Building local links at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre
Thursday 20th February 2014
Gilbert-Ash puts a strong ethos of community engagement and corporate social responsibility at the core of all our projects. Through this we engage with many local organisations including schools, colleges, universities and business support agencies. We have recently handed over the new Everyman Theatre project in Liverpool where we have been working as the main construction contractor.
During the construction of the Everyman Theatre, Gilbert-Ash cooperated closely with Liverpool John Moore’s University which runs degree courses in Construction Management and Quantity Surveying. As part of our cooperation, Gilbert-Ash hosted 3 study visits for groups from both courses to come and see around the live construction site. This can be of great value to local students as it gives a practical perspective to their academic studies.
We also had two students from Construction Management and Quantity Surveying undertake a year- long placement with us, working on the Everyman site itself. Lecturers from Liverpool John Moore’s University also spent several days on site as a practical backup to their vocational training.
Gilbert-Ash also cooperated with Liverpool Futures - a new partnership agency set up by Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Chamber Training, Liverpool Community College and the Eldonian Group. Through this partnership, Gilbert-Ash employed an apprentice Beth Sansbury as an office administrator. Beth has gone on to achieve an NVQ Level 2 in Business and Administration. Read more about Beth’s experience here in a case study on Liverpool Future’s website.
Through working with Liverpool Community College we also employed two bricklayers on site. Everyman was an interesting project in this respect as it is built using reclaimed bricks and somewhat outside the ‘norm’ of an ordinary construction project.
Gilbert-Ash also held a barbeque on site as a fundraiser for the Alder Hey Children’s hospital and was delighted to raise £850 in donations to this very worthy cause.
As part of our corporate social responsibility, we signed up to the ‘Considerate Constructors Scheme’ for the project. This is a code of practice that commits those sites and companies registered with the Scheme to care about appearance, respect the community, protect the environment, secure everyone's safety and value their workforce. We are happy to report that we scored 36 out of 40 for the Everyman site, achieving a certificate for attaining a level on our site of ‘above compliance’ in every aspect.
Gilbert-Ash would like to thank all our local partners in Liverpool for their support and for making our team feel like part of your community during the time we spent on site at the Everyman. We look forward to working with you again.
The new Everyman Theatre will have its official opening on Saturday 1st March, we hope you like it!
