Welcome to the first edition of the Racing Together blog, promoting some of the great examples of community engagement throughout British Racing as well as updating you on the key initiatives Racing Together will be supporting.

Get involved by sending your examples of community engagement activity to [email protected] and see your initiatives published here.

 What is Racing Together?

Racing Together is the collective banner for British Racing’s community engagement. As such, Racing Together is integral to the way British Racing engages with its wider community. It provides for those who make up our industry, sustains our future and ensures our success is shared by the communities in which we operate. Racing Together was launched at a Parliamentary Reception in November 2014. For more information visit the Racing Together page on our website.

 Racing Together Supports Give & Gain Day

We’re delighted to announce that Racing Together will be supporting Give & Gain Day 2015 on Friday 15 May. Now in its sixth year, Give & Gain Day celebrates businesses volunteering within their local communities, and is organised by industry experts Business in the Community.

This is the only organised national day of employee volunteering available in Britain and forms part of a global series in which 32 countries participate.

The theme of Give & Gain Day 2015 is harnessing the ‘power of conversation’, and elements to consider include health, education, employability, enterprise and team challenges. Each of these elements are fundamental to British Racing, which is why this initiative is an ideal fit for Racing Together.

What kind of things could you do to get involved? Some ideas include:

• Careers training workshops with CV building and interview ‘speed dating’
• Community ‘drop in’ session discussing your favourite racing memories
• ‘Meet the jockey’ Q&A in local schools highlighting the fitness and dietary regimes required to sustain this career
• ‘Our skills, your needs’, taking your workforce and its unique skills to parts of the community in need of assistance

Not only will participation in Give & Gain Day provide fantastic exposure for Racing Together and the community engagement within British Racing, but there are clear business benefits to being involved. These include:

• The ability to find out what is happening and what is important within your local community
• Creating long lasting relationships between your business, staff and the surrounding area
• The opportunity to demonstrate how you run your business and your business values
• The prospect of collaboration with other local businesses, which could lead to new commercial partnerships

Learning from experience with experts Business in the Community has highlighted that:

• 96% of employees that take part in Give & Gain Day want to volunteer through their companies again.
• 71% of volunteers agreed that they have developed skills as a result of volunteering on Give & Gain Day.
• 93% of volunteers report that their experience improves their perception of their employer.

This 10 point benefit statement from Business in the Community sums up why you should be involved.

 Get involved

Plenty of organisations, including the BHA, Racecourse Association, several racecourses and The Racing Centre in Newmarket, are already participating, but you can let us know now ([email protected]) if you’d like to be a part of this fantastic initiative.

Projects can be of your own making or you can request a bespoke project exclusive to your geographic region from Racing Together. Either way, your engagement is the important thing and we look forward to seeing British Racing come together to help local communities across the country.

Visit http://www.bitc.org.uk/programmes/give-gain-day for more information and follow @giveandgain and #giveandgain

British Racing on Good Friday

Good Friday racing is a new concept to the British Racing calendar, having first been introduced in 2014 at Lingfield Park Racecourse and Musselburgh Racecourse. However, it is already established as one of the key highlights in the calendar when British Racing gives back to the wider communities in which it operates.

As contributors to Racing Together, Arena Racing Company’s (ARC) initiatives in place on Good Friday were in-line with our ‘Racing’ pillar of activity, designed to look after the people and horses who are British Racing.

Each member of stable staff leading up a horse at Lingfield Park received £100, while an extra £100 was awarded to all travelling head stable staff as a further demonstration of gratitude to the racing community.

The historic Good Friday Open Days in Lambourn and Middleham, attracting a combined crowd of devoted racing fans in excess of 14,000, each received £10,000 as well as big screens to display the action in the market squares of both towns.

A section of Lingfield Park’s raceday was used to promote the excellent standards of horse welfare throughout the racing industry, with support from the Horse Comes First Campaign and a live demonstration featuring Dame Judi Dench’s former racehorse Smokey Oakey.

ARC Director of External Affairs, Susannah Gill, said: “Every ARC racecourse is an important part of the racing and local community. Across the year each will support many organisations and events to help raise awareness and much needed funds for good causes.  Lingfield Park invited Riding for the Disabled, where Smokey Oakey now lives, to benefit from holding a bucket collection on its busiest day of the year on Good Friday.  We were also delighted to be able to support two Open Days which give people such a wonderful opportunity to see behind the scenes of racing, while hosting an exciting raceday at Lingfield Park which all the family could enjoy.”

Racing Together spokesman, Paul Swain, said: “All areas of British Racing do a tremendous amount to support their local communities. ARC and Lingfield Park should be congratulated for developing this raceday that is not only hugely popular with the racing public, but that also gives back to those in the industry whose hard work helps keep the show on the road.”

Racing Together Branding

Keep the Racing Together brand at the forefront of your community engagement collateral by using the suite of graphics which is downloadable in the ‘Useful documents’ sidebar.

For any alternative requests, please contact [email protected].