Society's sock campaign to help homeless

The society is relaunching its month-long Socktober appeal throughout October.

The campaign is part of the society’s charity partnership with End Youth Homelessness (EYH) and to raise awareness of World Homeless Day on Wednesday 10 October.

Donations of new socks, toiletries and interview clothes plus other items such as woolly hats, gloves, scarves, can be made at the Dewsbury branch on Church Street or the Cleckheaton branch on Northgate.

The branches are also raising money for EYH and are asking the public to support Socktober by making a donation to the campaign and posting a picture of themselves online with their favourite socks using the hashtag #socktober.

According to latest figures, 410 young people in Kirklees received some homelessness support from their local authority in 2016/17.

Mark Palmer, manager of the Cleckheaton branch of Yorkshire Building Society, said: “This is our second Socktober campaign and we are hoping to make it as sock-cessful as last year. This year as well as donations of socks, we are also asking for toiletries, interview clothes, woolly hats, gloves and scarves and every single item will go to a homeless person.”

Charlotte Milner, senior corporate partnerships officer for End Youth Homelessness, said: “Through our partnership with Yorkshire Building Society we are not only supporting homeless young people into their own rented homes, we are also aiming to break down the barriers that homeless young people face.”