In the Community

Emsleys is committed to contributing to our communities, both as a firm and as individuals.

Annual charity

Our chosen charities this year are local children's charity Zarach and SCARD (Support and Care After Road Death & Injury) for which our employees raise money through regular charitable events, including Leeds 10k and the Yorkshire Three Peaks. Head over to our blog for details of our recent activities.

About Zarach

Zarach are a grassroots charity, set up in Leeds by founder Bex Wilson, a passionate deputy head teacher, who decided to initially help out a family from her school with the gift of new beds for a pupil and their two siblings, after responding to her about whether they were tired by saying ‘I’m always tired Miss, I haven’t got a bed.’ Bex initially imagined this might be an unusual circumstance but quickly realised this was not the case, and after five years, has been of assistance to families all over Leeds - in every postcode, through referrals from schools. The worsening cost of living crisis means charities like this are currently overrun with requests for help.

Eat. Sleep. Learn.

The process for Zarach is simple – they put together bed bundles for those children who need them and have also expanded into providing a variety of other essential services to help those who are struggling, such as food parcels and holidays clubs.

1 NEW bed bundle a week

The Emsley charity committee is planning a programme of events for this year to fundraise for Zarach with the aim of achieving enough to provide 52 bed bundles – one for every week of the year.

We hope that we can make a difference and help families in need through our efforts and also by raising awareness through our client base of what amazing work Zarach are doing.

End Child Bed Poverty

One of the first things we will be helping Zarach with is raising awareness of their petition to ‘End Child Bed Poverty’. Just like food poverty, bed poverty is a real concern nationwide and Zarach have used their platform to raise awareness of this and draw the attention to Government of the need to address this with a national strategy.

Community support

We have a well-established connection with Business in the Community, for which we undertake a number of initiatives including:

• Right to Read – our team of volunteers reads each week with children at a local primary school, helping them to improve their literacy skills and build their confidence when communicating with adults outside their normal school setting.
  
• Christmas Toy Appeal ­– each year, staff, family and friends collect Christmas presents for children for St Vincent's Support Centre, providing support for families for whom Christmas is a particularly difficult time.
  
• Give and Gain – teams from across our business work together every year to create facilities for those in need, from creating a reading garden and building a science pond at local schools to refurbishing a resource centre to help the homeless get their lives back on track.

We work closely with OPAL (Older People's Action in the Locality) providing legal advice to their members and helping with community projects.

Local sponsorship

We support a number of local initiatives and sports clubs, including Sherburn in Bloom, Incredible Edible and Colton Cricket Club.