Goldman Sachs Gives Back through Community TeamWorks
Goldman Sachs has supported The Infants’ Home’s Corporate Volunteer program for an amazing 16 years, since 2008. From 2013 they began supporting our annual children’s sandpit refresh via their Community TeamWorks program. This program enables Goldman Sachs’ people to work in partnership with nonprofit organisations around the world to make a meaningful difference—which they certainly do for The Infants’ Home.
In addition to providing us with groups of hardworking volunteers each year to carry out the heavy work of removing old sand and replacing it with fresh new sand, Goldman Sachs also covers the costs of resources needed for the day. This includes many tonnes of new sand (up to 17 tonnes!), skip bins for sand removal and the hire of other equipment, such as wheelbarrows, if needed.
This year the team tackled eight sandpits needing refreshing across The Infants’ Home large site, and they managed to complete the whole project in just one day, which was a gargantuan effort!
This annual project is enormously important for our children’s programs. All our centres boast at least one sandpit, as sand play is a valuable part of early years’ education. Sand play is fun for most children, whether on their own or with others. The benefits of sand play include enhancing children’s physical, social and problem-solving skills, improving language and speech, promoting creativity and supporting understanding of maths and science concepts.
Sandpits are also great spaces for children when they need some quiet time—the sensory experience of manipulating sand can be soothing and can help children to relax and self-regulate if needed.
Each year Goldman Sach’s support helps significantly with the costs and resources needed to keep our sandpits safe and welcoming spaces for our children’s learning, development and wellbeing.
We are always pleased to hear from Goldman Sachs’ volunteers about their experience at The Infants’ Home, and about the impact they feel their contribution has on our community.
“My volunteer experience for the day left me with great fulfilment, watching the little one’s faces light up with excitement as we refreshed the sand in their sandpits. It was a heartwarming reminder that even the smallest acts of kindness can bring immense joy… I learned that it wasn’t just about refreshing the sand in sandpits but about what the children will gain and learn from their interactions with each other and their playtime in these sandpits.” – Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks volunteer
We are grateful for Goldman Sachs’ ongoing support for what has become known across The Infants’ Home as ‘sandpit day’, and we look forward to welcoming the team again in the future.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or would like more information, please email us at childrensservices@theinfantshome.org.au.