Award-winning PR agency, The PHA Group, recently named among the Top 15 independent agencies in the UK, has announced Solace Women’s Aid as its first ‘Charity of the Year’.
The new partnership will run from early September 2020 for a 12-month period, in which PHA and its employees will offer support through a series of fundraising and volunteering initiatives.
The new ‘Charity of the Year’ program has been developed as part of The PHA Group’s wider ‘People and Culture’ strategy which has been introduced this year to help maintain company culture, as the business continues to grow at pace. It is one of the first schemes from its new leadership team of Shelley Frosdick and Stuart Skinner, who have recently been promoted to Group Managing Directors at the agency.
Solace, which provides support to end violence against women and girls (VAWG), was selected following an extensive research program, run by The PHA Group’s internal CSR team, to find a charity that resonates with the agency’s staff and company ethos.
To ensure that each employee was involved in the selection process, a two-stage agency-wide vote took place, in which staff were polled first on their choice of charity sector, before a final vote on three shortlisted charities within these sectors. The final vote delivered an overwhelming majority for Solace to be selected as the agency’s Charity of the year.
The year-long series of activations will kick off with PHA’s ‘STEPtember’ campaign, in which the agency’s staff will raise money for Solace by trying to achieve a collective step count of over 10 million steps during the month of September.
Shelley Frosdick, Group Managing Director of The PHA Group said: “We’re thrilled to be one of Solace Women’s Aid’s corporate partners and look forward to working closely with them to help make a tangible difference to the lives of women and girls affected by violence. It has been an ambition of mine to secure a charity partner for PHA and I couldn’t be more delighted with the partner our employees have selected and the opportunities it offers us all to make a real difference. Our dedicated CSR team have worked incredibly hard on this project and I am certain that this will be one of our most rewarding and engaging company initiatives.”
Jessie Gane, Fundraising Development Manager at Solace said: “We’re delighted to have been chosen by the PHA Group to be its Charity of the Year. We’ve seen the number of high-risk cases of violence against women and girls more than double since the coronavirus pandemic started. This puts extra demand on our caseworkers, advocates and volunteers and so the support from The PHA Group will really help at a time when we need it most.”
