Community Support

East Coast Community Support policy

Every day East Coast touches the lives of thousands of people through our train services.

As a good corporate citizen, we recognise that we can make a positive contribution to be the communities we serve.

The way that we do this is to focus our involvement on activities which benefit and support our customers and through encouraging our employees to become involved in the communities in which they live and work.

What we do:

Nationally:

Vulnerable customers

Our train services are used by many young and vulnerable people who leave home and head off to our major cities to an uncertain future.

We recognise that every year hundreds of young people use our services without any idea of where to go next or how to seek help. We will look to provide easier ways for those who need help to access support to remain safe and well.

Locally:

Local employer

We work with a range of schools and colleges to provide training and work experience opportunities and career support and advice. Investing in skills development helps us to contribute positively to communities and help create a pipeline of talent to meet our future business needs.

Employee support

We encourage our employees to get involved in their local communities, through volunteering or fundraising for local initiatives, and all employees are encouraged to make use of the company’s payroll giving facility.

What we don’t support

The focus for our charitable support is in areas aligned to our business and our employees.
We are therefore unable to support requests from individuals outside the business, political or denominational groups, arts or sports groups, medical and animal welfare organisations or building projects.

We don’t normally support requests for advertising or sponsorship unless they are part of a project we are already involved with.