Local charity Active and in Touch has been honoured with The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.
Active and In Touch (A&IT) is delighted to achieve this honour and recognition which coincides with the charity’s 10 Year Anniversary. A&IT volunteers visit and help people in Frome and the surrounding villages, offering ongoing befriending and support to those who have become isolated or out of touch with the community around them. Quite simply, as one volunteer said “we offer the hand of friendship to those in need.”
Created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. Recipients are announced each year on 2nd June, the anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation.
This year, Active and In Touch is one of 241 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups from across the UK and Channel Islands to receive the prestigious award. The number of nominations remains high year on year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.
Award winners for 2021 are wonderfully diverse. Alongside A&IT, volunteer groups from across the UK include a children’s bereavement charity in London, a support group for those living with dementia and their carers in North Yorkshire, a volunteer minibus service in Cumbria; a group supporting young people in Belfast, a community radio station in Inverness, a mountain rescue team in Powys and a tennis club in Lincolnshire.
Representatives of Active and in Touch will receive the Award crystal and certificate from Annie Maw, Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset, representing the Queen, later this summer. Furthermore two volunteers from A&IT will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May 2022 (depending on restrictions at the time), along with other recipients of this year’s Award.
Dougie Brown, Director of Service said “I am both humbled and proud that our awesome volunteers have won this well-deserved award. Over the course of the past decade, and especially in the last sixteen months when their services have been adapted to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, they have been selflessly committed to supporting those who are lonely and isolated.”
Cllrs and staff at Frome Town Council pass on their congratulations to a very well deserving Active and In Touch and their amazing volunteers for all their fantastic work supporting local people. Mayor of Frome, Andy Wrintmore said: “We’re very proud to work so closely with them and we support them in their mission to keep people connected. So we thank you for all that you do!”
Photo Credit: Chris Bailey
