Lidl extends charity partnership with Jigsaw mental health charity
Lidl Ireland said it is extending its charity partnership with Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health in Ireland, for a further two years.
In 2021, the ten stores, its Regional Distribution Centre in Newsbridge and its 520 employees across Kildare raised €17,000 for Jigsaw. As part of the new partnership the retailer has pledged to raise €2.5 million for Jigsaw who provide free confidential professional support to young people aged 12-25, in 14 centres across Ireland.
To date, Lidl Ireland have raised over €1.8 million for the charity and have committed to raise an additional €700,000 by the end of the partnership in 2024.
Lidl have partnered with Jigsaw since 2018 and previously extended its partnership with the charity to account for the impact of COVID-19 on youth mental health.
The focus for the future partnership with Jigsaw will be the development, promotion and roll out of One Good Community™ a 2-year, community-led, five-step wellbeing programme for villages, towns and cities across Ireland. Lidl has a network of Jigsaw Heroes across its stores who are key ambassadors for Jigsaw and play an important role in the charity’s ‘One Good’ programmes.
J.P. Scally, CEO at Lidl Ireland, said: “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with Jigsaw, who do such great work for youth mental health and wellbeing in Ireland. We are very proud of the teams in Kildare and all they’ve done for our chosen charity and in food donations last year. At Lidl, it is important to us that we are supporting causes and charities that our colleagues are invested in and care about and it was with their input and feedback that we decided that an extension of our partnership with Jigsaw was where we wanted to keep our focus. While the data tells us, we are seeing increased awareness of mental health difficulties in our youth, more needs to be done. We want to empower all Irish adults to support the young people in their lives, through ‘One Good Adult’, ‘Club’ or ‘Community’, and encourage young people themselves to seek help when and where they need to most.”
Dr Joseph Duffy, CEO of Jigsaw said: “We are so genuinely delighted that Lidl have selected to extend our partnership for a further two years. This is a clear demonstration of their ongoing commitment to working with us to change the conversation on youth mental health in Ireland. Without the commitment of community partners like Lidl, we simply cannot continue to deliver the vital mental health supports and services our young people, their families and communities deserve. We look forward to continuing our work with Lidl, their staff and customers in helping us all better value and better support our young people’s mental health”