Age UK South Tyneside has been selected from charities across North East as the regional winner of the Enterprising Collaboration. They received a prize of £1000 and will now compete against charities from across England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for six overall prizes which will be announced at the 2015 UK Final awards ceremony.
The Charity Achievement Awards have been created to recognise the amazing, life changing work of small and medium sized charities. Age UK South Tyneside won the award for Enterprising Collaboration in the North East for its partnership work with NHS England (North East and Cumbria) for its innovative approach in using digital technology to transform the lives of older people by reducing loneliness and social isolation and preventing readmissions to hospital. The charity has adapted a text messaging system, which was originally developed to support the NHS to monitor health conditions like asthma and diabetes, will provide regular communication to check in and motivate older people to improve their health and wellbeing and ensure they remain active in their local community.
Chief Executive of Age UK South Tyneside, John Briers, said of the award,
“We are thrilled to have won an award for Enterprising Collaboration for our partnership work with NHS England. Keep In Touch Telehealth (KIT) text messaging system is not only simple to use, but it has been co-designed with older people who had limited knowledge of technology to ensure the system is of benefit to enhance their quality of life.”
Chief Executive of the Foundation, Paul Streets OBE, said of the awards:
‘We are delighted to celebrate the winners of our Charity Achievement Awards. Age UK South Tyneside has demonstrated excellent and inspiring practice, and have set the standard high; not just surviving in these tough times, but thriving, delivering vital services and literally transforming lives. For over 30 years the Foundation has supported thousands of such small and medium sized charities to tackle disadvantage in communities right across North East and we look forward to doing much more in the years to come.’
Lloyds Bank Foundation Charity Achievement Awards
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