The community trust run by insurance giant Zurich, which has one of its largest offices in Swindon, has selected Mind as a new national charity partner for the next three years.
All UK-based Zurich employees were invited to choose one of three shortlisted projects, each of which addressed mental health issues.
Mind joins children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent and the Alzheimer’s Society as the third national charity partner supported by Zurich Community Trust’s Zurich Cares employee involvement programme.
Zurich Community Trust’s annual £50,000 grant will fund the employment and training of an Infoline Advisor for three years, to give practical ‘next steps’ advice and empower 24,000 people to take control of their situation. 
Mind has experienced a 30% year-on-year increase in calls to its Infoline as a result of the economic situation and closure of local services.
Mind CEO Paul Farmer said: “For many people, the Mind Infoline is their first port of call for advice when they just don't know where to turn. We want to be able to answer every cry for help but sadly last year 50% cent of calls to our Infoline went unanswered.
“We are delighted to hear we will have this financial support from Zurich Community Trust to fund one of our Infoline advisors, and look forward to building a meaningful partnership, starting work with Zurich employee volunteers later this year. Mental wellbeing can depend on a wide variety of factors, from employment status and working conditions, to financial security. All of these can be
affected during tough economic times and we are seeing an ever growing need for what Mind has to offer.
“The era of austerity shows little sign of abating and more and more people need our help. At the same time the local Mind network is facing the challenging situation of increased demand for
services and potential cuts to funding.”
The Zurich Community Trust is a UK registered charity funded by pre-tax profits and donations from Zurich’s staff, provides an umbrella for all Zurich’s community involvement in the UK.
It also runs the Zurich Cares and Openwork Foundation funds which employees of Zurich and members of Swindon-based Openwork support with personal donations of time and money.
The community trust donated more than £1.7m to 600-plus charities in 2012, helping them to support disadvantaged people move from dependence to independence.
