Yorkshire Building Society colleagues raise over £48,000 taking on Yorkshire Three Peaks

Yorkshire Building Society colleagues have raised over £48,000 for FareShare, the UK’s largest charity tackling the environmental problem of food waste for social good, by taking on the Yorkshire Three Peaks.

Over 240 colleagues took part in a gruelling 10 or 26 mile walk, in torrential rain, wind and even some sunshine, to raise money for the Society’s charity partner.

The money raised will fund Building Skills for the Future programmes in seven of FareShare’s regional centres, including London, Bristol, Merseyside, Milton Keynes, Yorkshire, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The employability programme supports people who are unemployed into good, sustainable work, addressing one of the root causes of poverty. The Building Skills for the Future programme offers participants coaching, support, practical workshops and work experience to help them to gain full-time employment.

In addition, the partnership will fund an outreach programme offering free, face-to-face sessions and workshops helping participants overcome financial hardship by supporting the building of important skills such as CV writing, job searching and improving financial wellbeing. It is hoped that the two programmes will help 2,500 people improve their employability and help them become more financially resilient. 

Tom Simpson, Managing Director of YBS Commercial Mortgages, said: “The walk itself was really challenging but everyone was so determined to complete it and raise as much money as possible for FareShare, Yorkshire Building Society’s charity partner. 

“We’re delighted that we’ve managed to raise over £48,000 so far, which will help towards our target of raising £1million to fund Building Skills for the Future programmes that will help to lift over 2,500 people out of financial hardship.”

Polly Bianchi, Director of Fundraising at FareShare, said: “We’re hugely grateful to all the Yorkshire Building Society colleagues who took on this challenge in support of FareShare.

“The Building Skills for the Future employability programme, funded by Yorkshire Building Society, will help thousands of people seek long-term employment, as part of our important work to provide a hand up not a hand out to communities across the UK.”

For more information about Yorkshire Building Society’s partnership with FareShare visit www.ybs.co.uk/fareshare.