Welcome to York Cares
York Cares is a partnership of the city's leading employers committed to making York a better place through employee-volunteering.
We match the interests, skills and expertise of employers and their employees to community projects where they can have most impact. Our tried and tested quality programmes deliver tangible benefits for local people and opportunities for workforce development for employers.
We partner with over 200 local charities to build an engaging and co-ordinated volunteering framework that addresses York's community needs, particularly in areas of disadvantage.
‘Working with the business community, York Cares demonstrates the power of collaboration across sectors and among volunteers.’
John Lister — Chair of York Cares and Finance Director for Aviva
We offer York employers, large and small, a wide range of volunteering opportunities all year round as well as through our special initiatives:
- Kids' College for disadvantaged children,
- Starting Blocks for young people leaving care
- Young York Cares for 14-25 year olds in mainstream education
We're flexible
We have tiers of membership to make it flexible for employers to get involved and show their support. Our events and activities provide a unique networking opportunity for private, public and third sector businesses across finance, engineering, hospitality, professional services, local government and higher education to name but a few.
We've already achieved some amazing things since our launch in 2006:
- 2,000 volunteers from our 20 employer partners
- 1,000 young volunteers from schools, further and higher education
- 13,000 hours given in support of York communities
- Runner up in the Guardian Public Services Award 2008
- Regional Business in the Community Cares Community Impact Award 2009 for our Starting Blocks programme
- Starting Blocks featured at the national launch of fromcare2work, hosted by Ed Balls at Tate Modern
but we want your help to do more.
Want to know more?
Read about what the benefits of York Cares membership would be for your organisation.
Get involved!
To find out more about how your organisation can get involved in York Cares, just contact our dedicated team, based at the University of York. We'd love to hear from you.
Call us ...
01904 433482
- You can join us.
- York Cares makes volunteering easy for organisations of all sizes with a flexible, reliable and high-profile framework.
- York Cares Kids' College
- Your volunteers can help disadvantaged children from York primary schools learn key life skills such as finance or cookery — or you can deliver your own sponsored programme.
- Starting Blocks
- Through this nationally-acclaimed, York-based programme you can provide supported work placements and skills workshops for care leavers aged 16-18.
- Young York Cares
- Your volunteers can help us to engage over 1000 young people each year from schools, further and higher education in inspirational community projects around York.
- Regular volunteering programmes
- We also design and manage an annual calendar of one-off, weekly and seasonal volunteering opportunities: we aim to offer every business in York the opportunity to volunteer on their own terms.