Charity's Work For Disabled Recognised

The work of a local charity, which – among other things - has helped people with disabilities to train for and find employment has been officially recognised.

The Cedar Foundation, founded in 1941, provides innovative services for people with disabilities throughout Northern Ireland and has recently received two very prestigious awards – one at national level, and the other on the European stage.

Cedar was awarded the EFQM European Excellence Award - the most prestigious accolade of its kind.

The Belfast-based Cedar Foundation not only won the European Excellence Award for the Public and Not-For-Profit sectors, but also received a Judge's Special Award for Customer Focus, reflecting it’s commitment to involve people with disabilities in every aspect of its work.

Cedar's commitment to provide the best development for its staff also was recognised recently, when it was awarded Investors in People 'Champion' status.

This places The Cedar Foundation within an elite group of 30,000 organizations across the United Kingdom with Investors in People accreditation, only 36 have 'Champion' status.

Cedar's Employment Development Programme provide the opportunity to assess and match a disabled person's abilities to an employer's needs; train in preparation for work and job search; participate in a work experience to suit individual needs, including paid employment, work placements for training and voluntary work and gives access to one to one support, provided by a Job Support Worker, if required and to achieve accredited qualifications too.

In honour of these two achievements, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Bernie Kelly, hosted a special reception for representatives of the Cedar Foundation.

"For six decades, Cedar has worked tirelessly on behalf of people with disabilities all across Northern Ireland," commented Councillor Kelly.

"Cedar delivers a range of services, which empower and support people with disabilities to be fully included in their communities. More importantly, Cedar actively involves people with disabilities in every aspect of its work.

"These two recent awards are a deserving tribute to Cedar's work and are well deserved, proving that Cedar is an organisation which we in Belfast, and indeed in Northern Ireland as a whole, can be justifiably proud," concluded the Deputy Lord Mayor.

(BMcC)