Young Farmers’ delight as Devon Rural Hub set to open thanks to £5,000 community award win
OneFamily Foundation £5k award will help develop new rural training centre and improve employment opportunities for young people
An independent charity, which provides training and personal development for young people aged 10 -26 in rural communities, was today celebrating the news that it had won a £5,000 OneFamily Foundation Community Award to help develop a new HQ and training centre.
The Devon federation of young farmers' clubs', which runs 38 clubs across the region, recently acquired a redundant building as a base for its new headquarters. The federation needed funds to make the space both usable and accessible for disabled visitors and members. Now that the charity has secured the £5,000 award, it can install disabled access to the building, hot desk computers and a projector and screen for use on its 64 training courses, all of which will be made available at the centre.
Victoria Camp, OneFamily customer said: “This funding will allow us to provide a wider and much needed service to the rural community in Devon, as well as providing a wide variety of training for our members, using modern IT equipment.
“Improving their knowledge and skills of local young people will increase their employment opportunities, meaning the long-term benefits of this project are considerable, not just to those receiving the training but to the community as a whole. Without the award we’d never have been able to deliver the training, so we’d like to say a big thank you to OneFamily, and to all those who were kind enough to vote for us.”
Caroline Trude, Chairman of The Devon federation of young farmers' clubs', added; “With this much needed money, we can get the Devon rural hub up and running, offering our members the chance to learn new skills. It will also create a unique meeting place, not only for The Devon federation of young farmers' clubs', but also other rural charities and groups. Everyone in the community will benefit.”
The OneFamily Foundation is a unique customer benefit fund, provided by mutual organisation, OneFamily, which has committed to make £5million available to its members over the next five years to make their lives and communities better.
OneFamily provides investments, savings, health and life insurance products to help families work together to meet the financial demands of modern life. As a customer-owned business it is run for the benefit of its customers. The OneFamily Foundation redistributes a portion of the organisation’s profits, and intends to make £5 million available to customers over the next five years to help them, their families and their local communities. The Foundation has also helped hundreds of customers with personal grants since its launch in 2014, and its funding pot is made possible due to the financial stability of the customer-owned organisation.
There are four categories for each award, in order to ensure the Foundation gives a wider range of community projects an equal chance to access the funds. For this round of Community Awards there are four awards of £5,000 available in each category, with the Devon Rural Hub winning in Youth and affiliated organisations.
James Hale, Customer Engagement Manager at OneFamily said: “We are delighted to award this money to Devon YFC which seeks to improve the lives and opportunities of young adults across the region. The improvements to the new headquarters and community centre will give a physical solution to disabled access at the site, but it’s more than that. It will also facilitate the running of training courses which offer life skills, self-empowerment and confidence to thousands of teenagers across the region. We’re very happy to play our part in this fantastic enterprise.”
For further information about the OneFamily Foundation please go to https://foundation.onefamily.com/