Expedia Group interns help local community organisations with website support

With many community organisations having little to zero budget for website design and management, it is no surprise that this is an area where organisations are calling out for support. For that reason, BIG Alliance was delighted to partner with Expedia Group for the third year running to offer a website consultation to local community organisations.

Tom Browne, Community Project Manager for BIG Alliance, explained: 

"Having the opportunity to provide community organisations with this level of expertise and bespoke support through the dedicated teams of interns is fantastic and observing one of the intern teams build a brand new website for one of the organisations was a real highlight."

Session attendees included Chabad Lubavitch of Islington, Eritrean Youth Club, Hanley Crouch Community Association, Home-Start Camden, and Middle Eastern Women's Society Organisation.

A cohort of 30 interns from across Expedia Group spent the afternoon sharing their expertise from a range of degree backgrounds, such as Computer Science, Digital Media, Business Management, and Business Analytics.

Interns prepared feedback in advance and helped to review many factors, including website content, the ‘user journey’, functionality, and search engine optimisation. As well as providing community organisations the chance to build knowledge, understanding and confidence of managing websites, the benefits of the session were not lost on the interns. Feedback highlights included the opportunity "to work with and contribute to a good local cause" as well as doing something "different from the day job and something rewarding for the community".

Ilona Drozd, EMEA Early Talent Recruiter for Expedia Group further explained the benefits for volunteers:

"The website consultation session has been a vital part of our Summer Internship Programme as it allows our interns to understand how small non-profit businesses operate and helps them develop team work, communication and organisation skills. It was great to see how much they enjoy using their tech and business skills to give back to local communities."

The session was also widely praised by community organisations, with one saying it was "really useful and helped so much" and another stating it was "fantastic to get support and insight from the volunteers, plus some practical changes".

To find out how to engage with similar projects, whether you are a business or community organisation, please email tom.browne@thebigalliance.org.uk