Sarah Taylor, Chapter One's Business Development Manager, recently interviewed Luke Richardson, Head of Social Value at our Platinum Partner Amentum. Amentum has expanded its partnership from West Cumbria to Bradford and Warrington, recently winning Chapter One's Volunteer Growth Award 2024-25. With 140 volunteers this year, they've become one of our biggest supporters in the UK - which is testament to a programme that delivers measurable impact whilst being genuinely enjoyable for volunteers.

Watch the full interview below to find out how Chapter One helps Amentum deliver measurable social value.

Why is literacy such an important focus for Amentum?
Ultimately, it's a fundamental skill. If we look at it in terms of career prospects, there's a lot of great opportunities out there... But literacy is fundamental to people's ability to build access to other learning. If you can't read, you can't learn other skills. So it's crucial.

When you think about corporate social responsibility or social value done really well, what does that look like? What are the key success factors?
Do one, two or three things absolutely brilliantly, but do them targeted based on the skills of your business and don't just sporadically do the odd thing that you can shout and say, oh look, I've done this one thing. Target the challenge and make the difference on it.

How did Amentum and Chapter One connect?
We'd seen Chapter One from a distance, so we'd heard about the programme, and when we looked at what Chapter One was doing, there were a couple of things. So one, it really ticked that box to say, right, there's a targeted initiative and it comes with all of the support. There's the e-learning that volunteers do at the start... the tools themselves are really easy to use... All those boxes ticked straight away and we thought, actually, this is a match made in heaven.

How does online volunteering work in practice?
Our organisation is quite a hybrid business. So we've got people dotted around the UK... With Chapter One, as long as you've got your laptop, which in our case, our people travel with laptops everywhere... you can participate in it. So it makes it really easy.

How has Chapter One helped Amentum engage its supply chain?
When you...bring an opportunity that says we can deliver local impact, but remotely, sweet spot ticks... Chapter One comes packaged with the children you're going to work with, connected with the school, and then in the background with that support. [Luke notes that 20-30 different businesses have joined Chapter One through their connection.]

What impact metrics does Chapter One provide?
We see everything...that has taken place either on an individual [volunteer], across specific teams [of volunteers] and in schools. We're able to see the reading level change so we can see where reading level started and where they ended. That's really key. And then we have had particular examples...where we've seen phonics results increasing across the entire school, which is absolutely brilliant.

What do Amentum volunteers say about the programme?
Everyone's extremely positive. The key ones that come out are people love the time that they spend on it from the start to the end. So seeing the development of the child over that time frame, that always resonates with people really, really well.

What advice would Luke give to other companies considering Chapter One?
Do it. Plain and simple... When you look at what you've got in terms of the training that's made available for the staff through the learning modules, the support team that's available... everything knits together really, really well. I can't find a fault with this programme.

Luke Richardson and Shaun France from Amentum, with Emma Bell, Chapter One CEO, Anna Ansted, Head of Corporate Partnerships and Sarah Taylor, Business Development Manager at our Partner, Volunteer and School Recognition Awards 2025