Connect Reading were awarded as the Team of the Year.
The cross-sector network brings together businesses, non-profits, education and public sector organisations to share resources.
Members said: “For such a small team, they achieve the work of many.”
“I think the work you do is brilliant! especially the giving schemes”
“You are an awesome team, keep doing what you’re doing, you make Reading a better place to live every day.”
A nominator said the team consists of three part-timers (a full time equivalent of 1.1) but their output rivals that of a full department and they are regularly told it is hard to believe how much they deliver.
They run monthly networking events, regular training for charities and businesses, an environmental clean-up campaign and a Resource Xchange, matching surplus goods and services with those in need.
They facilitate corporate volunteering and offer tailored advice and connections across charity, business, education and public sectors.
They run two major giving campaigns: the Giving Tree, where they source and deliver over 2,000 bespoke Christmas gifts worth over £30,000 to local charity beneficiaries, and the Summer Giving Appeal, which raises funds for supermarket vouchers for families during school holidays.
Whether it is answering WhatsApp messages late at night or juggling tasks to help each other through family emergencies (they all have school-aged children), they are united by a shared purpose; making Reading a more connected and compassionate place.
Helen Bligh, events and funding manager, said of attending the event: “I’m very in awe of the other attendees, as they’re all so amazing – it’s incredible to see the amount of good there is in Reading.
Lorraine said: “So much of what we do is connect one organisation with one another, one team’s needs with another’s resources.
“We’re very much the light-the-touch- paper kind, and we all have second jobs to make ends meet, working part time and as parents.
“Most of the time we just crack on because we believe in what we’re doing.”
Lorraine Briffitt, CEO, added: “That recognition is huge, it’s really amazing; we don’t often see the outcome of what we do, as it goes to the charities, as it should.
“And we’ve won other awards, but there’s something extra special about it being from Reading, it’s the biggest legacy.”
Lorraine explained: “We wish we could have the rest of the team here with us, because they’ve made Connect Reading what it is”
