National awards celebrate positive impact of faith in society

Four Christian-based community projects from Colchester, Edinburgh, Everton and Hull will have their achievements recognised at the Faithworks Awards Ceremony on Tuesday night.

More than 200 local community projects applied for the £5,000 awards, sponsored by Congregational & General Insurance, the Faithworks membership, Kingdom Bank, Oasis UK and Spurgeons Network.

Malcolm Duncan, Leader of the Faithworks Movement said: "Every day the people involved in these projects give themselves away for others. Their work is sacrificial, sustained and committed. These people are the true leaders of the Faithworks Movement."

Award winners include the Sunflower Garden Project based in Edinburgh, which will receive the Spurgeons Network Award for Improving the Lives of Children and Young People. The pioneering Christian project, which has been running since 2003, works with children affected by drug and alcohol use in the families seeks to break the pattern of intergenerational substance misuse.

The Oasis UK Community Inclusion Award will be handed to the Big Buzz After School Club based in Everton, the most deprived ward in the country in terms of income, health and employment.

The project gives children from low income homes an opportunity to develop skills and abilities, build ambition and self-confidence. The Family Liaison Officer for the project works with the children's families supporting parents back to work, helping families arrange re-housing and being an advocate with the bailiffs.

The Congregational and General Insurance Award for Community Excellence, meanwhile, will be awarded to Hull Churches Home from Hospital Service. This free service, provided by 92 volunteers, includes six to eight weeks of support for those coming out of hospital.

The volunteers visit two to three times per week, providing assistance in shopping, listening, changing anti-embolism stockings, assistive technology and anything required to support a healthy recovery and return to independence. A total of 1,469 older clients were assisted to independence through convalescence in the past year.

Jean Templeton, Chief Officer of Hull Churches Home From Hospital Service, said: "We are delighted to have been awarded a Faithworks Community Excellence Award 2007. It is a real testament to our work and the efforts of our committed volunteers and staff team. It will help us to continue our core service providing help to those who need it at a time of distress and anxiety."

Colchester Nightstop will receive the Community Commitment Award donated and decided by Faithworks Members. This project, currently with a turnover of just £5,000, provides emergency accommodation for young people aged 16-25 who would otherwise be sleeping on the streets.

Volunteer host families welcome young people into their own homes for a short stay providing time to find more permanent solutions or family mediation. This has proven effective in preventing the long-term homelessness cycle.

Ron Newton was awarded the Faithworks Lifetime Achievement Award. The 78-year-old founder of the Marah Trust, continues to serve the charity faithfully despite battling with Multiple Sclerosis. The drop in centre in Stroud provides friendship, a meal and a place to congregate for people who live on the margins of society

Rev Duncan added, "Our awards ceremony is like a tiny window on the massive world of Christian social action in the United Kingdom.

"If you want to know if Christian faith makes a difference in our society today, don't just take my word for it - ask the children in the Sunflower project in Edinburgh. If you want to know if faith matters, ask the vulnerable young people who find a bed in Colchester through the Nightstop.

"If you want to know if faith has the power to motivate, then talk to the Lifetime Achievement award winner, Ron Newton, who at 78 is still making a difference in other people's lives, despite living with Multiple Sclerosis."