YMCA Derbyshire is proud to celebrate its growing partnership with Vaillant, a leading provider of heating and renewable energy solutions. Since the collaboration began in August 2024, the partnership has already delivered meaningful support to the local community offering essential resources and hands on help to those who need it most.
For the last 90 years Vaillant has been part of the local landscape, with its UK headquarters based in neighbouring Belper since 1966. The company continues to expand its manufacturing footprint locally, most recently opening a new facility at Indurent Park in Derby. This expansion supports the growing demand for low-carbon heating solutions.
“YMCA Derbyshire is honoured to be chosen as Vaillant’s affiliated charity,” said Gillian Sewell, CEO of YMCA Derbyshire. “Their generosity, active involvement, and shared vision for long-term social impact have already made a significant difference—and will continue to do so.”
How Vaillant is Making a Difference
- Major Financial Support: Vaillant has donated over £20,000 to the Padley@YMCA Derbyshire Resilience Hub, supporting individuals and families at risk of homelessness, poverty, and social isolation across Derby to access the support they need to move forward.
- Urgent Technical Help: When boilers failed at YMCA Derbyshire’s main campus, Vaillant stepped in immediately, supplying essential parts to restore heating and hot water for 87 residents and the on-site staff team.
- Fundraising with Heart: A team of dedicated Vaillant volunteers participated in YMCA Derbyshire’s annual Sleep Easy fundraiser, raising nearly £3,000 and contributing to a remarkable total of £37,429 raised overall.
Most recently, Vaillant invited Gillian Sewell to deliver a keynote address at their national conference. Gillian shared powerful stories about YMCA’s work, the impact of the partnership, and exciting opportunities for the future.
Looking Ahead
The partnership is set to grow even further. Vaillant employees have pledged their time and skills to a number of upcoming initiatives, including:
- Volunteering at Wilmorton Community Gardens and YMCA Stepping Stones Nursery
- Preparing and serving meals at the monthly YMCA Community Meal, offering warmth and nourishment to local residents.
- Supporting mentoring programmes and YMCA’s digital development projects
Henrik Hansen, Managing Director at Vaillant UK and Ireland said: “Our partnership with the YMCA is deeply personal to us, it reflects our shared commitment to supporting communities, empowering young people and creating lasting, positive change. Together, we’re not just providing comfort, we’re helping people feel safe, valued and hopeful. We look forward to expanding our impact in the months ahead.”
“We’re incredibly grateful for Vaillant’s continued support,” added Grace Harrison, Director of Development at YMCA Derbyshire. “Their generosity and enthusiasm are helping us create real, lasting change in our communities. We’re excited to see what we can achieve together moving forward.”
YMCA Derbyshire and Vaillant remain committed to measuring the impact of their work, ensuring that positive outcomes for individuals and communities continue to be achieved. Together, YMCA Derbyshire and Vaillant are building a foundation for lasting impact project by project, person by person, community by community.
About YMCA Derbyshire
YMCA Derbyshire is a charity that has been supporting young people and communities since 1847. As an organisation, we believe in fairness and opportunity, and focus on the following key areas of work: Housing; providing 212 bed spaces each night for individuals at risk of homelessness. Training and Education through YMCA Key College we provide pathways to accredited and non-accredited vocational training, adult education programmes and employment opportunities. Support, Advice, Health and Wellbeing; providing a whole host of community services, youth programmes, mental health support, horticulture opportunities, food provision and access to warm spaces. Family and Youth Work including nurseries, family support, and school-based initiatives. All of which positively impact individuals, fosters resilience and progression toward independence, regardless of past experiences or present circumstances.
About Vaillant
Our vision is to take care of the climate – for people in their homes and the world around us. We create super-efficient heating and hot water systems that provide comfort for customers and offer opportunities to embrace environment-friendly solutions. We believe modern heating technology can make an important contribution to achieving decarbonisation targets and we’re using all our engineering expertise to make that happen.
Part of the internationally renowned Vaillant Group, our UK business is based in Britain’s engineering heartland at Belper, in Derbyshire. Here we manufacture both Vaillant and Glow-worm boilers, and in 2022 we opened our first heat pump line. We’ve invested over £4million in this state-of-the-art facility, so that we can supply UK-made Vaillant heat pumps, to meet the growth in demand for sustainable heating solutions. Most recently, we have invested a further £40million into a brand-new factory at Indurent Park Derby to manufacture our newly designed high recovery cylinders, which opened its doors in March 2025.
We employ over 1000 people across the UK. Over 500 work at our Belper HQ with office-based roles in Marketing, Product Development, Training, Customer Service, Finance, HR and Business Strategy as well as in our high-tech manufacturing facility. We also have a national sales team providing support to installers, distributors and customers and an award-winning aftersales department with over 250 engineers located throughout the UK and Ireland to support with successful installation and any aftersales requirements.
