Introducing our new Charities of the Year

The teams in each of our offices identified a shortlist of charities for colleagues to vote on. The results are in, with our Leeds team choosing to support Yorkshire Air Ambulance, our Manchester colleagues voting for Early Essentials in the North West, while The Children’s Foundation was selected by our team in the North East.  We will be undertaking an exercise to identify a Charity of the Year for our new Birmingham office over the course of the coming months.

Our Charity of the Year Program is a key pillar of our mission to be a good corporate citizen and give back to the communities in which we live and work. Over the next two years, our people will be taking part in an eclectic mix of internal and external fundraising initiatives, while many will also make use of the paid volunteer days to provide support.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance

It is a common misconception that Yorkshire Air Ambulance and other similar services across the country receive government funding and fall under the NHS. However, it is actually an independent charity that relies heavily on the public’s and businesses’ contributions to keep the service active.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance operates three H145-D3 helicopters between two airbases, Nostell Air Support Unit near Wakefield in West Yorkshire, and RAF Topcliffe near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. They have been funded through public and corporate donations, grant funding and the sale of previous helicopters.

Each flies with a crew consisting of a highly experienced pilot and medical professionals that is able to provide specialised treatment at the scene of an incident before they are transported to hospital. We look forward to contributing to the amazing work of Yorkshire Air Ambulance in their mission of saving lives across Yorkshire.

Early Essentials

Since their inception 10 years ago, Early Essentials have been working with health and social care professionals and other agencies to help new mums and their babies who are in desperate need of basic supplies.

The charity was set up in Manchester by two women who’d been inspired by a similar church-led initiative nearby. In the decade since, Early Essentials has spread around the country and has become known for the newborn starter packs they provide with essentials for mum and baby.

Provided by donated items or money, the starter packs include essentials like nappies, clothing, toys and Moses baskets for newborns, as well as toiletries, maternity pads and skincare products for mothers, and much more.

The Children’s Foundation

The Children’s Foundation follows a similar theme with their focus on early years development, as well as mental wellbeing and physical health. The charity was formed in Newcastle in 1990, at a time when the North East had the worst levels of child health in the country.

Their ‘Yellow Brick Road Appeal’ raised £12m to build The Sir James Spence Institute of Child Health, a home for research into child ill-health. The building was gifted to the NHS but while the charity continues to be based there, it receives no statutory funding.

The charity’s ‘Baby Boxes’ have supported more than 1,000 families in the North East, packed full of developmentally stimulating books and toys to help babies get the best start in life.

They also orchestrate a project with the Childrens’ Outpatients department of a local hospital to reduce anxiety and boost the mental wellbeing of children who are waiting for appointments or attending regular clinics. They are also running a pilot ‘Couch to 2k’ project to help improve the physical fitness of young people referred to the charity by paediatricians at the Great North Children’s Hospital.

How Ward Hadaway will be supporting

The commencement of these new partnerships coincided with our own version of Walk This May – an initiative inspired by Living Streets that we ran last year – which encourages our people to prioritise their wellbeing with a one-mile walk on their lunch break. This is an initiative which spans all of our offices, with a donation made to each of our Charities of the Year for every 150 walks completed.

We ran and took part in a variety of fundraising initiatives in support of our previous Charities of the Year over the past two years – when we supported Martin’s House Children’s Hospice in Yorkshire, The Cindy Appleyard Foundation in the North West and The People’s Kitchen in the North East – including a Dragon Boat race, our annual golf day, summer barbecues, quizzes and much more.

We have many new initiatives planned, both internal and in collaboration with our charity partners, in the coming months. Follow our LinkedIn and website updates to find out more about the incredible work done by each of our charity partners and how we will be supporting them.