Yorkshire Day 2022 with LCU

If you're reading this blog, there's a pretty good chance you're in Yorkshire, the UK's largest and best county.

A diverse region with an enthralling history, breathtaking scenery, world-class sports teams, a legendary music scene and a dry sense of humour, there's a reason Yorkshire is known as God's Own Country. And we're not just saying that because we can, we're saying it because Monday, August 1st, is officially Yorkshire Day!

First celebrated in Beverley by the Yorkshire Ridings Society in 1975 as a protest movement against the local government reorganisation of 1974, today Yorkshire Day is a day to promote all that is great and good about the place we call home. The day is typically enjoyed across the region by a wide range of light-hearted celebrations, such as this chap diving into a giant mug of tea in York, while a civic gathering of lord mayors, mayors and other civic heads also takes place.

In addition to all the good stuff we've already mentioned, Yorkshire is also famous for its notoriously friendly and helpful locals - like us! Don't believe us? Check out these ways in which we've benefitted local communities in and around Leeds in recent years.

Saving Christmas for cash-strapped locals

Thankfully, Christmas 2020 - aka Covid Christmas - seems like a distant memory. But despite coronavirus ruining everybody's festive plans, that period did still bring some good news to the people of Leeds; we raised awareness of the dangers of dealing with the unscrupulous loan sharks who were preying on vulnerable residents at that time.

As a result, we helped save the local community £3.13million in high interest payments in the run up to Christmas, meaning people had enough money to enjoy the muted celebrations without finding themselves in long-term debt as a result.

Helping take the fight to Coronavirus

With the entire planet struggling with the effects of Covid-19, everyone needed to do their bit to keep the virus at bay. For us, that meant protecting our members by introducing a range of new protocols designed to minimise face-to-face contact while still allowing people to take advantage of our products and services.

This included: 

• launching a new app so members could manage their account and transfer funds to external bank accounts from their mobile devices, meaning they didn't have to leave the house unnecessarily;
• ensuring our phone staff were able to talk members through alternative options to visiting our branches, such as signing up to the Engage card, our fair, ethical and contactless debit card;
• making our cash perks service - which enables people to access their money from an ATM - more easily available.

As a result, our members were able to go about their daily lives with as little disruption as possible, safe in the knowledge that we had their backs and that.

Delivering a social impact worth more than £3m to local residents

In August 2021, it was revealed that the money management and budgeting services we provided to people struggling with their finances had enabled tenants of our partner, Housing Leeds, to manage their bills, become financially stable and reduce their debt levels.

Using the Housing Associations' Charitable Trust (HACT) Wellbeing Valuation, it was estimated that the value of benefits we delivered to local residents in the 12 months to August 2021 was more than £3.5m.

As a credit union, we love helping those in need, so finding out we'd helped so many people at a time when both the economy and people's finances were under severe pressure due to the pandemic was incredibly rewarding.

Happy to help

As a Yorkshire-based organisation, our favourite thing about the area is undoubtedly the people we get to meet every day and the sense of community that can be found everywhere you look. We hope you have a great day celebrating and we look forward to helping many more people before Yorkshire Day 2023 rolls around!