Bradford District Credit Union Distribute 10,000 Winter Family Help Packs

Thursday 25 January 2024

Bradford District Credit Union (BDCU) has been holding ‘Buy Nowt’ partnership events as an alternative to Black Friday for the past five years and this year have partnered with a host of community and statutory organisations with a different theme. With funding and promotion from Bradford Council, it has now produced its eighth edition of ‘Bundles of Creativity’ pack to get the word out this winter with a strong focus on energy bills, food insecurity and saving with the credit union.

The activity packs started in April 2021 as a response to the unfolding pandemic with its ‘Let’s Talk Money’ edition as a way of getting reliable information on the unfolding Covid pandemic with topics on money, gambling and loan sharks to people who were digitally excluded.

Each edition is distributed through community centres, food banks and schools to 10,000 vulnerable families with each ‘Bundle’ promoting good financial health through the credit union. Ian Brewer, Financial Inclusion and Business Development Officer at BDCU, said: “This edition focuses on gas and electricity pressures as well as food insecurity that has seen a record level of partners and volunteers wanting to get involved. We have an army of volunteers making up the packs and then distributing these packs in the community for us in a Covid secure way.

“Each edition focuses on a different aspect of finances and include games and competitions. They also promote the Family Loan which helped us maintain momentum and tell people about what BDCU is about and attracted many new members. They were smaller loans than we had previously been focused on, but we made a lot of them and that helped offset some of the lost revenue we experienced at the start of the pandemic.

“Our partners at Artworks Creative Communities designed and produce these high-quality packs that have helped increase brand awareness across our common bond.”