Spirits were high earlier this month as we gathered together everyone from staff and board members to funders, from volunteers to service users, in order to celebrate 5 years of The No.1 Befriending Agency!

We kicked things off with a message from our CEO who took us through a timeline of the company’s highlights from the last 5 years of operating. After this, we had a viewing of our fabulous video produced by the Social Enterprise Awards as part of our prize for winning the Prove it: Social Impact Award last month. Lea also introduced this years impact report which launched at the event and took us through some of the findings.

Following this, we heard some words on behalf of our clients on their experience of befriending as well as attending online events. Part of this included a beautiful and touching poem from one of our clients, read by her befriender. We also heard from some of our volunteers about the impact volunteering has had on them. This also included a brief speech from Allana who joined the team as part of her university work placement earlier this year.

Next, we had an update from our sister organisation The No.1 Care Agency. This featured some lovely videos from clients and carers within the organisation. To close up the event we had a summary of our fundraising efforts from a member of the volunteer fundraising team.

And finally, we finished the night off the way every celebration should finish, with a sing-a-long led by our resident entertainment master, Mathias! Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate 5 years of befriending, here’s to 5 more!