A team of Yorkshire Building Society’s senior leaders, including chief executive, Susan Allen, volunteered at FareShare Yorkshire’s hub in Leeds, gaining first-hand insight into the charity’s vital work tackling food poverty and supporting employability across the UK.
The visit formed part of the Society’s partnership with FareShare UK, which sees it fund the Building Skills for the Future programme – a unique initiative which offers tailored support to help people prepare for work, including warehouse and kitchen work experience, Food Hygiene and Manual Handling accreditations, and CV and interview workshops.
Launched in December 2023, the Building Skills for the Future programme has already helped over 1,000 participants across the UK, including people in Yorkshire, Merseyside, London, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The programme helps people to gain valuable skills, qualifications, and confidence to move closer to employment. To date, 105 participants have secured paid work, and hundreds more have gained new skills and qualifications.
Since December 2023, Yorkshire Building Society has raised over £700,000 to fund the programme and it aims to raise over £1 million by June 2026. Around 500 colleagues have volunteered with FareShare since the partnership began. Alongside the employability programme, the partnership also funds an outreach initiative offering free, face-to-face workshops on job searching and financial wellbeing.
During the visit, the team undertook some of the activities experienced by Building Skills for the Future participants in the warehouse, preparing and sorting groceries destined for distribution to charities across the region. The team also spent time with FareShare staff and volunteers to understand how the organisation’s operations are making a difference in communities across the country.
Susan Allen, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society said: “Volunteering at FareShare Yorkshire was incredibly inspiring. Seeing first-hand the impact FareShare is making in communities across the UK brought to life the importance of our partnership.
“Around 500 Yorkshire Building Society colleagues have volunteered their time to support the partnership in many ways, from supporting FareShare’s warehouse operations, manning food collections at supermarkets and running and taking part in fundraising events. It is wonderful to see how their efforts directly support people in communities up and down the UK.
“Over a thousand people have already benefitted from the Building Skills for the Future programme. As well as improving important employability skills, it’s helping people improve their financial resilience and supporting them to build a better future.”
Jonathan Williams, chief executive officer at FareShare Yorkshire said: “We were delighted to welcome the executive team from Yorkshire Building Society to our Leeds hub to see the Building Skills for the Future programme in action.
“Our employability programmes support people who may be vulnerable into good, sustainable work, helping to maximise their strengths, overcome barriers to employment and take advantage of opportunities that change lives. The partnership with Yorkshire Building Society is making a vital contribution to these programmes and we’re making good progress towards our goal to support 2,500 people through the Building Skills for the Future programme by 2026.
“Through working at FareShare, participants help deliver much needed surplus food to people and communities in need. This meaningful work sees participants help strengthen their local communities while creating clear paths into employment for themselves and lift themselves out of financial hardship.”
For more information, visit: www.ybs.co.uk/fareshare
