Dulux celebrates 200th ‘Let’s Colour’ project with Volunteer It Yourself

Dulux, the UK’s leading paint brand, is celebrating completing its 200th ‘Let’s Colour’ community project with social enterprise Volunteer It Yourself (‘VIY’). 

To mark the occasion, Dulux’s Senior Leadership Group, featuring many of the top leaders in the business across all functions in the UK and Ireland including the Management Team, joined forces with VIY as part of this landmark community project. They worked together to revitalise Winchmore Hill Sports Club and create safe, inclusive and welcoming changing rooms to grow their women and girls’ football teams.

To further build on the milestone, AkzoNobel, Dulux’s parent company, launched a new ‘Volunteering Through Partnership’ initiative which encourages colleagues from across the business to volunteer their time at least once per year. The initiative not only gives colleagues the time to volunteer in their teams, but also provides the materials needed to support community projects across the UK. Volunteering provides AkzoNobel the opportunity to give back to surrounding communities through valued partners, like VIY, and brands, like Dulux, in order to build stronger, more resilient communities by helping to add colour to people’s lives.

VIY has been working with Dulux for over four years through Dulux’s ‘Let’s Colour’ initiative which is dedicated to bringing communities together through the power of paint by working closely with partner organisations. Since July 2020, this partnership has positively impacted communities, with over 120,000 lives positively impacted through transforming over 200+ community spaces using donated Dulux Trade paint. These projects have successfully supported and developed over 3,000 young people aged 14-24 through taking part. They have also helped train over 2,360 young people in painting and decorating, including over 2,000 City & Guilds accreditations earned with over half of these in painting and decorating.

Hannah Denny, communications and partnerships manager at Volunteer It Yourself, commented: “We know how important it is to give opportunities to young people who otherwise feel like they may not have them. Through equipping them the tools for success, we are proud to make a difference in thousands of people’s lives. Offering vocational training to young people is vital to creating a stronger future for the painting and decorating industry as we look to build the new generation of talent.

“It is even more rewarding that this comes hand in hand with helping local communities by refreshing their spaces. High standard improvements, such as what we’ve achieved at Winchmore Hill, are key to retaining and attracting people to these spaces at a time when we are seeing falling community engagement and belonging across the country. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the funders of this project, without whom this could not have happened: the Barclays Community Football Fund, whose donation was match-funded by Sport England, in recognition of using sport and football as a vehicle to teach life skills to young people.”

It is a fantastic achievement to reach our 200th project together with Dulux and great for everyone to get involved in what we do.”

Anthony, VIY Learner aged 22 at Gabalfa Youth and Community Centre, commented: “I’m so grateful for the opportunity with VIY – I’ve never felt purpose like this before in my life. I was unsure what I wanted to do, I was considering signing up to the Army, but I didn’t really want to leave my family in Cardiff.

“Construction is always something I’ve wanted to get into, but I’ve always struggled to gain work experience. As soon as I heard about the VIY project through my local JobCentre, I headed down the very next day. This project has been the first step for me to consider a role in the trade – and now I’ve been supported by VIY into my decorating apprenticeship with V&C (SW) Limited in Cardiff, which I’m absolutely loving.”