The ‘Money Wise’ and ‘Respect Your Life’ educational programmes – for secondary and primary school students respectively – has won a ‘Better Together’ award from Travis Perkins Managed Services (TPMS), a leading UK supply chain and procurement solutions provider to the repairs and maintenance sector.

TPMS supplies our materials to help us with the repair and maintenance of our homes and, as part of this contract, some of the money we spend goes into the ‘Travis Perkins Legacy Fund’ which supports various community initiatives.

We have successfully secured money from the Fund to assist programmes run by the Children’s Safety Education Foundation (CSEF):

• The Money Wise financial literacy scheme educates students about financial issues and has so far been delivered in five secondary schools (Bartholomew School in Eynsham, Burford School, Chipping Norton School, The Marlborough C of E School in Woodstock and The Henry Box School in Witney).
• The Respect Your Life national citizenship anti-social behaviour programme covers issues from the dangers of drugs and alcohol through to peer pressure and knife crime, and training has so far been provided in two primary schools (Our Lady of Lourdes and St Mary’s in Witney).

The schools project was nominated for the award by the local TPMS supplier and as an award winner, we will now receive an extra £5,000 in funding to provide further support.

Vicki Paxford, our Communities Manager, said: “We’re over the moon that we’ve received this award.

“As West Oxfordshire’s largest housing association, we are committed to supporting the community. Everyone who takes part in these school programmes gain knowledge, awareness and new skills and this additional financial boost will enable us to extend the programme to more schools within our area next year.”

Michael Fitzgerald, Schools Liaison at CSEF, said: “We are thankful to Cottsway and TPMS for their support and it’s absolutely great that Cottsway has won this award, and that we will be able to provide training to more school children as a result of this.”

Jos Bailey, from Travis Perkins Managed Services, said “We’re delighted to recognise the valuable work that Cottsway and the CSEF are doing to help improve financial education locally and to hear that the £5,000 award will continue to help fund these school programmes.”

Pictured left - right: Michael Fitzgerald, Schools Liaison at CSEF with Cottsway's Communities Manager, Vicki Paxford, and Jos Bailey from TPMS