Jersey Finance has announced a new three-year strategic partnership with local charity, The Grace Crocker Family Support Foundation (GCF).

GCF is a local charity that was founded in 2011 by Sara and Nigel Crocker in memory of their daughter Grace. It supports Jersey families with sick children, desperately needing treatment in the UK. In 2009, the Crocker family spent a difficult five months in Southampton with Grace, who sadly died in September of that year, aged just 11 weeks.

To date, the charity has supported more than 100 families by providing valuable funds so that they can focus on the health of their children. This includes help in funding flights for family members, food and everyday living expenses, additional travel costs, accommodation expenses in the UK and mortgage/rental payments on Jersey properties whilst they are away.

Through the new strategic partnership, Jersey Finance will be providing support to GCF through the wide range of practical skills, knowledge and expertise of its staff, many of whom will assist on a voluntary basis with the ongoing activities of the foundation. The partnership forms part of the Jersey Community Partnership’s ‘Twinning for Impact: Take the Pledge’ campaign, which aims to encourage firms to ‘twin’ with local charities to support them with human as well as financial resources.

Joe Moynihan, CEO, Jersey Finance, explained why the organisation is lending its support to GCF: “Jersey’s finance industry already works with a host of local and international charities. As proud ambassadors of our industry, our team is very keen to make a positive contribution to our community too, which is why we have worked closely with the Jersey Community Partnership to make our ‘twinning pledge’ and form this partnership with GCF – a charity that has already done such incredible work with local families and that was an immensely popular choice among our staff.”

Nigel Crocker commented: “We’re delighted that Jersey Finance has chosen to partner with GCF. Since we launched the foundation, we’ve provided significant support to families in need, including almost £200,000 in funding, but there’s still so much more we can do. With volunteer support from the team at Jersey Finance, who collectively have a whole range of expertise and knowledge, we’re very excited about the next chapter in GCF’s journey and of the positive impact we can have in the years ahead.”

On Saturday 31 August, GCF’s flagship fundraising event, the ‘Jersey Round Island Challenge’ is taking place. Last year, more than 200 people took on this epic adventure challenge by swimming, canoeing, kayaking, rowing, paddle-boarding or running around the Island. For more information on this year’s event, please go to https://jerseyroundislandchallenge.com/.