What do these stand-out brokers have in common?

Ellie Brown

Leeds Baby Bank exists to support families in Leeds who are living in poverty. More than one in three children in Leeds lives in poverty which is higher than the national average. We help people from a diverse range of backgrounds. Everybody who we support is living in poverty, but people are experiencing many different issues including we support refugees and Asylum Seekers families affected by domestic violence and rape and many other issues as well. We work on a referral process. We call the family find out exactly what they need. And we list all the items and then one of our lovely volunteers will go and pick those items.

 

At Leeds Baby Bank we're all about having pre-loved items donated which we then take and give back out to families who are in desperate need. So we like to think we do our bit for recycling in the city and the people of Leeds do as well and making sure yeah their items are not ending up in landfill, they make sure they're puts a good use and go to a good home.

 

Amanda Shaw

We chose to support Leeds Baby Bank because it's a obviously a charity that's local to where we are actually Let's let's get behind them and get some money for them. When we found out we'd won £10,000 pounds we were absolutely over the moon and we did it on a team's meeting. And the first thing I did was immediately try and get hold of Leeds Baby Bank to tell them the good news. Everyone was so excited.

 

Ellie Brown

As the cost of living crisis deepens our charity is really seeing the effects of that on people in Leeds. So support from companies like Schofield Insurance is really important to us because that helps us buy the things we need and keep the service running. £10,000 pounds makes a massive difference to a charity like ours. We're a very lean charity and we operate on as low cost as possible. It means we can reduce our waiting list, our families waiting for support and help more people in the city. So yeah, it meant the world to us.

 

Amanda Shaw

We share our support for  Leeds Baby Bank with our clients and obviously other members of the community mainly through social media. I would definitely encourage other businesses to work with local causes. It's such a little effort on on our part to actually get these forms filled in, a few minutes of your time, but it makes such a big difference to local charities.

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Paul Gardner

I'm Paul Gardner and I'm Sales and Marketing director of Prescott Jones Insurance Brokers. Prescott Jones is a 30 year old, what we call a Community Broker, so we've been supporting our communities who've looked after us so well for the 30 years.

 

I came across the charity almost by accident on social media. I did a bit of research and was shocked, the biggest item that stuck out was I was reading that the average mortality rate for this area is 12 years younger than in richer parts of Cardiff and our office is literally half a mile away. And we're one of those richer areas. I guess one of the other things that stood out was the diverse nature of the community. I thought I knew the area pretty well, but some of the figures that were coming out, 51% minority ethic community in this area was surprising, with 35 ethnic groups. So the challenges of the area are quite immense and quite different to other parts of Cardiff.

 

Jen Abel

I'm Jen Abel. I'm Director of South Riverside Community Development Center, I've had the privilege of working here for almost a year now. What we do here and what's so fantastic about South Riverside Community Development Center is we actually don't try to help one particular protected characteristic. We're actually for everybody so anybody can access the pantry, anybody can walk into our young children and parents program. Anybody can come and access our youth work programs. And we do see amazing different groups of society.

 

Grant Cockerill

 Hi, I'm Grant  and I'm the coordinator of the pantry. One of the things we do in our publicity is to focus on the waste reduction aspect. We're trying to develop this whole center into waste reduction energy reduction.

 

Jen Abel

So part of the funding from the Aviva Broker Community Fund has really helped to fund an important part of the life of the pantry, so namely volunteer training. When we go inside now, you'll see all of the certificates in food and safety hygiene that really help us keep us safely operational but also for the people that have those certificates allows them to then have qualifications to put on their CV's when they go for their other jobs as well and for us as well volunteering really has to be a two-way street. So it's not just about us taking people's time. It's about also match making them with opportunities. So that's mutually beneficial. So to be able to pay for people's training is a huge part of that.

 

Jackie James

I think when I see people move on and succeed sometimes their journeys is only small but it doesn't matter because it might look small to me or to someone else but for them, it's a big step.

 

Paul Gardner

It was fantastic to hear that we won. It was quite an emotional day. Actually. I know how much the money was needed and the plans and I know they would make the most from it. 

Linda Bartley

I've been involved in the conservation group for a few years now found out that the Stanmore are involved in the local community and I'm also involved in the local community where I live and I thought it was a good opportunity to bring everything together.

 

Ian Bartley

The group exists to make Hollins village and and the local area better place to live

 

John Sheppard

We've tried to support the local community variety of ways such as little picking, planting trees shrubs flowers etc cutting back on dead growth, just developing the  area as naturally as possible and also, we like to try and back habitats for the local wildlife.

 

Linda Bartley

The go wild is annual and it brings all the community together adults, children, the grandparents friends family. It's just an all-out event, a really enjoyable day.

 

Ian Bartley

It gives everybody the opportunity to to learn about the area that they live in and what's available to them and what they can get involved with.

 

Linda Bartley

We've not had Go Wild for a couple of years with the pandemic and wanted to have an all-out celebration really. So I got an email at Stanmore Insurance Brokers explaining what it was all about and took the opportunity to apply. I was so excited. It was really good to have won considering. I've not been at Stanmore for very long so I jumped up and ran in to tell my boss and then ran in to tell my director Jackie.

 

Ian Bartley

It's fantastic actually to get support from any any local business and all the local businesses, like Stanmore's do get involved to help us where they can.

 

John Sheppard

It is a massive benefit for us to win such a large among because there are things like wood for the development of the the path through the conservation area that need replacing and that all costs and of course different tools for different things.

 

Ian Bartley

It just means that the pressure to fund events like Go Wild day and to buy wood for our path repairs, that pressure is taken off which means that we can then concentrate on doing what we love to do.

 

Linda Bartley

We always tell our clients. Let them know what we're up to and keep them up to date. We've got a page on our website and we also send an email out to our customers. So we'll let them know about the the award then. And we also actually got some local press and the Bury Times, Bolton Evening News, few other papers as well to promote this the conservation group and also the award that we'd won.

It's great to get involved in something in your local community. Definitely.