ST FRANCIS XAVIER CREDIT UNION

The mission of a credit union is to promote the financial well-being of its members.

St Francis Xavier Credit Union was formed in 1995 to do just that – to provide a home for secure savings and a place where members could borrow money in times of need at fair rates of interest. That has remained our mission over 21 years.

Over 600 members of our Parish have invested their savings with us and over the years over £2million in loans have been granted and then repaid.

Credit Unions are financial co-operatives: that means that they are owned by their members and any profits they create can be distributed to their members by way of a dividend. They are democratic, so all decisions have to be approved by the members and any member has the right to stand for election at the AGM and all members have one equal vote. They are participative, which means in our case, that the credit union is run by member volunteers.

But after 21 years, it is still the same volunteers staffing the collections and managing the business and that can’t go on much longer.

We need volunteers to act as collectors or as committee members or as board members.

You don’t need to have special skills to volunteer – none of us knew anything about credit unions when we joined! But you do need to be honest, reliable, discrete and approachable.

For collectors, we would expect a commitment of a couple of hours every second Wednesday or every second Sunday

For committee members or board members, the commitment is one board meeting per month.

If that sounds like you, please email us at

[email protected]

Call us on 07762 762 830

Or drop in at a collection on Wednesday or Sunday and speak to one of the volunteers