Mayor Of West Yorkshire Helps Credit Union Celebrate Milestone
We’ve Hit Our 10,000th Member Milestone!
For those that haven’t already seen it in the local news, we recently welcomed our 10,000th credit union member!
We couldn’t let a milestone like that pass without a bit of a celebration so we held a special event at Bradford City Hall, with guests including our first ever member, who joined all the way back in 1993, and the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin.
Themed around the concept of past, present and future, the event began with Mayor Brabin being greeted by our senior management team, before a series of presentations from our partners took place.
- A representative from Bradford Council spoke about its role in supporting our credit union and the importance of promoting financial inclusion.
- Our first ever member described how he became a member and the ways in which we’ve helped him over the years, from buying a tumble dryer to booking a well-deserved holiday!
- Juli Thompson, CEO at FoodSavers, discussed how the partnership with BDCU had enabled her organisation to give out a staggering 1.5 million meals per month, encourage its customers to develop healthy savings habits to become more financially secure and the possibility of rolling the initiative out nationwide after being approached by the renowned Comic Relief charity!
- Mental health charity Mind in Bradford’s Director of Equity & Quality gave a speech about the importance of BDCU in helping people who are struggling with their mental health as a result of financial worries, especially since the start of the cost of living crisis. The BDCU/Mind partnership is a national first and we’re very proud to be leading the way in helping those most in need.
- Our 10,000th member, Melissa Bailey, said she’d been thrilled to be accepted for a loan from BDCU after many years of being unable to borrow and added that she was looking forward to saving with us in future.
It was a great day and lovely to welcome Mayor Brabin, who has been a staunch supporter of the work we do and whose office has funded several of our projects over the years, including two recently launched ones – our Cost of Living Loan and our UniformSavers project – which, combined, will help 600 local households across the region, making them both incredibly successful and showcasing the positive impact we have on the local community.
Mayor Brabin said: “Our £3 million Emergency Cost of Living Fund for West Yorkshire has already helped thousands of households and is making a real difference to people’s lives, and it’s great to see how Bradford Credit Union is supporting people who have nowhere else to turn.
“But as prices continue to rise, it’s vital we do everything we can to support those on the sharpest end of the cost of living crisis, as we work to build a region that works for all.”
Mayor Brabin went on to say that she supports our idea of increasing collaboration between credit unions in West Yorkshire, in order to benefit as many communities in the region as possible, which is yet more great news!
Following the event, our CEO, Katie Hurrell, said: “We were delighted to welcome Mayor Brabin to our offices and let her see first-hand the positive impact the funding from her office has on the people of Bradford, including Sean, our original member.
“It was exciting to hear that the Mayor supports our call for more collaboration between credit unions and it was great to have so many of our partners in attendance. By working together, they have all contributed to the success of BDCU and helped support a significant number of people in the local area.
“There is much more work to do over the coming years to help our local communities overcome the obstacles posed by the cost of living crisis but by continuing to work hard for those communities and by making the best use of the grant funding we are so fortunate to receive, I believe we have every reason to be excited about the next steps for BDCU and we look forward to hitting more milestones in the future.”