New patron backs Shaping Portsmouth’s mission as South Western Railway promises to help ‘bring people together’ to ‘deliver great things’

South Western Railway has become a patron of Shaping Portsmouth, a community interest company working to create sustainable collaborations and innovative programmes which make Portsmouth Britain’s premier waterfront city in which to invest, live, learn, work and visit.

Shaping Portsmouth’s small office team is supported by approximately 120 active volunteers, running fifteen programmes to help benefit the city across the sectors of business, education, and community, and supporting a further fourteen external projects.

SWR says that working with Shaping Portsmouth will afford the company an opportunity to deliver initiatives which will make a real difference to the people of Portsmouth.

Amy Dickinson, SWR’s head of sustainability, said: ‘We are so excited about joining Shaping Portsmouth as its values and vision reflect our own.

‘We share their desire to bring people together and build them up to deliver great things.

‘We are looking forward to collaborating with others to deliver on local initiatives such as climate action, staying safe and offering apprenticeship programmes to give the people in Portsmouth a variety of career options.’

The News is also one of the many patrons backing Shaping Portsmouth’s mission.

Amy added: ‘We look forward to sharing our knowledge and the experience we have built up operating in the local communities around our network, through our partnerships with Community Rail Groups and by funding projects that deliver real change through our Customer and Community Improvement Fund.’

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Stef Nienaltowski is CEO of Shaping Portsmouth.

He said: ‘Amy Dickinson and the team from SWR are committed to playing their full part in our partnership and I know that we will be able to deliver more activities and at a broader level because of their commitment to us and the city.

‘The investment they have indicated in terms of support and people will enable us to go further than we can now and at a quicker pace.

‘I am confident that we will build a lasting partnership across a number of our current programmes.’

Visit shapingportsmouth.co.uk.