First Bus ‘gives one’ for Fortus Foundation to help grow funding and outreach to unemployed

First Bus has established a pioneering social value partnership with Fortus Foundation, a hub supporting communities in York and the wider region, to help spread its message and encourage business donor support to fund the charity’s assistance for education, employment and social equality.

The initiative is also supported by Global, the company responsible for managing all advertising on the exterior of the First Bus fleet.

A bus carrying the Foundation’s cheeky message ‘Go Give One’, which highlights the one per cent of profits businesses give to fund its activities, will be seen on the streets of York from this week and continue to feature on First Bus routes across the city for a year.

First Bus will also be hosting a series of visits to its James Street depot and city offices by service users of charities and community groups connected with the Foundation, to deliver work experience, employability workshops and confidence building in an outreach programme to help the long-term unemployed. 

Matty Lewis, Head of Foundation and Mubs Mahmed, Community & Social Value Partner for First Bus in North Yorkshire, met in York to see the bus before it goes into service.

Matty said: “We’re delighted to work alongside the First Bus team with a multi-layer partnership that thinks outside the box to broaden our reach and maximise impact.

“Our primary purpose is to help businesses engage their social impact where we’ll do the legwork and give away grants to small local charities and community groups. But to now be able to provide additional support for those organisations through the employability workshops means we can help in other ways.”

He added: “Like all the best partnerships, it’s built on people and an alignment of values, so getting to this point with Mubs and the team has been a pleasure.”

Mubs added: “Our approach to this is similar to the ethos of Fortus Foundation in enabling small charities and community groups to focus their time and energy where it’s needed most.

“We’re providing an awareness campaign and our expertise in developing employability skills so the Foundation can concentrate budgets where these have the most impact, in communities.”

In addition to the bus rear advertising, campaigns and projects run by the Foundation will feature on the First Bus fleet in York together with social media promotion.

Picture captions:

Image 1: Mubs Mahmed (right) and Matty Lewis reveal the branded bus in front of Clifford’s Tower in York.

Images 2,3,4: Mubs Mahmed (left) and Matty Lewis reveal the branded bus in front of Clifford’s Tower in York.

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