A Bolton charity has bagged a top prize at the 2024 National Diversity Awards thanks to their work connecting isolated people. Reach Family Project won in the Community Organisation Age category at Friday’s (October 4) event which was hosted by TV presenter Clare Balding. The charity’s ‘Befriending Service’ impressed judges, it was launched in 2020 and aims to remind e lderly and lonely people that help is available .
Angela Barry, who heads up the service, said: “We are very pleased it was such a big shock, we just didn’t expect this at all, it’s very surprising.” READ MORE: Heart of the Community Award: Reach Family Project Bolton Reach Family Project scheme combats elderly loneliness The prize marks the second Reach has taken home in a matter of weeks after they won the Heart of the Community Award at the Bolton News Business Awards. Reach at work in the community (Image: Angela Barry) Ms Barry added: “We haven’t really won any awards before and now they have all come at once.
“The befriending project has been a really good project, and it’s created multigenerational relationships, we keep on going day by day but this has made us stop and realise what it is that we have managed to create. “We can see the real difference we make through the relationships we create and the feedback we get from the people we help. “We want people to know they are still valued, so many people who use our service tell us they feel like they are forgotten but we want .
