The women’s charity, Smart Works Greater Manchester, has launched a fundraising campaign in celebration of its fifth anniversary. The charity is asking its supporters to donate money so it can continue to help thousands of women across Manchester get back into work.
In a short video being released on its anniversary on Friday 5th June, the charity revealed that in the last five years it has delivered over 2,250 client appointments to women from the local area. Volunteers have clocked up an impressive 11,000 hours of support, working with women ahead of their job interviews to find the perfect outfit and providing one to one interview coaching.
Over the past 5 years, an average of 70% of the women supported went on to “get the clothes, get the confidence, get the job”
As part of its campaign, the charity revealed that it costs around £2000 per week to deliver the service at full capacity and support the women of Greater Manchester get back into work.
Jan Iceton, Chair, Smart Works Greater Manchester said: “The success the charity has seen over the last five years demonstrates the need for a service like ours across the 10 Boroughs of Greater Manchester and the wider North West region. We are living in unprecedented times and many women face the challenge of finding work once we start to move back into normal life, we want to be there to help them. All the funds we raise from this campaign will go straight back into helping the women of Manchester transform their lives.”
Coming out in support of the campaign, local Manchester businesswoman and new Smart Works Trustee, Kay Barratt of Cheetham Bell said: “Smart Works is a great charity and super effective at what it does; in these extremely challenging times it will be needed more than ever to help the many thousands of unemployed women across our local community to get back into employment”.
The campaign launched today and will run until 12th June, with the official anniversary celebrations taking place on the 5th June.
All supporters are being encouraged to donate by going to:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/swgm5thbirthday