Insurance company awards £50K to Gloucestershire Young Carers

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Nicky Godding

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A Young Carers charity in Gloucestershire is one of ten charities to receive £50,000 as part of Gloucester-based Ecclesiastical Insurance's Movement for Good awards.

The awards, set up by specialist insurer Ecclesiastical, have seen a total of £1million given to charities across the UK this summer. 500 have already been awarded donations of £1,000 and now 10 charitable organisations will benefit from £50,000 grants.

Gloucestershire Young Carers, which supports and enables young carers to build resilience and achieve their aspirations, was one of the 10 selected from nearly 800 entries¹.

The fund will allow the charity to improve its current respite support groups for young carers. The groups offer vital, life-changing help to isolated young people and reduce the impact of their caring responsibilities at home.

Each of the £50,000 awards are designed to help charities take innovative projects to the next level in the fields of education, skills, arts, culture and heritage, as well as citizenship or community development.

Mark Hews, Group CEO of Ecclesiastical, said: “Ecclesiastical is unlike any other financial services group. Owned by a charity, our core purpose is to contribute to the greater good of society. Charitable giving is therefore at the heart of our business and we are proud to be the fourth largest corporate donor in the UK. Each of these £50,000 awards will fund innovative projects and good ideas that will help make people’s lives better.

“This summer our Movement for Good awards has motivated over 100,000 members of the public across the UK to support and nominate causes close to their heart. Now we are excited to see how this next financial boost will create a lasting legacy for all the award winners.

Jane Dyer, Fundraiser at Gloucestershire Young Carers Project, added: “I don’t think anyone ever expects to win in situations like this, particularly with such amazing competition from across the country, so we were delighted when we found out.

“It is never easy for charities and we all do tend to live hand to mouth, so this award gives us immediate breathing space to think and plan.

“Long term it gives us sustainability. We can evolve our current respite support groups for young carers across Gloucestershire and build upon the relationships we have with other community charities for future collaborations.”

An amazing 98,000 people around the UK supported the Movement for Good awards during its first phase earlier this year, with over 7,000 charitable causes up and down the country receiving votes. The 500 winning charities were picked at random from those nominated.

Phase two saw 800 project submissions for the £50,000 awards. Following a review of all the applications, over 20,000 people showed support for a shortlist of 15 charities before a panel of judges made their final selection of the winning projects².

Owned by a charity, Ecclesiastical is the only financial services group that exists to give all its available profits to charity. It has given £100million to charity over the past five years and is the fourth largest corporate giver in the UK³.

For further information on the Movement for Good Awards and for a full list of the winning charities visit: www.ecclesiastical.com/movement-for-good

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.