Our community

We love helping charities and sponsor the annual Polar Bear Plunge which has raised over £25,000 to date.

As a company (and individuals) we regularly support Homestart St Albans, WorldVision, Coppafeel, Against Breast Cancer, The Crescent.

A common interest is good food and good coffee – thank you George Street Canteen and L’Italiana.

Atlas Translations is active in the local and national business community – meet us at St Albans Businesses Jelly, at St Albans and District Chamber of Commerce events, or perhaps the next ITI Conference.

So to give you a snapshot; in 2016 our director Clare sent her husband to the North Pole. Not randomly, but to raise money for: Cancer Research UK, Rennie Grove Hospice Care, Earthworks St Albans and the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. Yes, it was Mr. Clare who trekked to the North Pole. Fair point, but it was Clare who stayed home to look after their three children and run Atlas.

Before he left, Clare and Mr. Clare  – or  ‘Ed’ – organised a ball; the Snow and Ice Ball where many of you came along and supported the chosen charities. Thank you. We couldn’t have done it without you. Also before he left, (yes, there’s more), on 01 January 2016 there was the Polar Bear Plunge organised by Clare, AKA the Polar PA. With some admin support from me, Anna, who shall be known as ‘The Polar Plunge PA’s PA’ or ‘Pee-pee Pa-pa’ for short. This gave people from across Hertfordshire, London and beyond, the chance to jump into icy waters to raise money for charity. What a wonderful, chilly yet warm spirited, way to start the year.

The plunge was such a success that it ran again on 01 January 2017 and 01 January 2018. Raising even more money for great causes; and it happened again on 01 January 2019. Let us know if you want to be involved in Plunge 2020.

Another cause we support is The Crescent, a local centre that supports people and their families affected by HIV and AIDS. We donated money for them to buy cakes for their open days. And we remain committed to their fantastic work and will continue to finance their cakes – or whatever they need. Here is a bit about them and their wonderful work.  These places are few and far between and we are very proud to have it in St Albans.

We also support HomeStart St Albans. Further afield, we support a child in Africa through WorldVision. Her name is Lightness Sambuya and we ensure she receives educational support as well as financial support to give her a better start in life.

We are dedicated to supporting local businesses. Even down to the coffee shop where we buy our Friday coffee-treats (courtesy of Atlas – thanks Clare). It’s not part of a huge conglomerate chain but a small coffee-shop called George Street Canteen They are brilliant and their coffee is great as are their cakes….  They have very kindly donated free cakes and coffee for our charity event, Breast Tea Ever.

We raise money for two breast cancer charities. One is Coppafeel, dedicated to raising awareness and early detection of breast cancer in younger women. I  (Anna, Clare’s PA AKA as Polar Plunge PA’s PA) was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. I was no spring chicken at 43 (oh, there’s a whole chicken section coming up… stay with us), but was still too young for routine screening.

My phone-a-friend on that terrible day was Clare, wife of Mr. Clare who went to the North Pole. And also Atlas Founder and Director. And mother of three. Hence another charity we support is Against Breast Cancer. This fabulous charity helps finance essential research into treating cancer. It also enables bra recycling. Which leads me onto my next point.

Here at Atlas we offer that Bra Recycling service. Yes, Bra Recycling deserves those capital letters. I don’t throw them round willy-nilly. For a long time, I had wondered where to send bras to ‘rest in peace’. It took my double mastectomy operation to nudge me into researching re-homing the sack full of bras. Strapless, plunge (non-polar), Wonderbra, lift’n’separate (does opposite to the Wonderbra), sports, maternity and everyday-grey. That’s how I discovered Against Breast Cancer. I am delighted that women across Hertfordshire deposit their bras with us, here at Atlas Translations. At the Bra Bank which lives here permanently. Against Breast Cancer collect the bras and donate money to cancer charities dependent on weight. Landfill is reduced and the bras are sent to Africa for a new lease of life. Through the Atlas Translations website we can let local people know about this bra collection spot!

We are dedicated to recycling. Not so easy here in our office, so we carry home our plastic milk bottles (from our gallons of tea). We have a set of re-useable coffee cups (thank you George St Canteen). And we recyle our pizza boxes (L’Italiana, a local restaurant). Every few weeks we have Pizza Friday. Makes a change from our packed lunches. And it’s the only restaurant our Italian Project Managers love. Good enough endorsement for me!  So we trundle home loaded down with recycling. We even re home our shredding. Yes, The Chickens (note, capitals). We collect all the shredding our office produces it and then take it to a local mum Laura who has:

Roxy, Cynthia, Bertha, Ethel, Simba, T-Rex and Tree-Fu Tom.

So we deliver much needed bedding to local chickens. And through our real work offering and delivering translation work internationally we are active in the local business community. Members of St Albans Businesses group as well as the St Albans and District Chamber of Commerce. While we speak the world’s languages, we understand the importance of our local communities and charities. We also recognise that all this work would not be possible without our incredible team of linguists who work for us. We host events twice a year that allows us to say a big, heartfelt thank you to them.

In a time of the Internet, email, working-from-home and even phone-calls, it’s easy to forget there is a person attached to a name. We are keen to have face-to-face contact with all who work for Atlas. Good relationships are needed for the high quality of work we deliver. Without these incredible language experts there would be no human and therefore real, translation. This is an invaluable element of the service we offer.

There is much written about translation software and whether ‘human-translation’ is needed anymore. By the way, ‘human-translation’ means people who are highly qualified language experts who don’t just change one word for another. They understand its context, respect the cultural sensitivities and find a new, yet beautiful and succinct way of saying the same thing in an alternate language. Translation isn’t binary; it isn’t a two dimensional science or basic algebra. X doesn’t always equal X.  It’s far greater than that. There are thousands of ways to say the same things and our vast team of translators find the most appropriate words. Translating is more like art. Or poetry.

To show our appreciation for this, we like our translators to join us regularly and enjoy fine food, drink and conversation that isn’t necessarily about work.  After these events, we sometimes have left-over food. We deliver this food to local homeless centres so nothing is wasted. Information on events and meeting us can be found here on the Atlas Translations website.

Although we aren’t technically a family-run business, we would never regard each other as just colleagues. We are supportive of one another at different stages of life, parenting, career development and return-to-work. We offer part-time, flexi-working and the option to work from home enabling us to spend time with our families. And pets!  On a personal level, Atlas Translations has been a lifeline for me. We are very proud to be part of this wonderful team of incredible people. And we get free eggs from The Chickens.

You can see us in this promotional video.