Conyers and the Conyers Charitable Trust this week celebrated 30 years of contributions to the education and well being of Bermudian youth.

“Giving back to the community is at the core of who we are as a firm, which is why we support charities and initiatives that enrich the lives of children and youth, especially those in at-risk groups,” Conyers global head of human resources Lisa Spencer-Arscott said.

The firm’s charitable efforts are two-pronged. The Conyers Charitable Trust focuses on supporting youth development and education, while their employee charitable programme matches employee donations to grass-roots community organisations across Bermuda.

It also has two signature programmes, its legal education scholarship and local community giving.

Through their legal education scholarship they have donated over $2 million in the past ten years and have been providing scholarships to students for over 30 years.

“In addition, we’ve offered many paid summer internships to our aspiring lawyers, with the sole aim of supporting their hands-on work experience,” a spokesman for the company said.

Through their local community giving programme, the Trust invests in a number of local partnerships and non-profit organisations, donating more than $7.6 million since the beginning.

“In addition to donations, we’ve shared our professional skills and expertise with non-profit, participated in donation drives, mentored kids, and much more,” a spokesman said.

Recently, the company made a donation to Purvis Primary in Warwick to purchase books, in honour of World Book Day in March.

As part of the initiative, corporate service manager Laura Hill read some of her favourite stories to primary students there.

The Conyers Charitable Trust also sponsors the Gap Year Internship Programme, which enables young people to take a ‘gap year’ at Conyers and get real, on-the-job experience as part of a paid internship.

This year the Conyers Charitable Trust sponsored five student interns.

Conyers also runs a longstanding employee charitable giving programme. Employees who take part in the programme donate money from their salaries each month and the total is matched by the firm.

Since its inception more than 15 years ago, the programme has raised more than $350,000 for local causes.

Charities they support include Big Brothers Big Sisters Bermuda, Bermuda Education Network, Future Leaders Bermuda, Each One Reach One Back to School campaign and Bermuda Sloop Foundation.