Gold award for ‘Bridging the Gap’ charity Service to help minority groups praised
PKAVS has celebrated a gold award at Perth and Kinross Council’s Securing the Future Awards – and one service user has heaped praise on the charity.
The event, held at Perth Concert Hall, saw ‘Bridging the Gap’, the charity’s health and social care project for older people, given a gold award in the category addressing inequalities and improving health.
One service user has heaped praise on the service and is delighted to see them pick up the award. Malik Rachid said: “I wanted to share with others how ‘Bridging The Gap’ has made a difference.
“It does a lot for communities and doesn’t get very much recognition. The project has done so much for me.
“I came across Bridging the Gap Minority Communities Hub at PKAVS three years ago and my life has changed for the better ever since.
“The support from outreach link officer Samaira Ali from the beginning was something I never had before. The project took my case on and made sure it was meeting my needs and helping me in so many ways.
“I have kidney failure and attend PRI three times a week and I have other health problems too.
“I was amazed when I heard about self-directed support from Samaira and Dina Scott from the Health and Social Care Partnership, they gave the community a lot of awareness sessions about this.
“It’s all about personalisation and that’s exactly what I needed. I went through the process of getting assessed by a social worker, I was pleased that my culture and religion were taken into consideration.
“When recommendations were made, both Samaira and Dina came out to see me to tell me what my responsibilities would be now that I was going on to self-directed support.
“All I can say is my journey has been amazing Samaira and Dina have helped me in so many ways I can’t thank the council enough.
“I was very pleased when Bridging the Gap received the gold award. The project aims to support and help all communities and the work that is put into the project by all is remarkable.
“Congratulations to Bridging the Gap, my life has been changed. It is a well deserved award and this project is what the older minority community needs.”
Mohammed Afzal, service manager at PKAVS Minority Communities Hub, said: “This project is an incredible reflection of the work we are all doing to improve lives, reduce inequalities and go the extra mile for the people who need us. It’s great to see that recognised.” PKAVS team and service users accepted the PKC Securing the Future Gold Award Service user Malik Rashid