English charities benefit from St George’s Day gift

The HBOS Foundation today announced that 3 English charities would benefit from a £20,000 gift to celebrate St George's Day. Kids Count in West Yorkshire and Holiday Support in Gloucestershire will each receive £5,000, and The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace will receive £10,000.

To mark St George’s Day, HBOS wanted to underline its support of organisations that benefit young people in England. The HBOS Foundation is a registered charity (No.SCO32942) and is funded by HBOS plc. The charitable giving is focussed on two guiding principles: money advice and financial literacy and developing and improving local communities.

Kids Count is a new charity set up by 96.3 Radio Aire/Magic 828 in Leeds, Castleford, Pontefract, Dewsbury and Wakefield to provide help to as many children as possible living in severe poverty or deprivation or suffering distress, abuse or neglect. Many local radio stations have charities like this and this donation will help make a real difference to the lives of children in the Leeds and surrounding areas.

Holiday Support in Cheltenham, Cirencester and Forest of Dean provides holidays and activities for children who are referred by local welfare agencies as a result of domestic violence. The charity is committed to relieve need, hardship or distress in children through the provision of recreational and leisure time activities. This grant will give 46 underprivileged children a much needed holiday in 2007.

The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace helps young people improve relationships, foster friendships and promote peace and reconciliation within their communities through workshops which help them understand their social and moral responsibilities and raise their consciousness of the need to work together. The charities' work is unique and deals with issues of diversity and social exclusion to help young people accept others regardless of race, gender or appearance.

Joan Hemmery, HBOS Foundation Manager, commented:
“We wanted to mark St George’s day by providing support for organisations that benefit people in England. We recognise the responsibility we have to support the local communities, and charities that sometimes do not get much corporate support, and we are delighted to be able to help these good causes through the HBOS Foundation.”