Housebuilder Barratt Developments North East has donated £1,500 as part of its Community Fund initiative to MHA Communities Gateshead West.
The charity supports older people in maintaining their independence, helping them live more fulfilled lives, and the donation will ensure that members can access socialising events, such as lunch clubs and trips out. It serves approximately 200 residents across former mining villages and rural areas including Chopwell, Rowlands Gill, High Spen, Greenside, Crawcrook, Winlaton and Blaydon. Barratt Developments’ donation will be used to pay for MHA Communities’ volunteer expenses, which helps to get less able members to its lunch clubs, dementia sessions and trips out.
Steve Ball, sales director at Barratt Developments North East, said: “The incredible work done by the volunteers at MHA Communities is critical to our local community, and a cause that we are pleased we have been able to support. Charities are increasingly suffering from the decline in donations, and so for companies who are in a position to support, we strongly urge them to do the same in order to ensure that charities within the community, such as MHA Communities, are able to continue helping and supporting their members.”
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Hannah Rowan, scheme manager at MHA Communities Gateshead West, said: “Many of our members are living alone and experiencing isolation, or have limited mobility or memory issues. Barratt Developments’ generous donation will allow us to support more members through socialisation activities such as lunch clubs and trips out, as well as helping more people to attend our dementia sessions. In turn, these events will truly have a hugely positive impact on older people’s mental health and wellbeing within the area, and ensure that they feel valued and an important part of the local community.”
Katie Protheroe, an engineer at Riding Mill based Osbit , has been named young employee of the year at an ceremony in Hexham. The award, organised by the Rotary Club of Hexham, is an opportunity for businesses across the North East to recognise exceptional employees under the age of 25. The winner must demonstrate a positive attitude to work and will have made an important contribution to their organisation and the local area.
The award ceremony at The Beaumont, with sponsors The Reece Foundation and Hexham Town Council, saw the engineer scoop the Jack Charlton Trophy and £500 towards her personal development. Ms Protheroe, 24, was nominated for the award for her outstanding efforts in leading the build of a system which will be used to help install offshore wind farm turbines across the world. As well as helping to design the system, she successfully led its build project out in Singapore, managing a team of 25 people and dealing directly with the client.
She said: “It was a privilege to lead the build and commissioning of one of Osbit’s largest and most technically complex systems to date in Singapore and Rotterdam. It is again a privilege to have that work recognised by winning this award. I had the time of my life running the job and the team around me were extraordinary. The experience taught me invaluable lessons within my industry, but also within my own personal development. I am looking forward to continuing my career completing huge, world-first engineering projects within exceptional teams of people.”
Osbit joint managing director Brendon Hayward added: “Supporting talented young people to rapidly develop in the way that Katie is, is very important to us and from the beginning, we have structured Osbit in a way that enables this to happen. Katie is one of the many incredibly talented young engineers growing with our company and her success is something which we want everyone at Osbit to have the opportunity to experience.”
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A Northumberland charity is getting ready to welcome more people after securing funding from The Banks Group to improve access to its outdoor community space. Real Deal Plus provides services and support to disadvantaged people in South East Northumberland on issues including food poverty, mental health support, life skills training, work experience and homelessness. The charity is using a £10,000 grant from Banks Community Fund to remove old brickwork and rusted garage doors at the rear of its Station Road headquarters in Ashington, which was formerly the town’s old police station, and replace it all with new entrance gates that will both improve access to and enhance security around the external space.
Ashington-based AME Building Contractors have been commissioned to carry out the work. It’s the second time that funding from the Banks Group has enabled Real Deal Plus to make major improvements to its headquarters, with a £10,000 grant given in 2017 supporting work at the front of the building.
Kathryn Falcus, general manager at Real Deal Plus, says: “We took over the old police station nine years ago and have made lots of improvements to the building’s exterior since then, but we’ve not yet been able to afford to give the rear of the building the attention it needs. We’re excited to see work starting soon and have lots of plans for celebration events when everything’s been completed, at which we’d love to see more local people joining us. With demand for our core services rising all the time, along with the cost of providing them, making these changes would have been well beyond us without Banks stepping up to support our work once again, and we’re really grateful that they’ve been able to make another very generous contribution to our work.”
Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at the Banks Group, added: “Real Deal Plus reaches so many different parts of the local community and offers unwavering support to people across South East Northumberland when they need it the most. We’ve worked in this part of the county for well over four decades, and this is the latest in a long line of hugely worthwhile community projects that we’re proud to have been able to support.”
Pattinson Estate Agency and Pattinson Auction has become the first North East supporter of The Prince’s Trust, after a substantial donation to the charity. Managing director Caroline Pattinson said she is proud to make the donation, to help its mission to unlock the skills and talents of young people and help them enter and succeed in the workplace.
Ms Pattinson said: “As a company, we have always strived to make a long-term, positive impact on the community and The Prince’s Trust is the perfect organisation for us to work with in order to do so. It has a long history of providing vital support to young people and helping them to develop transferable life skills, and this resonates strongly with our own business values and goals. At Pattinson Estate Agency/Pattinson Auction, we are also committed to making a lasting, positive difference in the lives of people, young, old and everyone in-between!”
Darlington Building Society is celebration two national award wins. The society lifted the customer service champion title at the British Bank Awards, organised by Smart Money People, in London. Days later, the society was named new-build mortgage lender of the year at the MoneyAge Mortgage Awards, also held in London.
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Andrew Craddock, the Society’s chief executive, said: “We’re thrilled to be presented with this accolade, which was received on behalf of the whole team. It’s a testament to their hard work and dedication in giving an outstanding level of service to our members and broker partners.
“We passionately believe that delivering outstanding service is the foundation to building lasting relationships with members and partners, so it is embedded into our culture. The fact that this award comes at a challenging time for many, and was based solely on feedback and reviews from customers, makes it even more special.”
Darlington Building Society’s win in the MoneyAge Mortgage Awards saw it go up against Nationwide and Newcastle building societies as finalists.
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