Double Celebrations for Workspace at 2024 NI Social Enterprise Awards
November 28, 2024
The Workspace Group is celebrating after being named ‘Social Enterprise of the Year 2024’ in the over £500k category at this year’s Northern Ireland Social Enterprise Awards. Director and former Chief Executive, Patsy McShane, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award as well leading to double celebrations!
The Northern Ireland Social Enterprise Awards 2024 took place on Friday 8th November at the Crowne Plaza in Belfast honouring the region’s most impactful social enterprises. These annual awards shine a spotlight on the talented individuals, teams, and organisations making a significant difference in Northern Ireland, highlighting the remarkable achievements of social enterprises.
The Workspace Group was awarded the big award of the night for our outstanding social contributions and collaborations with local businesses and communities. Patsy McShane took home the Lifetime Achievement Award for dedicating his career and some 50 years of his life to the social enterprise, voluntary and community sectors.
The Workspace Group Chief Executive, Georgina Grieve, commented:
“We are over the moon and immensely proud to be awarded the Social Enterprise of the Year Award. It is a fantastic achievement and recognition for everything that we do, not only for the local community in the Draperstown area, but for those individuals, households and businesses we support throughout all of our operations in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and England on a daily basis.”
“I am also delighted that Patsy McShane has been recognised for his remarkable contribution to the sector over the last 50 years. It is richly deserved!”
Over the past year, some of the Group’s main achievements included mentoring and coaching 1,922 participants on employability programmes across NI/ROI and supporting 618 of them back into employment; helping 850 homes across NI to move out of fuel poverty with the provision of free home insulation; providing space for 48 tenants, enabling them to provide over 200 jobs locally, as well as providing over £90,000 in free space to local community/voluntary organisations; and providing mentoring to over 170 new and existing businesses/social enterprises.
In addition, Workspace has provided a free community hub in Draperstown for the local community to use for meetings/events with over 9,000 visits recorded; provided £15k in community grants to 9 community and voluntary groups and £25,000 in capital funding to the development of a 3G pitch by a local football club; held 44 free social inclusion events for the local community including monthly luncheon clubs; and worked with the local High School and local employers to develop a pathway to employment for local school children.
Georgina added: “These achievements are only possible because of the fantastic teams that we have throughout the Group, so a massive congratulations and thank you to everyone!”
Having won the Northern Ireland Social Enterprise of the Year Award, The Workspace Group has now been shortlisted for the UK Social Enterprise of the Year Award, which will be announced at a prestigious ceremony on Wednesday 4th December in London.
