Reflecting on the 2024 Diversity and Inclusion awards: Honouring last year’s winners
09/09/2025
The 2024 awards, hosted by Zurich Municipal in collaboration with the Z Zurich Foundation, recognised organisations that demonstrated exceptional impact, sustainability, and scalability in promoting diversity and inclusion. It's worth revisiting the remarkable achievements of last year’s winners - three charities whose innovative work continues to inspire and shape inclusive communities across the UK.
🏆First Place - Spark Inside (£10,000)
Spark Inside took the top prize for its transformative programme, The Black Hero’s Journey, which is designed specifically for young Black and Mixed Heritage men with lived experiences. It includes four in-prison workshops followed by one-to-one life coaching, continuing both in custody and after release. The workshops are run by qualified life coaches who share the same ethnicity as the participants, ensuring a supportive environment.
The programme has led to positive changes in the criminal justice system, making rehabilitation more achievable. Evaluations showed that 84% of participants made progress in their hopes and dreams, 89% in education and work, and 90% in their choices and behaviours.
Louise Potter, Head of Communications and Advocacy for Spark Inside said:
“We are delighted that our Black Hero’s Journey programme was chosen to receive the 2024 Zurich Municipal Award for Diversity and Inclusion. This award is a testament to the dedication of our team, coaches and the young people we work with, and will allow us to continue to drive change in the justice system and unlock the potential of more young people. As one Prison Governor said about the Black Hero’s Journey: "There is really nothing else like it in the prison system."
So, we are delighted that the money awarded to us by Zurich will help us build and grow this incredibly important, unique programme. In 2024/2025, we ran 8 Black Hero’s Journey programmes, supporting 56 young Black and Mixed Heritage men across 3 prisons and through the gate, to explore their identity, heritage and culture and come away from workshops feeling empowered, uplifted and more able to carve out a bright future.
One young man who participated in the programme told us: “I feel like I have got a calling in life, greater than what I limit myself to. Society and the system try to keep me boxed in, but I’m greater than that.”
We would like to say a huge thanks to Zurich Municipal for this award and look forward to continuing this vital work in 2025/2026 and beyond.”
🏆Second Place - The Birth Partner Project (£5,000)
The Birth Partner Project was awarded second place for its dedication to providing emotional and practical support to pregnant women and new mothers who may be facing difficult circumstances. The project pairs these women with trained volunteer birth partners who offer companionship, advocacy, and reassurance during childbirth and the early days of motherhood.
Jacky Knowles, Co-Founder and Interim Director at The Birth Partner Project said:
“The Birth Partner Project was delighted and honoured to be recognised with this award in 2024. The second-place prize contributed to us supporting a further 33 Mamas seeking sanctuary in Cardiff, who would otherwise have given birth or faced the immediate postpartum period alone (since December 2024).
Being recognised for our Diversity and Inclusion practices further motivates us to work in service to this goal, for example, strengthening the cultural awareness aspect of our volunteer training, and improving our recruitment strategy with the aim to broaden our trustee, staff, and volunteer base so that these increasingly reflect those with lived experience.
The award has enabled us to educate ourselves further on trauma-informed care approaches and to invest in collaborative spaces where those with lived experience of seeking sanctuary and using our services were able to share their experiences, views, ideas, and dreams for our future as an organisation.
We once again thank Zurich Municipal for the award, which reflects our ambition to truly support and advocate for the Mamas we serve.”
🏆Third Place - YOPEY (£3,000)
YOPEY earned third place for its focus on creating meaningful interactions between young people and older adults, especially those living with dementia. Through regular visits and activities, school children spend time with elderly residents in care homes, offering companionship and support.
Dementia is a major issue in the UK, affecting over 900,000 people, and this number is expected to double in the next 20 years. These individuals often feel lonely, and YOPEY’s approach provides them with much-needed companionship.
Tony Gearing MBE, Founder & Volunteer Chief Executive at YOPEY said:
“We put our prize money towards the second year of a YOPEY Dementia Befriender Community Partnership in Wisbech. Wisbech is in a disadvantaged area and one of our young YOPEY Befrienders in the town is a wheelchair user. Sophie, 18, has cerebral palsy and is a permanent wheelchair user. Yet she loves putting the elderly first and has been visiting residents at Lyncroft Care Home in Wisbech for two years.
“We would like to have more YOPEY Befrienders like Sophie, so some of our prize money went on promoting her role.”
These awards not only celebrate the achievements of individual organisations but also serve as a beacon for others striving to create inclusive communities.
