Church celebrates relationship with Building Society with £100,000 donation

The Diocese of Lichfield has celebrated its successful ten-year relationship with the West Bromwich Building Society by announcing it will donate £100,000 to various community groups in the West Midlands over the next ten months.

Ten donations of £10,000 each will be handed out each month, and the first has already taken place as a community service for older people within the Wolverhampton area received the cash boost from the West Brom's Group Commercial Director Roger Smith.

The partnership between the West Brom and the Diocese of Lichfield began in 1997 when the then-Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Keith Sutton, asked local businesses to support the work of the Church Urban Fund.

The West Brom responded by establishing a Community Savings Account where individual investors could save their money with the West Brom and in return the building society made an annual donation equivalent to one per cent of the average balance.

Initially this went to support local community groups and charitable causes through the Church Urban Fund. Following the enormous success of the scheme the Diocese of Lichfield established the Mercian Trust three years ago to extend the scope of the scheme outside the Diocesan area and to ensure that rural as well as urban communities benefited.

The Mercian Trust works with the West Brom to tackle issues such as social exclusion, isolation, poverty and other forms of disadvantage.

The current-Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, said, "I'd like to offer my congratulations on the ten-year partnership between the West Bromwich Building Society and the Diocese of Lichfield. Ten years of making the community fund work has been a tremendous achievement.

"The Church of England always tries to work with local institutions and the West Brom is a building society with a conscience. I'd especially like to congratulate them that this vision that a church and financial institution could work together so successfully has really happened.

"And we have a ten-year record in which all sorts of exciting schemes and thousands of people who have nothing to do with the church or the West Brom have benefited. Young people, like the ones who go to the Vine non alcoholic pub in Walsall; through to the elderly who are helped at the Link Line scheme in Bilston and everything in between - people on the margins of society who need a bit of a leg-up to be able to get going again. Thousands of them have benefited from it. It's been really great and I hope it will continue to bear fruit."

Stephen Karle, West Bromwich Building Society's Chief Executive, said: "Our relationship with the Diocese of Lichfield through the Church Urban Fund and Mercian Trust has proved to be of immense benefit for people right across the West Midlands region who might otherwise have been overlooked in favour of more high profile charities.

"I would personally like to thank the Diocese of Lichfield and everyone involved in the Mercian Trust for their kind and dedicated support over these past ten years. Together, I know hundreds of more community groups will benefit from this partnership in the future."

In commemorating this association, ten amounts of £10,000 will be given to community projects throughout the West Midlands. One of those to benefit is the Senior Citizen Link Line, which was set up in November 2001 as a project of the Parish of Bilston but which now works throughout the City of Wolverhampton.

The Senior Citizen Link Line is a telephone service for people aged over 65 in the Wolverhampton area. Link Line volunteers phone people at a set time and day to offer support and advice as well as providing actual practical support for household and gardening tasks. The Service is a highly regarded organisation, having recently won 'The Excellent Care Award' from the Institute of Ageing and Health.

In the opinion of Jonathan Hill, Finance Director for the Mercian Trust, this contribution acts as a great encouragement to the work of the Senior Citizen Link Line. Jonathan said: "Senior Citizen Link Line is dependent on the support of organisations and individuals within the area, which is why the strong relationship between the West Brom and the Mercian Trust is able to meet the real human needs of an often forgotten and neglected section of the community by supporting this excellent service."

Roger Smith, Group Commercial Director at the West Bromwich Building Society, said: "Our partnership with the Diocese of Lichfield has benefited numerous disadvantaged people over the past decade. Senior Citizen Link Line is a perfect example of an organisation that does so much to support older and frequently vulnerable people within the Wolverhampton area. For that reason, we are delighted to give our backing to this highly-respected charity."