# Employee volunteering partnership gains charitable status

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2004/06/24/employee-volunteering-partnership-gains-charitable-status/
- Published: 2004-06-24T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Leicestershire Cares has become the first Cares partnership to become an independent
charity.**

Leicestershire Cares was launched in January 2000 by HRH Prince of Wales to offer
opportunities for employee involvement in Leicestershire. Nationally, there are 
24 such partnerships working to make an impact in local communities. Leicestershire
Cares’ focus has been to promote and support the development of sustainable community
involvement by increasing the scale and impact of employee volunteering in Leicester
and across the County. It does this by brokering relationships between employers
and the community. These can be in the form of reading volunteers, one-off team 
challenges and longer-term professional business advice for charities and social
entrepreneurs.

This year over 100 organisations have encouraged more than 5,000 staff to participate
in supporting local projects as they understand the benefits to their employees 
and company of getting involved. The Leicestershire Cares programme is funded through
membership and through public support from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (administered
by Leicester City Council), Leicestershire County Council, the Leicestershire Constabulary,
Connexions and the East Midlands Development Agency.

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On achieving charitable status, Monica Kimche, Director at Leicestershire Cares,
said: “This is a very exciting time for Leicestershire Cares as we move to independent
status. We are currently recruiting more staff and will be able to reach out to 
more community organisations to make an even greater impact.”

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