Positive news for East Lancashire charity supporting the vulnerable

PAC Positive Action in the Community, based in Pendle, helps young homeless people, those affected by domestic abuse and also address community wide emotional health and wellbeing issues.

The award gives the charity the chance to invest in its future with a core grant of £6,500 from the Garfield Weston Foundation and a year’s strategic planning support from a team of four business leaders, thanks to the leadership charity Pilotlight.

PAC Positive Action in the Community was chosen from a record field of nearly 200 applicants, all of whom are frontline charities delivering youth, welfare or community services in the North of England, the Midlands and Wales.

Claire Bennett, charity manager, said “We are thrilled that our ambition to continue developing the work that Positive Action in the Community does.

"We will seize this amazing opportunity to help us become more sustainable. Our aim is to strengthen our provision to ensure that we can provide more prevention and early intervention support and to prevent crisis, particularly for those that are vulnerable, wherever possible.

"We want to ensure that we can keep making a difference to those who need us in East Lancashire (and beyond) for many more years to come.”

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Positive Action in the Community has continued to deliver many of its essential accommodation and support services as well as moving some of its services online including the launch of an online chat facility which has enabled us further to offer our support and services to those in need.

Philippa Charles, director of the Garfield Weston Foundation said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the most vulnerable in our communities hard.

"Frontline charities such as PAC Positive Action in the Community are addressing increasing demands for their services with innovation, professionalism and determination; and they are doing so despite serious threats to their finances and operating models."

Bruce McCombie, interim chief executive of Pilotlight, the charity which is connecting PAC Positive Action in the Community with a team of coaches drawn from a range of businesses and other organisations said: “PAC Positive Action in the Community has been selected as a Weston Charity Award recipient on the strength of its ambitions and the openness of the leadership team to external perspectives - attributes that will help them benefit most from working with our Pilotlighters.”