AkzoNobel Launches £50,000 Fund To Support Colleagues Doing Good For Their Communities

AkzoNobel is helping its workforce make a difference in their local communities across the UK and Ireland with a new community fund.

The True Colours Community Fund has been established to provide a further helping hand for the charities, community groups and youth organisations that AkzoNobel colleagues already dedicate their free time to helping out.

Part of the businesses’ global #AkzoNobelCares programme, it allows colleagues to apply for funds for projects that will make a difference to the lives of people who need it most, with grants from between £100 to £1,000. 

Since its launch in late September the fund has already approved grants totalling more than £33,000. The applications support various different types of charity, including eight food banks, seven specialist support groups, four hospices and homeless organisations and four children’s wellbeing groups.

Simon Burke, Project Lead for the True Colours Community Fund at AkzoNobel said: “We’re immensely proud of the efforts our colleagues go to, to help charitable organisations in their community.

“These charities and community groups make a real difference to vulnerable people’s lives, even more so now amid the continuing coronavirus outbreak.

“To show our support for the incredible work of these initiatives and the contributions our AkzoNobel colleagues make to them we established the True Colours Community Fund to allow them to donate #AkzoNobelCares funds.

“We’ve already approved grants to 33 initiatives that are bringing light to communities during these challenging times and we’re looking forward to our colleagues supporting even more groups in the coming months.”

Organisations to have already benefited include homeless initiative Project Parker in Walthamstow, London, which was nominated by AkzoNobel National Account Manager Robert Lever.

It provided emergency accommodation for an average of 30 people per night during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its founders are now in the process of building a workshop where the homeless community can upcycle furniture and make a living for themselves.

It received a £1,000 True Colours Community Fund grant to help fit out the space and buy essential equipment.

In Felling, Gateshead Nicky Cockburn (pictured), Site Community Coordinator at AkzoNobel has seen at first hand the vital work the Felling Food Network provides in the community, by supporting its efforts for a year.

They are now helping twice as many people as they did before the coronavirus outbreak - by providing them with food, clothes and household items and their grant from the True Colours Community Fund has gone towards building a better equipped service to help families get even more support. 

Stephen Farrell, Senior Digital Communications Specialist at AkzoNobel handed over a cheque of £1,000 from the fund to the Gateshead Foodbank, which will continue to allow them to put food in the mouths of their families during this difficult time. 

While in Ireland, AkzoNobel Retail Sales Representative Kieran Culliane has been able to donate £1,000 to Kinvara Camogie Club based in Galway.  

In an area where female participation in sport is relatively low, the funding will be used to increase provision for girls’ sport at the club, providing more opportunities for young girls in the area to participate and giving them an outlet to boost their self-confidence and mental wellbeing. 

And Colin Carlyle, AkzoNobel’s Scotland West Account Manager for Dulux Decorator Centre, and a Royal Navy veteran, has given £1,000 to Veterans Garden Dumfries, a vital place of solace to the veterans’ community in Dumfries.

He volunteered as a caseworker and was impressed by the garden project. Colin said: “The veterans garden is providing excellent support to so many people in the local community.

“When the True Colours Community Fund grants were announced, I knew that a grant for the garden would be really important as they are such a small charity making a crucial difference to very vulnerable members of the community.”

The money will go towards refurbishing the old sandstone outbuilding into a functioning workshop where veterans will be able to learn woodwork and metalwork skills, as well as providing some overnight accommodation for those who need a temporary place to stay.

For more information on AkzoNobel visit: https://www.akzonobel.com/en/uk.  

Source : Akzo Nobel

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