A group of a 100 strong volunteers from Embrace Wigan and Leigh have been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.
Graham Potter of NR Barton is a trustee of Embrace, a user led charity dedicated to supporting disabled people and their families. Embrace’s various projects enhance the lives of the people it supports by providing advocacy, advice and information, and connecting people with their community and tackling loneliness and isolation.
Representatives from Embrace attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May, along with other recipients of this year’s Award.
Embrace is one of 281 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. The number of nominations and awards has increased year on year since the awards were introduced in 2002, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Winners are announced each year on 2 June – the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.
Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse. They include volunteers helping people overcome mental health problems through sport, volunteers using caravans as mobile cafe/information centres in geographically remote locations and another group mentoring children who have a parent in prison.
Representatives of Embrace received their award from Lady Joy Smith DL Cert Ed BSA , Lord Lieutenant at a reception in August 2019.
To find out more about Embrace, please visit their website: https://www.embracewiganandleigh.org.uk/
