ARCO Partners with Hull & East Yorkshire Children's University

Rosanna James, Director of Development at Hull & East Yorkshire Children's University (HEY CU), right, and Jo Ingham, Learning Experience Lead at HEY CU, left, in their branded clothing supplied by Arco.

ARCO, the UK’s leading safety company, has partnered with Hull and East Yorkshire Children’s University (HEY CU), a local children’s charity that aims to raise the aspirations of young people by building their confidence with unique learning experiences. 

As part of the partnership, Arco will provide new branded uniforms for the charity’s 15 volunteer leaders as well as funding for an ‘experience’ session for a class of children in 2022/2023, which will include a visit to a farm, something which most of the children will have never experienced. They will learn about where their food comes from, as they look at different crops and they will also get to meet some of the resident animals.

In the past, HEY CU has designed a range of exciting and engaging learning experiences intended to stimulate ambition, physical health, historical knowledge, creativity and an understanding of careers for their future.

HEY CU aims to improve the mental wellbeing of children through engaging activities and sessions run by experienced leaders and volunteers. This is particularly important post Covid-19 pandemic, as an online survey, which took place between October 2020 and February 2021, found that 41 per cent of 10-to-11-year-olds and 52 per cent of 16-year-olds felt their mental and emotional health had worsened during the pandemic.¹

Arco and HEY CU have a history of working together on various projects and initiatives, including hosting educational visits by students from local schools to the company’s National Distribution Centre (NDC), and are now, following the pandemic, looking at new ways for Arco colleagues to volunteer and mentor local children and support Arco’s goal of helping young people to achieve.

Natasha Barley, CEO of Hull & East Yorkshire Children’s University, said: “HEY CU has a long standing relationship with Arco, who have provided us with great support over the years, including experiences at the National Distribution Centre for primary school children who learn about careers at Arco, Arco staff volunteering and fundraising for the charity, donations from the Arco Community Panel to support our work, donations of uniforms for our mini City of Culture reporters in 2017 and more recently for our team at HEY CU.  

“It’s wonderful to have this relationship recognised formally in a partnership and we look forward to working even more closely with the team at Arco to inspire local children to fulfil their potential.”  

David Evison, Managing Director at Arco, said: “Helping young people to achieve their full potential is one of Arco’s core objectives when it comes to supporting the communities we operate in.

“Having worked with HEY CU for a number of years, we are delighted to be supporting them further through the funding of an experience session for a class of children in 2022/2023 and by providing new branded uniforms for their team of experienced volunteer leaders.

“We are also looking at how our colleagues can help HEY CU through volunteering and mentoring opportunities. The Covid-19 pandemic reduced the number of opportunities for our colleagues to volunteer, but with restrictions now eased, we are supporting more of our colleagues to help some great local causes just like the Hull and East Yorkshire Children’s University.”