The Yorkshire Building Society is committing over £1m of extra investment into its communities in 2021 as part of its social purpose agenda.
The investment by the mutual will focus on the key themes of building financial resilience across the UK and supporting employability and digital skills training.
Amongst a range of initiatives that the society plans to invest in will be pilot projects designed to enhance the financial guidance available on the high street as well as creating regional co-ordinator roles that will act as a link point into communities and help to mobilise a range of support activities.
The society will also expand its Money Minds financial education programme with a £100,000 investment in developing and promoting new and engaging digital content. Money Minds has been delivered to more than 25,000 pupils across the UK since 2015 and the society is committed to boosting that number in support of the national campaign to promote financial education in young people.
The Yorkshire will also be launching pilot schemes in 2021 to provide opportunities for digital skills training to people of working age in local communities to increase their chances of securing future employment.
The new investment will also go to both the society’s new two-year partnership with Age UK to fund the Building Better Livesprogramme to build wider financial resilience in older people in the UK and increased funding for Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation which makes donations to charities around the country.
£240,000 will also be invested in the Society’s home city of Bradford in 2021, to deliver a commitment to provide employability and digital skills training to both young people and those of working age to support Bradford’s post-Covid recovery. The investment supports the society’s longer-term ambition to provide at least 2,000 people in Bradford with employability support via access to training, work experience, mentoring, apprenticeships and some targeted financial support for further education by the end of 2022.
Mike Regnier, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society, said: “I’m really pleased to be able to announce our increased support for our communities this year and our additional investment will really target help towards some of the most vulnerable members of them.
“As a mutual organisation we’re owned by our members and not shareholders, meaning we can reinvest profits to deliver benefits to our communities, members and colleagues and really deliver on our social purpose.
“Be that either through investment into our branch network to help pilot community support hubs, increasing our donation to Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation or by piloting employability support in our home city of Bradford via access to digital skills training, work experience, mentoring and apprenticeships.
“Also, now more than ever, with the current economic uncertainty, it’s important that we improve the financial resilience in the UK. One of the things the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated is that anyone could find themselves in financial difficulties and may need to rely on savings, which is why we are working with Age UK to build resilience in older people and continue to focus on improving financial education in children so that they have the knowledge and skills to protect themselves from any sudden and unexpected changes to their situation when they are adults.”
