The Crewe Fund – Achieving More Together
With a proud industrial heritage centred around the rail industry and manufacturing, Crewe is the largest town in south Cheshire. On visiting one of the impressive employment areas such as Crewe Business Park, you could be forgiven for not realising how different the town is just a few miles away.
With housing stock predominantly older terraces, the most deprived wards within the whole of Cheshire East, according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation, are in Crewe – with 36,842 people living in these wards (census 2021).
27% of adults in these wards have no qualifications, considerably higher than the national average (18% in England).
Almost twice the national average number of people live in rental accommodation, be that through a private landlord, housing association or council. Even though the average price of a terraced house is substantially lower than the national average (£112k vs £285k), home ownership is significantly lower than the national average (owner occupied 42% vs 62% England average)
34% of households in these wards have no car, compared with (24% across England).
Parenting alone comes with significant challenges and without a support network, can result in poorer outcomes for both parents and children. Crewe has a lone parenting rate of 31.3%, compared to a national average of 24.2%.
In terms of employment, Crewe is falling significantly behind the England average for numbers of people claiming JSA/UC, and is performing particularly badly for youth claimants of these benefits (aged 18-24) 7.2% in Crewe (England average = 4.8%)
Crime is often higher in more deprived areas and unfortunately Crewe does not buck this trend. Of particular concern is the prevalence of violent crime, almost twice the national figure. ASB is also an issue, highlighting the need for better education, positive diversionary activities and overall improvements to community cohesion. Crewe is one of the more ethnically diverse towns in Cheshire which brings some challenges.
CCF aims to work closely with the business community to raise funds, so that we can continue to develop our strong partnerships with charities and community groups, skilled at supporting people to overcome the tough circumstances that they find themselves in.
Socially conscious businesses such as Bentley, Baywater Healthcare, Mornflake and The Guinness Partnership have joined forces to establish The Crewe Fund – collaboratively, we can work more strategically to address the root causes of some of the issues faced by local people.
Supporting this Fund not only benefits the wider local community but potentially also supports your own workforce. It can be surprising for employers to hear that their own staff may need to turn to foodbanks or community pantries, may have hidden caring responsibilities, may be struggling with physical and mental health challenges – and local people turn to trusted local charities for help.
We want to ensure that these incredibly hard working, dedicated local charities and community groups can continue to deliver their services, and adapt to changing needs. By pooling resources and allowing CCF to undertake thorough due diligence, together we can maximise our impact.
Ultimately, supporting your local community is the right thing to do – building a stronger, fairer, more level playing field and giving people the chances they deserve.
This film from Wishing Well, gives an example of the kind of work the Crewe Fund has supported with grants.
Corporate partners to the fund:
As part of Bentley’s Beyond 100 strategy, our mission is to deliver social impact by advancing life chances – starting in our home in Crewe, where we’ve recently confirmed we will build our first electric car. Following the positive impact of our Covid Impact Fund, we are really pleased CCF moved to establish a new group fund for the town. The launch of the Crewe Fund is a great example of partnership working between local businesses and CCF. We look forward to seeing how the Crewe Fund will make a positive difference to our local community
Engaging with the Foundation was one of the most rewarding things Baywater Healthcare did last year. Working with like-minded individuals who want to make a positive difference to the local community is something we are really proud to be supporting.
There has been a longstanding, symbiotic relationship between Mornflake and the people of Cheshire which can be traced right back to 1675 when we first began milling oats. As a business we’ve always worked hard to nurture those close bonds as we would with our own family. The opportunity to do this through the Cheshire Community Foundation and support an organisation making a tangible difference to the lives of the local community was just the next logical step and one that we feel very proud to have been able to take.
We are proud to support CCF and the work that they do to make a positive impact through the power of collaboration, bringing together local organisations for the overall benefit of the community. The Guinness Partnership want to help communities thrive, and improve their chances in life, and this is one of the many projects we support to help improve the lives of our residents, and those in the wider community.
To find out more about the Crewe Fund, contact Debbie Smith: debbie@cheshirecommunityfoundation.org.uk Mobile: 07946 345737