Community Partnerships

Facilitating change together

Yorkshire Bank is one of many organisations that are committed to making a difference in the community. We work with a number of select groups to address shared issues of concern through our Community Partnership programme. Our current community investment priorities are numeracy and financial capability and one of our flag ship programmes is Count Me In.

Count Me In

Count Me In 123 is a numeracy programme aimed at the under 5 age group operating through Birmingham, Bradford, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield local authorities in England.

A community-based project targeting pre-school children, 'Count Me In' uses books and accessories to animate the learning process and strengthen mathematical concepts through story and rhyme. Accessed through libraries in 10 local authorities throughout England, parents and carers can take advantage of well-stocked 'Count Me In' learning bags* which have been created for three specific age groups - under ones, two to three years and four to five years - and have also been developed in a number of ethnic minority languages including Hindi, Punjabi and Chinese.

Count Me In Primary

Count Me In Primary is an extension of Count Me In 123 and is aimed at children aged 5 to 11 years. It is currently operating through Leeds City Council.

As well as providing financial and practical support to the project, Yorkshire Bank's sponsorship also includes a team of local banking volunteers who will assist the Council's library staff in delivering the project through storytelling sessions and homework clubs.

Need more info on Count Me In Primary?

Count Me In Web Game

Yorkshire Bank in partnership with Leeds City Council's Library and Information Service introduce the Count Me In online game (opens in a new window) . The game supports the bank's community programme on numeracy and financial capability and is designed to appeal to young people, although families with younger children could play it together.

Count Me In is an online game were players have to:

earn pocket money and choose when and where to save or spend it
understand the concept of budgeting
realise that financial decisions have an impact on their success.

What's the game all about?
It's all about money, money, money!
It's about earning money, saving money and spending money.

How do I get money in the game?
Use the map to visit places around town.
You can earn money by doing chores at home.
You can earn interest by keeping some of your money in the bank.
You can win or lose money by playing the games at some of the other places on the map.

What should I do with my money in the game?
That's up to you!
You get the chance to create three characters.
When you start the game, your character is pretty basic.
You have to buy their clothes, their shades, their hats - everything.
Make them look however you want them to look.
You can also buy and win stuff to decorate your character's bedroom.
But all of that costs money.

So how do I win at this game?
It's not about winning and losing - it's about making your own choices.
There's no right and wrong way to play this game.

You could try to get more money in your bank account than anyone else
You could buy more stuff for your character than anyone else
You could get more stuff for your bedroom than anyone else
Or you could just hang out in the town, play some games and spend some money.

Try doing different things with your different characters and see how it makes a difference to your money. The game supports the Key Stage 3 curriculum and will support the new financial literacy curriculum that is being developed for secondary schools. To sign into the game you will be asked for your Library card number and PIN this can be obtained from any library in Leeds.

Please note: You will not be asked to input any personal data into this site and the only information will be your library card number and PIN as detailed above.

How we form our partnerships

As well as proactively seeking suitable community partners, Yorkshire Bank also welcomes approaches from charities or not-for-profit organisations that can demonstrate their ability to manage a community project and evaluate its success objectively.
We do not normally support:

activities taking place outside Yorkshire Bank's operating area
individuals and individual fundraisers
capital projects
salary expenses
third party fundraising (i.e. advertising in charity programmes or gala fundraising events)
political or religious organisations

What we need to know

If your organisation satisfies these criteria and would like to consider a partnership there is no application form to complete. All we ask is that you send us a proposal setting out the following:

a brief history of your organisation
confirmation of charitable or not-for-profit status
how your organisation is funded, including details of any other corporate partners
a copy of your annual report/review and accounts
the sponsorship fee and project costs
benefits to Yorkshire Bank as sponsor and an outline of how you plan to acknowledge support from the bank
supporting PR/Communications plan (outline only) - you may wish to include press cuttings of previous projects or partnerships
details on how you plan to evaluate the impact of your project

How to contact us

Completed proposals should be sent to:
Jacqui Atkinson
Community Affairs Manager
Yorkshire Bank
20 Merrion Way
Leeds LS2 8NZ

Please note that Yorkshire Bank receives a significant volume of partnership proposals and we are unable to accommodate them all, no matter how much we might wish to do so. In view of the volume, we also regret that we are unable to discuss proposals by telephone or to meet with organisations prior to receiving a written proposal.

For more information, click on Community