At HS, each staff member has access to 20 paid hours of community volunteering per year. Recently, Ursula – an Account Project Manager – spent a couple of days at Project Fearless, Amsterdam.

In the charity's own words: 'Project Fearless creates an empowering, supportive atmosphere, giving kids space to play and create without the pressure of perfection, learning to celebrate each other’s falls and wins, while building their own resilience and self-confidence, and discovering who they are on their own terms.'  

Through their ARTivism programme, kids explore key topics related to climate change with hands-on experiments combining the basics of environmental science, chemistry and engineering.

Ursula's experience:

'This was probably the first time I had ever felt nervous about volunteering. Walking into a room full of kids from different backgrounds, all aged between 12 and 15, with hundreds of questions around how people and planet energy works was fairly intimidating! 

However, it turned out to be one of the best experiences in my life. A burst of energy pumped through my body after spending an afternoon volunteering with the Project Fearless team. Not only because we shared a fun experience – building eco-cities and understanding the power of the sun – but also because I got to learn so much about these kids. I let myself explore the world with them through their unbiased lenses and open up to creativity and curiosity!' 

Ursula is already looking at when she can go and help out again :)