 

Expect your views of CSR to be challenged. Marcus likes to write in the same way as he likes his water - fizzy, or if you're in CSR for the PR advantage - bumpy.