Committed to supporting the communities in which we operate, Oak offers support through charitable donations and by volunteering our time as a firm, in teams and as individuals. We actively encourage all our colleagues to provide their time to support worthy causes and charities, offering days off to volunteer on an individual or team basis.

This year, Oak is sponsoring the St John Ambulance “Be a Life-Saving Knight” competition launched on 24 June in celebration of St John’s Day and to raise awareness of the charity’s work in Jersey. The competition is open to children under the age of 13 and participants are encouraged to use recycled or re-purposed materials from their homes to dress up as knights for the day, and submit a photo of their costume for the chance to win an annual Family Membership to Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Nicola Gott, managing director of Oak in Jersey, will represent Oak on the judging panel together with Jersey’s Lieutenant Governor Sir Stephen Dalton and Lady Dalton, fine artist Cate Hamilton and the president of St John Ambulance Jersey, Diana Mossop. To find out more and for details of how to enter please click here.

Earlier in 2020, Oak sponsored the Jersey Netball Association’s Net ‘Ball’ celebrating young players on the island, with netball star Serena Guthrie MBE attending the event on 31 January as a special guest. Serena presented the Association’s under-14 and under-16 players with prizes in recognition of their dedication in the 2018/2019 season and Team Jets players were awarded medals for the 2019/2020 season during the event. The JNA raised over £3,000 through a silent auction and raffle which will be used to support its offering to young players.

In addition, Oak is a proud sponsor of the LTA Tennis Hub in St Clements, Jersey. The Tennis Hub is a family-friendly and inclusive tennis environment which engages with local schools and the community, offering varied tennis programmes for all abilities and ages. The programme has a particular focus on encouraging children and young members of the community to access tennis in Jersey and we are very pleased to support this initiative. Our sponsorship includes a coaching programme targeting Year 2 children from schools across Jersey. The coaches support teachers to implement tennis into the PE curriculum and Oak hosts mini tournaments where these new skills can be put to the test.

In 2019, Oak supported the Tennis Hub’s activities as part of the Great British Tennis Weekend and will continue to work with coaches to run ‘family day’ events. A further initiative of Oak’s sponsorship of the Tennis Hub is to raise awareness of tennis and encourage GCSE level students to take part, and in 2019 the coaches ran a Challenge Cup day for young adults.

The launch of a Summer Oak Corporate League and Oak Padel Tennis competition are just some of the other events Oak and the Tennis Hub host to promote tennis in the community. We look forward to working with coaches, Mark Gilmour and James Faudemer and hope to help many children and young people to access this wonderful game in the future.