Bradford Chamber's Corporate Social Responsibility programme, Raising the Bar has helped bring chamber members together with JCI Bradford's Secret Santa Appeal.

Raising the Bar is not only a high-quality benchmarking tool that can be simply completed online but it can provide the link between business and the community's needs. Joining Raising the Bar can assist businesses in managing their contributions to their communities and allows them to monitor that they have made a real and measurable impact.  It enables every business to choose from and plan for the way they will contribute to the District each year and businesses can measure and report on what they have achieved and celebrate the contribution made by their staff.

Michelle Pemberton, JCI Bradford's Community Director explained "It was very easy for JCI to list the Secret Santa Appeal project on the Raising the Bar website for the Bradford Chamber members to find out what CSR opportunities exist in their local area. We very quickly received enquiries and the rest as they say is history."

Companies who are signed up to the Raising the Bar programme can explore the opportunities listed and choose what to support and how to get involved.  This year seven companies Christeyns, Advisor Plus, LCF Law, Gordons LLP, Business Enterprise Fund (BEF), Bradford Chamber and Sydney Packetts have all got involved in our appeal to bring happiness to familes and children at Christmas.

‘It was a great pleasure for everyone at Packetts to be involved in JCI's Secret Santa Appeal this year. The staff and management at Packetts have supported charities over many years in the local area, but Raising-the-Bar has now given an added focus to this, along with a greater opportunity for involvement in local events and causes. There is a strong desire within Packetts to continue our support for Raising-the-Bar throughout 2015 and we are all looking forward to taking part in some of the many worthwhile events scheduled for the year ahead.'  Cathy Hewitt, Sydney Packetts.

Christeyns have just completed its second year of participation in the raising the bar initiative and it was exactly the framework the company needed to embark on a wide variety of CSR activities and to receive recognition for the same.  In 2014 we received the RTB silver award and were the overall winners of the environmental award - which was really a fantastic achievement and has spurred us on to build on this success in 2015.   Teams from Christeyns have participated in various community projects in 2014 - including renovating an overgrown allotment for community use and helping with a Xmas dinner for the homeless -these projects really gave our staff the feel good factor.  The JCI Secret Santa appeal is one that is ever popular with our employees - every child should wake up to a gift on Christmas morning and our staff generously donated 40 presents - double that of last year to try and make sure this happened.  We are all looking forward to taking part in the RTB activities in 2015, our staff feel like they are making a real difference to their local community whilst building a great team spirit within our business. We are looking forward to continuing our work with RTB in 2015,  especially trying to improve in the "education" aspect of the RTB and also continuing our great work in the other categories.. Jill Ingham, Christeyns

"It was a real thrill to be able to contribute in a small way to making some kids Christmas a little happier. It made the joy of the season a little more special." Steve Waud, Business Enterprise Fund

"I just want to thank Bradford Chamber for the Raising the Bar programme and the companies above who have helped us with our amazing appeal and hope that more companies will sign up to RTB programme and support our many other CSR programmes throughout the year." added Michelle.