Helping to make York safer
York Rescue Boat volunteer search and rescue team responds to emergencies on and around both of York's rivers 24/7 365 days a year. In 2020, the team responded to an average of 1 call out per week often assisting the search for missing persons along riverbanks, lakes and ponds, sometimes in darkness and in shallow water which is unsuitable for bigger boats to access. To combat this we have been developing a kayak search team that will be able to access these areas.
YRB has turned to round 2 of the Aviva Community Fund 2021 to try to raise the much-needed funds and are looking for the public’s help in this.
Dave Horn, Operational Director for the charity said " As a charity, we rely on the generosity of members of the public, every member of the team are volunteers with no paid staff.
With your help and working with the Aviva community fund we are hoping to raise £7400 to enable us to equip the team. The funding will help to provide an additional 4 specialist kayaks and related equipment including paddles, helmets and protective equipment as well as specialist training for our team.
We appreciate that the ongoing pandemic has caused financial uncertainty for everyone and especially for charities, which is why we’re so grateful for any and all support we receive; using the Aviva Community Fund to assist us in the fundraising is going to get us a long way to realising our goal”
In order to support YRB all you need to do is go to https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/york-rescue-boat---helping-to-make-york-safe?tk=1d52c51e24e2e2265b59959be1f3fadb2efe80ce
Notes to Editors
York Rescue Boat is an independent lifeboat and search and rescue team based in York. Since 2015 YRB have been working tirelessly to make the Rivers and waterways of York a safer place. They provide both boat and foot patrols of the rivers every Friday and Saturday night as well as having a team on call 24/7 365 days a year to respond to emergencies alongside the police and fire service. In 2020 the volunteers responded to 52 call outs, these include incidents such as searching for missing persons, concerns for safety and rescuing persons from the water. At the time of writing YRBs team has responded to 6 call outs so far in 2021. YRB also provides a Defra certified flood and swift water rescue team that not only covers York but can also be tasked to provide assistance anywhere in the country and the team were deployed during the flooding in January.
For further information please visit: https://www.yorkrescueboat.com/ or contact press@yorkrescueboat.com
Aviva Community Fund
The Aviva Community Fund supports small charities with forward-thinking ideas across the UK with funding, vital support and resources all year round.
The annual fund is £1m with £250,000 per quarter available for small charity projects across the UK.
This year the Aviva Community Fund has teamed up with online fundraising platform, Crowdfunder, to give eligible causes in the Fund the chance to learn valuable crowdfunding skills and inspire support from Aviva employees and the public.
As part of its funding support, Aviva is allocating every single one of its 16,000 UK employees an ‘Employee wallet’ with £60 in total, which will be split across each quarter of the programme. The employee giving goes live on 10 March and Aviva employees will have the opportunity to donate their allocation of funds to the participating causes that matter most to them.
Employee wallet funds will be donated directly to the participating causes and added to funds raised externally on the Crowdfunder platform. The causes who meet their funding target, no matter how modest or bold, will be able to withdraw their funds and get to work building stronger communities with the new backing for their clever idea
For more information please visit https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/