Action For Kids receives Bags of Help from Tesco

Action For Kids (my AFK) is delighted to announce it has bagged £2,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.

Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £40 million to over 9,700 local community projects.

Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores up and down the country and it can now be revealed my AFK has been awarded £2,000.

Work will now begin on bringing the project to life.

my AFK’s community project is called ‘Can Work. Will Work’, and aims to provide life and work skills training for local disabled young people to support them into employment.

my AFK is dedicated to helping disabled young people into meaningful work placements and long-term employment. To achieve this, the team works closely with a range of employers who provide work placements, training and paid jobs to trainees, who are able to develop their skills and self-confidence in real-world work settings. Since we began our work training programme in 2013, 88% of trainees who were supported into paid work are still employed.

Graham Duncan, Chief Executive at my AFK, said: “Thanks so much to Bags of Help and the Tesco customers for voting for our Can Work. Will Work project. It is so important to have the support of everyone in the community when supporting young disabled people into paid work and this is a wonderful example of this.”

Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”

Voting ran in stores for two months, with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the checkout.

Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down the UK to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.

Please contact Lyn Prodger, Corporate Partnerships Manager at my AFK: [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Bags of Help is supported by money from the sale of carrier bags in Tesco.
• So far Bags of Help has awarded over £40 million to more than 9,700 local community projects.
• For more information please visit: www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp