Off The Record benefit from Irwin Mitchell Charity Of The Year Initiative

A local charity which provides free mental health support to young people has received a £9,000 boost, after staff at the Bristol office of Irwin Mitchell spent 12 months raising funds to support the work of Off The Record (OTR) in Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

OTR was nominated by lawyers and other employees at the Bristol office to be their Charity of the Year for 2018, as part of a nationwide initiative developed by the Irwin Mitchell Charities Foundation (IMCF).

Established in 1997, the IMCF is an independent registered charity set up by the firm which, thanks to last year’s efforts, has now donated more than £2 million to third sector organisations. A total of £284,000 was raised in total across the law firm’s offices in 2018, with the Bristol office raising a total of £9,000 for OTR.

The funds are set to be a huge boost for the charity, a mental health social movement that provides information and support to 11 to 25 year olds in the region via a range of services and projects, including therapy, resilience labs, conflict resolution and gang exit strategy workshops, designed with the help of young people to improve health and wellbeing. The donation provided by Irwin Mitchell could fund 900 hours of counselling, which (at £10 for a counselling session) means 150 young people supported.

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“We are absolutely delighted to be able to provide this donation to this fantastic cause within the local community. Our Charity of the Year initiative has always been something that our employees are very passionate about and they worked extremely hard across 2018 to ensure we can generate funds to support OTR. It is a truly brilliant organisation doing some amazing work and we hope this donation will provide vital support.” Julie Lewis - Partner

Liam McKinnon, marketing and digital manager at OTR, said: “We are grateful to everyone in Irwin Mitchell’s Bristol office for this fantastic donation, which will allow us to continue our work in the local area and make a big difference to young people’s lives. As a local charity, money raised for OTR has a huge impact and allows us to continue innovating how we support and empower young people across Bristol and South Glos.”