New Homes Week is an annual campaign delivered by the Home Builders Federation to provide a positive platform for the homebuilding industry, new build homeowners and potential homebuyers to celebrate the benefits of new build homes.
Each campaign follows a different theme and this year the theme is ‘community’. To mark the occasion, Mulberry Homes is looking back on some of the ways it engaged with local communities over the past year.
Over the course of 2024, the housebuilder supported 23 different charities, local sports teams and clubs, community groups and schools across all of the regions it operates in, including a number of Northamptonshire based organisations.
Schools were an important part of the work done in 2024. The larger school projects included donations of gardening kits for National Children’s Gardening Week (25th May to 2nd June) and donations of mental health book bundles in honour of Youth Mental Health Day (19th September). Both sets of donations were given to primary schools across Bedfordshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.
Two schools received donations in Northamptonshire, Middleton Cheney Primary Academy, which is part of Prime7 Multi Academy Trust, and Irchester Community Primary School.
Prime7 Multi Academy Trust said: “We are very grateful to Mulberry Homes for this donation. Children’s mental health is massively important, and these books are a great entry point for our children to speak about their feelings.”
Simon Anderson, Head of School at Irchester Community Primary, said: “We were very happy when we received this donation from Mulberry Homes. The focus on breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health is important, and these books act as a gateway for children to do that.”
Mulberry Homes also made a donation to The Friends of Irchester Community Primary School PTA, to go towards helping provide an outside sensory garden for all children at the school to enjoy.
The support for sports clubs and events included several different teams, such as Middleton Cheney Lionesses who received a contribution of over £980 for kits for their newly formed under 12 team and a three-year sponsorship of Middleton Cheney Cricket Club.
Matthew Jordan, Middleton Cheney Under 12 Lionesses Manager, said: “I would like to thank Mulberry Homes for their generosity in providing match kits for the team. Without the help and support of local businesses, grassroots football would not survive. This partnership allows these young players to step out onto the pitch feeling comfortable and part of a team, which is great.”
A number of charities also received contributions, such as the Northamptonshire branch of Sense who received £500 and Irchester Players, a charity that aims to help and improve public education and appreciation for the arts, who received £1,000.
Alex McKenzie, Chief Executive Officer at Irchester Players, said: “On behalf of Irchester Players, thank you so much to Mulberry Homes for their kind donation. This will help us once again to keep our charity going through such tough times.
“Donations like these are very important to our charity as these are one of the main things that keep our group going and allow us to continue to offer our services within the parish, especially our very successful youth division.”
Sophie Leathley, Senior Brand and Marketing Manager at Mulberry Homes, said: “We are incredibly proud of the work we have done with charities, sports teams, schools and local groups over 2024. Supporting local communities is incredibly important to us at Mulberry Homes and we are delighted that New Homes Week has afforded us the opportunity to look back on some of the great work we have done, and we look forward to supporting more groups and organisations in 2025.”