Spare Rotterdam office chairs find a home

Merilee is a writer and translator at ABN AMRO. She is delighted with her home workspace, including all the facilities the bank has made available to staff. She’s particularly pleasedwith her office chair.

When the chair was delivered, Merilee realised that not everybody has that privilege. Her partner, Caro van der Meer, often talks about her work as the head of an IT training centre foryoung people with a disability. Caro set up the centre last year at Cordaan, a large healthcare provider that serves 20,000 people in Amsterdam. They had to make do with old desks and defective chairs.

Confidence and social skills

The training centre is a success. Every day, young people with autism or psychiatric problems visit the centre to improve their IT skills. This training is not only highly practical, it’s alsogood for their confidence and social skills. But those rickety office chairs were a problem.

Merilee asked around and discovered that the bank had some chairs in Rotterdam that no longer fit in with the bank’s current design concept. Cheerful, red office chairs that werein perfectly good condition, but no longer in use – ideal for Cordaan’s IT training centre.

A great second life

Within days, a Cordaan employee transported the chairs from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, where they are now being put to good use. “This wonderful gesture has really helped us out,” says Caro. “Our clients now have a good chair to sit on, and that makes it easier for themto work and to learn. The chairs have also totally brightened up our workplace. They’ve really been given a great second life!”

ABN AMRO Foundation

The foundation provides support to socially involved ABN AMRO employees. Want to know more? www.abnamro.com/foundation