Home-Start Wessex is delighted to have won the Silver Community Support Award at both the BCP Gold Business Awards 2025 and the West Dorset Gold Business Awards 2025 in recognition of its positive impact on the local community.
Organised by Marketing West, the BCP Awards celebrate the ‘Winners of the Winners’ from the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Business Awards. The judges review the winners in each category from across the three town awards and determine the overall winners for BCP. The BCP winners were crowned at a special ceremony at Bournemouth University, well attended by businesses and organisations from across the region.
The West Dorset Business Awards are the ‘Winners of the Winners’ from the Bridport, Dorchester, Portland, and Weymouth Business Awards. The judges review the winners in each category from across the four town awards and determine the overall winners for West Dorset. The winners were announced at the West Dorset Awards ceremony in Bridport, which was also well attended by local companies and charity representatives.
In both awards, judges commended Home-Start Wessex for its support of vulnerable families over the past thirty years and highlighted the vital role its volunteers play in delivering these services. Home-Start Wessex offers friendship, practical support, and emotional advice to parents in Dorset with at least one child under five who are in crisis, providing specialist groups and one-to-one home visits. Supported families are struggling for a variety of reasons, including poor mental health, postnatal depression, disability, domestic abuse, bereavement, isolation, financial hardship and multiple births.
Belinda Hewett, Head of Operations of Home-Start Wessex, said, “When Home-Start West Dorset became a victim of the funding crisis in October 2023, Home-Start Wessex immediately extended its reach to help families in Weymouth, Portland, Bridport, Dorchester, and as far as Lyme Regis.
In January 2025, we opened a Weymouth Haven group, welcoming families from Weymouth every Monday morning to drop in and access free support. We also recently opened a new group in Dorchester. These groups provide a safe space for little ones to explore, grow, and learn, and help parents gain confidence.
We were incredibly proud to win the Community Support Award at both the Bournemouth Business Awards and the Weymouth Business Awards earlier this year, and dedicated them to our amazing volunteers. We could not deliver our service without them. Gaining recognition for the work we have put into helping local families day in, day out, means a lot to our dedicated volunteers and staff.”
The charity is actively recruiting kind, compassionate volunteers to offer emotional and practical support to parents with young children across Dorset. If you could spare a few hours a week to help local families through challenging times and make a difference in your community, please contact heidi@homestartwessex.org.uk. No experience is needed – just a big heart and a listening ear, as full training and ongoing support are provided.
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.