Yorkshire Building Society is celebrating a decade of volunteering in Southport as Volunteers’ Week* gets underway – and is seeking new opportunities to help other community groups and good causes.

Since it launched its award-winning volunteering scheme in 2007, over 70,000 hours of colleague time has been donated to charities and good causes around the UK; colleagues at the Southport branch have donated more than 40 hours of their time to the local community.

Charities, good causes and community groups that need voluntary support can call in to the branch, on London Street, to find out ways they might be able to benefit from the Society’s scheme.

Karen Cannon, manager, told QLocal: “Volunteers’ Week is a great reminder of the contribution voluntary work can make across the UK and we know first-hand about the impact it has brought in Southport.

“Over the past 10 years we have seen that time can be just as valuable a gift as money to charities and community groups. That’s why the Society’s programme gives us the opportunity to support projects and charities in our local community here in Southport and we want to hear from more local groups that need support.”

The YBS volunteering scheme allows every colleague up to 31 hours’ paid leave a year to help out at a charity or good cause of their choice - in 2016 its volunteering scheme won the Employee Engagement Initiative of the Year at the Third Sector Business Charity Awards.

And last year - as part of the scheme - the Society launched Money Minds, a free financial education programme delivered by its colleagues, to help children aged five to 19 learn more about managing money.

*Volunteers’ Week is an annual event which takes place at the start of June. It celebrates the contribution made by millions of volunteers across the UK.