This Christmas, employees from two city centre based businesses, MoneyPlus Group and CarFinance 247, have played the part of Christmas Elves and have been buying gifts, food and more to help make Christmas extra special for families who may otherwise have been struggling this year.
These generous donations will be made in to Christmas hampers for families of young people who attend Manchester Youth Zone. Based in Harpurhey, North Manchester – the Youth Zone operates in an area where the effects of long-term deprivation on Young People is up 3 times that of those elsewhere in the region. They work to raise aspirations, become positive role models for their members, and ultimately help to inspire a generation with the belief that all young people should be able to access the same opportunities, regardless of what challenges they face.
Manchester Youth Zone was this year named the North West Charity of the Year for the services that they provide to Young People across the region – and one of these services is their free to attend Holiday Club, which welcomes children who have been referred by their school as those who may otherwise be at risk of what is now termed ‘Holiday Hunger’. It is these families that will be receiving the hampers, generously donated by these companies, with the aim to give them everything they need to have the Christmas Day everyone deserves.
Holiday Hunger is a national issue meaning when children are off school for the holidays, they miss out on free school meals, leaving parents to provide that extra meal. When they are already below the breadline, this means parents are left having to rely on foodbanks, or even sacrifice their own meals to feed their kids.
Manchester Youth Zone wanted to make sure this didn’t need to be the case for the families of those who attend their holiday club so, with the help of MoneyPlus Group and Carfinance 247, they are offering an extra helping hand through the festive period.
CEO Of MoneyPlus Group, one of the UK’s largest financial lifestyle solution companies, Chris Davis explains they get involved because “as the Chair of the Board at Manchester Youth Zone, I am fortunate to get to spend a lot of time at The Zone and meet many of the Young People who attend and hear their stories. Knowing that as a business we can help to support them to make Christmas extra special is something that doesn’t just come from me, but by every employee in our business.”
Louis Rix, Co-CEO of CarFinance 247 adds “this is the second year we have worked with Manchester Youth Zone on the Hamper campaign and after hearing about the difference we made last year, as a company, we couldn’t wait to be involved again.”
Richard Marsh, CEO of Manchester Youth Zone talks about the impact that these donations have adding that “last year, we ran this campaign for the first time with the help of these two brilliant businesses and, after seeing the impact of these donations first hand and hearing how it helped the families, we knew we had to do it again.
One of the families we helped last year was Carole who is a foster parent for one of our young people. Earlier in the year they suffered the loss of Carole’s daughter and Christmas was looking like a very bleak time – there is only the two of them now without any other family.
On receipt of their hampers Carole burst into tears saying that they had expected a Christmas where they wouldn’t receive anything off anyone and it would just be any other day – now it would be a special day.”
