Link Age Southwark honoured with charity awards 

Local charity Link Age Southwark has been awarded ‘Charity of the Year’ at the 2017 Southwark Stars awards. This award recognises the positive impact of Link Age Southwark’s work combatting isolation and loneliness for over 550 older people in Southwark. The annual Southwark Stars awards, organised by Community Southwark, celebrates the huge contribution of voluntary organisations to life in the Borough.

The ‘Charity of the Year’ award was collected by the organisation’s Director, Gemma Juma, at a ceremony at Tate Britain on 2^nd May. She said “This award is a huge credit to all of Link Age Southwark’s fantastic volunteers who gave over 17,000 hours of their time last year. Our volunteers should be very proud that the wonderful impact of their volunteering on the lives of older residents has been recognised with this award.”

Two of Link Age Southwark’s volunteers, Lucy and Robert, also collected well-deserved Southwark Stars awards for volunteering at the ceremony. Robert is a dedicated befriending volunteer, visiting two older gentlemen weekly. Lucy regularly visits older residents in hospital, as well as organising two of Link Age Southwark’s regular social groups for people over 60.

Hot on the heels of the ‘Charity of the Year’ award, Link Age Southwark was also honoured at the 2017 Southwark Civic Awards with the ‘Liberty of the Old Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell’. Each year, these awards publicly recognise exceptional contributions of individuals and organisations to life in Southwark. Link Age Southwark’s Director, Gemma Juma, collected the award at a celebration in Southwark Cathedral on Saturday 13th May. The ceremony combined the Southwark Civic Awards and the formal election and installation of the new Mayor of Southwark.