Wickes Raises £1m For YoungMinds Charity; Aims To Raise A Further £1m

• Wickes raises £1 million for its selected charity, YoungMinds
• Wickes extends partnership to end of 2022 with aim to raise £2 million  

Home improvement business Wickes is delighted to announce that they have achieved their £1 million pound pledge to charity, YoungMinds, by reaching their original target six months early.    

Having achieved such a successful result, Wickes have extended the partnership through to the end of 2022 with an ambition to raise a further £1 million for the charity by the end of 2022, taking the total raised for YoungMinds to £2 million.

Wickes has supported its partnership across stores and support centres, despite fundraising efforts being hampered due to the pandemic, and will continue to embark on a series of fundraising missions in a bid to raise vital funds for the mental wellbeing of children and young people.

Wickes CEO, David Wood, said “I’m tremendously proud of all our colleagues who have helped raise £1 million for this amazing charity. The work that YoungMinds does is more important than ever and we are delighted to extend our partnership and get behind further fundraising efforts to reach £2 million by the end of next year and help make a material difference to the lives of young people.” 

Emma Thomas, CEO of YoungMinds said: “We are blown away by the incredible generosity of Wickes and their customers. Young people have faced unprecedented challenges over the course of the pandemic and our work to ensure that everyone gets the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what, has never been needed more. Since the start of our partnership together, Wickes have worked tirelessly to raise money for YoungMinds and to be able to set a target of doubling the amount already raised is extraordinary. We are extremely grateful and thrilled to continue working with them to help us do all we can to change the future for young people’s mental health.” 

Fundraising with Wickes

Colleagues have raised money through a variety of fundraisers, including hosting coffee mornings, organising bake sales, sponsored walks, and swapping their corporate colours for yellow in solidarity and support of the great work YoungMinds do. Towards the end of 2020, colleagues took part in #HelloYellow in October, to show their support for young people’s mental health on World Mental Health Day, and encouraged employees to wear yellow and donate to help spread the word and support the charity’s wider vision where no young person feels alone with their mental health. 

In 2021, Wickes store colleagues have continued to break records with their fundraising activities including - 

• During ‘50p Asks’, stores on average collectively have been raising over £100k over 5 days. 
• The Wickes ‘Olympwickes’ which has been taking place in July has helped raise thousands of pounds towards the £1 million target with colleagues channelling their inner olympic champion with retro games 
• On 14th July 2021 the Wickes South Division Team raised over £30,000 as they walked coast to coast, a distance of almost 200 miles across the country in a single day, starting in Weston-Super-Mare and finishing in Southend they successfully completed the journey with 12 teams undertaking their part of the route in tandem.

How the funds help

Wickes unbending support means that a vital service like YoungMinds can still continue to support young people. They've been able to stick to their plans, but more importantly YoungMinds have been able to do even more than they had hoped. For example, one of the most powerful resources YoungMinds supply is their website resource, so young people can find the help they need and prevent them from reaching a crisis. And the good news is this seems to be the case, with record numbers of page visits to the Young Minds website and an increase in traffic of 193%. 

For more information visit https://www.wickes.co.uk/ideas-advice/working-from-home

Source : Wickes

NB - Images were taken pre-pandemic

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