Two national awards for our peer-run helpline

We’re delighted to announce that our helpline picked up two awards at the national ‘Helpline Awards 2016’ held in London last Friday (4th November).

We came 2^nd in the ‘Helpline Impact’ award category, and Debbie Sadler, our advice manager, came 3^rd in the ‘Employee of the Year’ category.

Commenting on her award, Debbie said:

“There’s such a strong field of amazing helplines and employees, so I’m incredibly proud to be awarded 3^rd place as helpline employee of the year. It’s great to be involved in Unlock – it’s such a fantastic organisation. To be recognised in this way for doing a job that I feel so passionate about is the icing on the cake.”

The award for impact recognises the significant increase in numbers of people contacting us directly and using our websites for information/advice. It also reinforces the efforts the team have gone to in the last couple of years to underpin the helpline by following up with people and tracking outcomes that follow from our support, so that we can demonstrate the impact the helpline has.

These awards show the unique role that our helpline plays in providing information, advice and support to people with convictions. The awards build on findings of an independent evaluation that we published earlier this year. We wouldn’t have won either of these awards without the small but fantastic team of staff and volunteers that we have.

Finally, we’re grateful to the charitable trusts and individual donations that help us to run the helpline as an independent, non-government source of support to people who are looking for confidential advice in overcoming the effects of their criminal convictions.

More information

• Unlock’s helpline provides confidential peer advice on overcoming the effects of criminal convictions. More details about theHelpline.
• The helpline is funded by charitable trusts and individual donations. Please support our helpline by donating.
• The helpline awards are run by the Helplines Partnership, the membership body for organisations that provide helpline services in the UK and internationally.