How The OK Foundation found the right skills through Reach

“He was a musician and a church pastor and he gave a lot of his time helping disadvantaged families to rebuild themselves, go back into further education, and supporting them financially,” Christina explains. “We discussed setting up something where young people could be helped with homework, advice about further studies, or where parents who had missed out on education could go back and do access courses.”

When her husband passed away suddenly, Christina decided to turn those shared plans into reality. “I decided to set up a foundation to do that work. Since 2008, we’ve been doing different types of community work, based on what we find people actually need.”

Urgent

Although the charity’s original focus was music and education, listening closely to service users soon revealed more urgent challenges. “A lot of people that came to us were struggling financially. Some were even homeless,” Christina says. “So we started a food programme, a soup kitchen, and that has continued to grow.”

Today, The OK Foundation runs food programmes, community meals, cookery classes, health and nutrition sessions, parenting classes and a community choir. “Whatever we find meets the needs of our community, that’s what we do,” Christina says. “As a result of dialoguing with our service users, we are able to create programmes around their needs.”

The scale of support is significant. “We were supporting about 200-plus families, about 450 individuals with our food programme,” Christina explains. “Over the years, we’ve helped thousands and thousands of people.”

Despite this reach, the charity operates with no full-time staff. “We don’t have any full-time member of staff,” Christina says. “I do a lot of the operational duties myself.” Around 35–40 volunteers support the charity at any one time, many from the local community.

Expertise

When The OK Foundation needed specific professional expertise, Reach became an essential partner. “We first secured a volunteer through Reach as far back as 2012. That was a health and safety professional.”

More recently, the charity returned to Reach with a clear need for skilled volunteers. “We were looking for a finance officer and through Reach we had over 30 applicants,” she says. “In the end, we took on three people, because they were all very good candidates and very keen.”

Through Reach, the charity also recruited a treasurer, an admin support volunteer, and a photographer and videographer. “We only wanted one person originally, but Reach gave us access to so many highly qualified candidates.”

Skills

Christina values Reach’s focus on professional skills. “Specifically, we needed people with accountancy qualifications, photography, videography and administrative skills,” she explains. “If we can’t get them within our community, that’s when Reach is particularly helpful.”

She also praises the platform itself. “I like the wealth of information. The templates, the prompts, the way it helps you write role descriptions,” she says. “Communication with applicants is easy, and even if you’re slow responding, you get reminders. I find it very good all round.”

Unsurprisingly, Christina is a strong advocate. “Of course I would recommend Reach. I already have,” she says. “If you’re looking for good, highly skilled, qualified candidates, go to Reach.”

Reflecting on the experience, she adds: “Reach has been invaluable to us. We are very grateful. We’ve been helped greatly and we are going to use Reach again and again.”