Partnerships & Corporate Social Responsibility

Working together for mutual benefit

Our partnerships make us stronger, they enable to deliver more services to a wider group of people.

Each of our partnerships is unique and we can work together to find a mutually beneficial and rewarding partnership that works for you and your company or organisation.

Membership of our Corporate Partnerships allows your company to be strongly and visibly identified with our brand and facilities, whilst publicising your company’s commitment to good corporate social responsibility.

Your company can get involved in a range of ways, including:

• Volunteering staff time & skills on a specific project that helps our customers
• Nominate us as your Charity of the Year
• Provide Payroll Giving to our organisation

We thank our partners through inclusion in our publications, including our annual report brochures, advertising within our quarterly What's On (3500+ readers) and at special events throughout the year.

Our Current Partners

We work with over 100 partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors to share knowledge, best practice and develop joint initiatives. Without partnerships, many of our projects wouldn't exist such as Good Friends, or our Lunch Clubs.

Recent Partnership projects include:

Telephone Befriending with EE

Not having someone to talk to regularly can be lonely and isolating, particularly if you’re used to sharing your home and time with others. A friendly chat on the phone can make all the difference. Working with EE, we trained employees to telephone befriend vulnerable older people. EE employees are carefully paired with an older person and utilise their employer supported volunteering time to call their befriendee each week.

Safe and Well Visits with CDDFRS

Working with County Durham and Darlington Fire & Rescue Service, we support the referral process for their Safe and Well Wellbeing Visit. Fire officers visit vulnerable people to perform Safe and Wellbeing checks. This could include smoke alarm installation to assessments of individuals based on their health and lifestyle. Vulnerable individuals identified as requiring further support are referred to Age UK North Yorkshire & Darlington service. The aim is to provide additional support and practical help to improve an individual’s health and quality of life.

Joint minbus with MS Society and Darlington Rotary

A common need brought our Customers, the MS Society Darlington & District and the Rotary Club of Darlington together to fundraise for a Minibus. The minibus has enabled individuals to access much needed transport to go trips and excursions.

Three 4 Darlington with Durham Constabulary & CDDFRS

Working with Durham Constabulary and County Durham & Darlington Fire & Rescue Service, we have open an information store. The idea is that information and support from ‘Three’ Services operating for (4) Darlington can be accessed in a ‘one stop shop’. In addition, individuals can sign up to become volunteers for our service.