Safer London tells how winning a Charity Award last year for its Empower programme has helped it expand its reach and added weight to its funding applications.

Here at Safer London, our mission is fairly simple – across our programmes we help young people live free from violence and crime. In June 2015 we received the Charity Award in the Children and Young People category for our ground-breaking Empower programme. We’re pleased to say that the programme is still going from strength to strength, and we will be stepping up the support we are offering in the coming months.

Empower works with 11-18 year olds affected by sexual violence and exploitation: we deliver intensive 1:1 support and education programmes focusing on safety, self-esteem and healthy relationships.

The results speak for themselves. Of the young women referred to our 1:1 programme, 91% had safeguarding concerns. As a result of our support, 84% have an increased ability to cope and 89% have improved safety.

Back when we submitted our application for the Charity Awards, our Empower programme had directly worked with almost 1,100 young people. We’re pleased to say that now we have been able to provide support to 2,000 of London’s most vulnerable young people (and counting).

And we’ve been able to increase the geographic spread of our work, too. In 2014/15 we expanded from working in five London boroughs, to 12. Our work focuses on the boroughs identified with the highest levels of gang-related violence and crime and we’re ambitious to further extend our reach and impact to those who need it most.

What’s unique about Empower is our joined-up approach. We work alongside statutory agencies in a coherent multi-agency partnership, ensuring that young people get the support they need.

A senior social worker said: “Empower helps young people to believe in themselves; it builds trust and helps to turn their lives around, encouraging safe choices, empowerment and self-esteem growth.”

It goes without saying that winning the Charity Award has boosted Safer London as an organisation in a number of different ways. We’re making the most of the accolade - it adds weight to our funding applications and highlights to the organisations with whom we work that our programmes are both trusted and valued.

Our Charity Award is not just a pat on the back but a quality mark to be proud of – it shows those in the voluntary sector and beyond that Empower is respected and appreciated. Our team is growing all the time – we are increasing the amount of support we provide across London – and being an award-winning team enables our staff (old and new) to speak confidently about what we do.

Ceremonies like the Charity Awards are really important for the voluntary sector because they give charity workers a breath of fresh air away from the day to day. It’s all too easy sometimes to focus on the doom and gloom of working in the voluntary sector – so many of the headlines are about the funding cuts, the challenges faced and the difficult environment in which to survive. But the Charity Awards show the best in the work that charities are doing, which is refreshing, and much-needed. The 2015 shortlist is a cohort of amazing organisations doing fantastic work, one in which we’re privileged and truly excited to be part of.

Back at the office, here at Safer London we’re really excited about the future of Empower. 2016 will see a new phase in our Empower programme which will allow us to work take on more ground-breaking activity, work more holistically and increase the intensity of the support that we can offer to young women and their families.

Lizzy Jewell is marketing, communications and events officer at Safer London.