CHARITY MERGER WILL PUT PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES FIRST

Two Lincolnshire charities announced their intention to join forces in a bold, forward-thinking move.

The Trustees of Community Lincs and YMCA Lincolnshire are delighted to announce their intention to merge the two charities.  

The merger will enable the two organisations to combine their strengths, skills, resources and knowledge to better serve the people and communities they work with across Lincolnshire.

Lorraine Bellis, Chair of Community Lincs’ Board of Trustees, and Ian Sackree, Chairman of YMCA Lincolnshire, said in a joint statement, “Our intention to merge has followed a period of due diligence and very careful mapping of the strategic objectives of both our charities. Our governance Boards are clear that by joining together, Community Lincs and YMCA Lincolnshire will have the opportunity to increase our service provision and continue to deliver creative, ambitious and impactful services to benefit people and communities across the county.”

The merger will see Community Lincs becoming a distinct service and sub-brand of YMCA Lincolnshire.  Services currently delivered by Community Lincs will remain unaffected and it will retain its office in Sleaford along with all its staff members; we are aiming for the proposed merger to take place in October following a period of consultation.

Chief Executive Officer of YMCA Lincolnshire, Caroline Killeavy, welcomed the announcement, commenting, “We are thrilled to be taking this ambitious step with our colleagues Community Lincs. In this, our 150^th year, we have much to celebrate with our communities in Lincolnshire. This merger is a great opportunity to honour both Community Lincs’ and YMCA Lincolnshire’s long standing history as creative, ambitious and community-focussed charities in the county.”

Gail Jackson, Chief Executive of Community Lincs, said, “This is a bold and forward-thinking decision for Community Lincs, our ambition is to reach more people and support more communities across both rural and urban areas of our county. Merging with a like-minded charity, YMCA Lincolnshire, demonstrates our mutual ambition to develop and deliver excellent needs-led services which can provide the best possible outcomes to the individuals and communities we work with. I am also delighted to be joining the senior team at YMCA Lincolnshire as the Deputy Chief Executive.”

Those who use the charities’ services will not experience any changes to their current service, but will likely see greater benefits as the merger creates opportunities across existing and future service provision in Lincolnshire.

Banner picture from left to right: Gail Jackson - CEO Community Lincs, Lorraine Bellis - Chair of the Board of Trustees Community Lincs, Ian Sackree - Chairman, YMCA Lincolnshire, Caroline Killeavy - CEO YMCA Lincolnshire