Queen's Awards for Voluntary Service
Home-Start is only one of two organisations that have had two local 'offices' recognised in the awards in 2007
Volunteers from both schemes attended garden parties at Buckingham Palace in July to celebrate their achivements.
In Oxfordshire , Vice Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Malcom Cochrane, representing Her Majesty The Queen, presented the award to Home-Start Banbury and Chipping Norton on 25 June.
Deborah Hayter, Chair of Home-Start Banbury said, "We are really proud to have recieved this recognition. Our volunteers are very humble about their work, but their non- judgemental emotional and practical support is vital to the parents, children and families they support, and has had a positive impact across the whole of the community. The assement of the scheme after we were nominated was very thorough and we are delighted to have been successful."
Home-Start Crawley and Horsham expect to organise their presentation event for later in the summer.
The two new Home-Start recipients join Home-Start Stevenage, which received a Queen's Award for Voluntary Services in 2006.
Pictured is Banbury Town Mayor Kieron Mallon with Home-Start Banbury's longest serving volunteer, Pat New, and her husband.
Read some of our volunteers stories
We live in a world that can be very tough for many families and Home-Start must be prepared to push into those areas of work and meet the needs of the most disadvantaged. Home-Start already has a fantastic track record of working with all kinds of families, whatever their problems and wherever they may live.
James Sainsbury
Chair of Home-Start Trustees
