The Royal Countryside Fund
Barbour has proudly supported The Royal Countryside Fund (RCF) for over 10 years. Founded by HM King Charles III in 2010 when he was The Prince of Wales, The Royal Countryside Fund empowers family farms and rural communities to ensure their future. It has delivered more than 490 projects across the UK, improving service provision in rural areas, supporting farming businesses and rural enterprises and providing training opportunities for young people.
Supported by Barbour, the RCF delivered a pilot Biodiversity Workshop in February 2024 to 28 farmers from 24 small family livestock farms in Northumberland in the North East of England. An RCF survey revealed that over 80% of farmers surveyed wanted to do more to help and protect biodiversity and ensure that they had more sustainable and viable businesses for the future but many lacked knowledge and expertise in this area. The workshops were led by expert consultants who are also active farmers who share their practical experience and learnings.
Work is now underway to explore options for rolling out the workshop to other communities and to explore support for the next steps.
“We are delighted to be working with the RCF on this important initiative to support more sustainable farming across the UK and upskill the RCF’s farming community. As well as helping farmers to ensure a thriving environment on farms for generations to come.”
Dame Margaret Barbour, Chairman
“There's not really been much in Northumberland like the workshop before, so that was really good that Barbour sponsored this. It was a great event with a lot of useful information.”
Rachel Graham, Participant
Smart Works
Smart Works Newcastle is a UK charity that exists to empower all women who need help getting into work through the power of high quality clothing and coaching. They harness the power of clothing and break down the barrier of confidence to help women feel their best at a crucial moment in their life. Smart Works provides the confidence, the self-belief and the practical tools required to succeed in an interview, get the job and transform your life.
Barbour is a Corporate Partner and supports the charity with donations of clothing for women attending interviews. 70% of the women that Smart Works has supported, get a job within a month.
Through Smart Works referral scheme, Barbour has employed six machinists to date to work in the factory in South Shields with full training provided.
For more information on Smart Works please visit https://newcastle.smartworks.org.uk
Smart Works
Charitable Support
Barbour believes in giving back to the communities it works with and has made product donations to a number of charities to help support their causes and to make a difference to the lives of those people who work with and are supported by the charity. We are proud to support a range of charities that share the values of the organisation. Charities include:
Business in the Community (BITC)
BITC is the King's Responsible Business Network, the UK's largest and most influential responsible business network dedicated to building a fairer and greener world together.
Barbour supports BITC by donating clothing to them to gift to charities tackling homelessness, unemployment and domestic abuse. Examples include garments given to survivors of domestic abuse who arrived at The Trafford Refuge with only the clothes they were wearing - ‘The victims we support often have to flee their homes and leave their belongings behind”.
Items have also been gifted to charities supporting homeless people - ‘This donation has been wonderful, it really helps residents feel that people care about them’ Emma, St John of God Homelessness Support.
Hospice Care North Northumberland
Hospice Care North Northumberland is an Independent Hospice providing invaluable care and services to people from Morpeth in the South of North Northumberland to Berwick in the North and over to the boundary with Scotland in the West of North Northumberland.
We provide Nursing care to patients at the end of life, including respite care for their main carers, in the patients own home. We also provide Pre and Post bereavement Active Listening and Counselling services from our facilities in Alnwick and Berwick or in the patients GP practice, as well as providing support in our Bereavement cafes across North Northumberland. People with Dementia and their carers also have the support and care from our Specialist Community Dementia Nurse who ensures that people diagnosed with Dementia have access to support and community based activities such as Dementia football and cafes across North Northumberland. Barbour has donated clothing to support the work of the charity.
Groundwork
Groundwork South and North Tyneside helps people and organisations make changes in order to create better neighbourhoods, to build skills and job prospects and to live and work in a greener way. Barbour has donated jackets and clothing to the Groundwork, Route2Work College - who provide learning opportunities for young people with Special Educational Needs. The clothing donations Barbour made, helped the learners to access their learning for their Animal Care/Land Studies qualifications and work placements.
Centrepoint
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity. In partnership with local organisations, they provide safe accommodation and support to nearly 14,000 young people each year. Committed to ending youth homelessness by 2037, Centrepoint also campaigns for the systemic change needed to ensure every young person has a fair start in life. As part of this mission, Barbour has donated clothing to help young people feel confident and prepared to take their next steps into education, training, and employment so they can secure lasting independence.