Charities and schools to share £1.6m donation

More than 100 charities and community groups would share the money, the building society said

Charities, schools and community groups in Coventry are set to benefit from £1.6m funding from the Coventry Building Society (CBS).

Up to 126 groups in total are set to get a share of the money, with more than £750,000 going to schools and youth charities to help with literacy and numeracy, CBS said.

Anna Cuskin, community manager, said CBS chose groups that supported young people, helped build people's financial resilience and brought older, lonely people together.

St Francis Employability, one of the charities to benefit, said the money was "invaluable".

“Our resources are low, and the need is really high," said Selina Read from the charity.

"So we have lots of vulnerable people coming to see us for lots of different reasons - not being able to eat, struggling with their heating, or just not understanding their bills.

“The funding’s allowed us to have staff in place to be able to help tackle some of those really important issues."

'See the difference'

Jack Tully, deputy head of Foxford School in Coventry, said the donation would help many students.

“It gives us the opportunity to do things that we otherwise might not be able to, like supporting students going on extra curricular trips, and giving them those extra opportunities to help them develop as people as well as learners," he said.

“There’s lots of programmes which we’re looking at which provide support for students with special educational needs, and students with English as a second language.

“It’s really easy to see the difference this funding has on individual difference – especially those programmes for disadvantaged students.”

The building society said it also wanted to focus on making sure as many people as possible knew about support services available to them.

“We give year-round support in the form of funding, resources, and volunteers, but as we come into the winter months, we know it can be a time where people increasingly turn to their communities for help," Ms Cuskin said.

"We hope our donation not only enables more people to get the support they need, but also that more people hear about the places they can go to if they’re struggling.”

Last year, CBS made a total community investment of £3.1m through donations of money, resources and volunteer hours.