April 2, 2020
A team of DXC Technology employees based in Erskine, Scotland recently won an internal Charity Challenge award for their efforts to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer Scotland. The team consisted of employees across all areas of the business brought together by their passion and enthusiasm for supporting this charitable organisation, which provides much-needed support and advice if you or a family member are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
DXC’s Charity Challenge program provides employees with an opportunity to share their volunteering, giving or community service stories with the DXC Gives team through a quarterly essay contest. The winning submissions get to guide a $5,000 USD donation to the charity of their choice.
Over the past two years, our Erskine-based team has completed many challenging activities in order to raise money and awareness for the charity. Here are a few of the highlights:
STEMettes hackathon
15 employees volunteered to work alongside the local STEMettes team for a hugely successful weekend of coding and app creation. STEMettes is a social enterprise which encourages girls aged 5–22 to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. At the hackathon, we devised a challenge to create an app for people living with dementia. This enabled the younger generation to develop their coding skills while also raising awareness of Alzheimer Scotland. The girls presented their innovative creations to a judging panel from DXC, Microsoft, University of the West of Scotland and Alzheimer Scotland. Many different apps were created, including one that reminded users when to take medication and another that offered a place to store favourite recipes, music and much more.
Ben Nevis climb raises £4000+
More recently, a team of 18 employees climbed Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the UK, to raise money for Alzheimer Scotland. Ben Nevis stands 1,345 meters (4,413 feet) above sea level and presents a challenging climb for even the most experienced hikers. It was a difficult ascent, but the team was able to take a picture of their victory at the top of the mountain. Collectively, we managed to raise over £4000 for the charity!
A special partnership
Together with other companies in the same office campus, DXC Erskine has raised £84,014.94 for Alzheimer Scotland. This money has been used to help fund the Purple Alert App and support many of the local dementia centres in Scotland.
The first of its kind in the UK, the Purple Alert app enables families and caregivers to create a profile for the person living with dementia and upload it to the app. Should the person lose their way at any point, it allows for eyes and ears on the ground to immediately help find them. Everyone in the area with the app will get a notification that a person is missing and can post comments if they have any information. It has already assisted in finding 13 people living with dementia who have lost their way.
Meanwhile, the local dementia centres offer friendly, accessible environments for everyone to enjoy. They follow the principles of dementia-friendly design and strive to create a local feel, creating a sense of homeliness, which we know is important in helping everyone to feel at ease.
As a thank you for the team’s efforts, Alzheimer Scotland visits the Erskine campus to deliver Dementia Friends training for staff. This training gives staff a better understanding of dementia and how to deal with people affected by the illness in a positive way.
The partnership over the past two years has been amazing, and we look forward to seeing how it will grow in the future.