Home-Start Wessex received a Community Support Award at the Bournemouth Business Awards 2025 in recognition of its positive impact on the local community.

Organised by Marketing West, the Bournemouth Business Awards recognise and reward local businesses that have significantly contributed to the local economy. The Community Support Award is open to companies, individuals and organisations that can demonstrate their involvement and support for their community through services, fundraising or physical or mental support.

Home-Start Wessex offers friendship, practical support and emotional advice to parents in Dorset with at least one child under 5 when they are in crisis. Alongside running specialist support groups, one-to-one home support, and school readiness workshops, the charity runs two weekly support groups in temporary hostels, which house mainly single mothers aged 18-25 and their children.

At the ceremony, judges commended Home-Start Wessex’s work. They praised them for serving so many families over the past thirty years, offering much-needed practical aid and emotional support.

Kathy Fryatt-Banks, CEO of Home-Start Wessex, received the award and said, “On behalf of our whole team, we would like to say a massive thank you. It really makes a big difference to us to receive awards like this to recognise what we do. There are so many families struggling right now, and we just want to help as many people as we can. Winning awards helps us secure future funding, which means we can keep helping even more people. Thank you so much, we are so grateful.”

Over the last year, the charity has transformed 1,682 lives, helping a record 501 families. Their reach covers the Purbecks, Swanage, Weymouth, Dorchester, Bridport, the whole of the BCP Council area, including Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, across the borders of Hampshire and Wiltshire, going as far north as Cranborne and Fordingbridge and as far east as New Milton – a huge area with a population of over 650,000, including many pockets of high-level deprivation.

If you can commit 2-3 hours a week to help as a family support volunteer, contact heidi@homestartwessex.org.uk