Community

Community work isn’t just about fundraising. It’s about giving back!

Community work is an important element of JCI. By combining community work with other themes, such as business and training, our members learn new valuable skills.

Examples of local community projects:

• Secret Santa Appeal. Many local chambers run this as an annual project. The appeal gathers Christmas gifts for under-privileged local children.

• The Enterprise Project. This combines business skills with fundraising. Local chambers compete against each other over a five-month period to make a profit for the JCI UK charity, The Prince’s Trust.

• Changing Rooms. Many local chambers have arranged hands-on projects such as painting a local hospital or school over a weekend.

• Tree Planting. One chamber created a local civic garden by raising funds and planting trees in a disused area.

The community spirit in JCI doesn’t stop at a local level; many national and international projects take place each year. JCI is an official partner of the United Nations and supports the UN Millennium Development Goals.

JCI's Nothing But Nets campaign 

As a worldwide organisation, JCI supports the UN’s Nothing But Nets Campaign, fighting malaria in Africa. JCI has a target to donate a million bed nets by 2015.

As well as helping the community, JCI members also gain a greater understanding of how communities work.

2010 JCI Leeds made a Nothing but Nets calendar which they sold at the JCI World Congress in Osaka and all other major events in the UK. You can check out JCI Leeds project website here: www.onecalendaronelife.co.uk. All profit went to buy and distribute bed nets.

Tim and Claire from JCI Leeds at the world congress selling the Nothing But Nets calendar.

JCI UK Active Citizen Experience (ACE)

One of the core values of JCI is to make a local impact be ACTIVE CITIZENS and what better way to do this than to volunteer in your local community?

Here in JCI UK we want to reward those members who go that little bit further and get actively involved in their local community.  As a result we will be recognising members for their level of community involvement through the community hour’s project. 

What do I have to do?

It is very simple - all you have to do is volunteer in your local community and record your hours. 

• Keep a record of the number of hours you volunteer and log them on our JCI UK Community form (contact Gemma, gemma.fletcher@jciuk.org.uk)

• Keep your local community director or Chamber up to date with your progress.
  
  
• Send your volunteering stories and photos to the JCI UK National Community Director Gemma Fletcher at gemma.fletcher@jciuk.org.uk.
  
  
• Wait to be recognised!
  

All we need now is for members to get started and get volunteering!

Read an interview with Meet Mehnaz Siddiqui, Community Team Member of JCI Lodndon

Mile of Pennies!

It may sound simple, but did you know that if each member saves 1p per day for the whole year JCI UK could raise £1481.90! Therefore, we are asking all JCI UK members to save 1p per day!  One of JCI UKs flagship community projects for 2011 is the Mile of Pennies in aid of Nothing But Nets. 

You may think that saving the pennies won’t make a difference but Chambers across the UK have saved in excess of 50 lives just by counting the pennies. 

You don’t have to be a Chamber or even be a member all you need is something to put your pennies in and away you go.  Why not go a step further and get your kids, local schools, friends, family and anyone else you can think of to get saving.

We all wonder what to do with those few coppers in the bottom of our purses so why not give them to a good cause.

Checkout some of the jars that we have so far and why not join the UK as the penny war rages on!