A COMMUNITY business with seven years of experience in supporting charities throughout Cumbria has been recognised for the amazing work it does in supporting the sector.

This year’s Pride of Cumbria Community Business of the Year Award, sponsored by Westinghouse, was awarded to the team at Together We Can Fundraising Ltd, a community interest company aimed at supporting people within the charitable sector – with anything they might need, from applying for grant funding to making sure relevant policies and procedures are in place, allowing charities to focus on their direct work within the community.

Julieanne Mitchell has a team of six, including herself, and set up Together We Can Fundraising in November 2016 when she relocated back home in Whitehaven and found there was nothing of a similar ilk in the county.

The aim was to support local charitable causes in the area with their fundraising, doing funding applications, organising events, community fundraising and volunteer programmes for charities throughout the county.

The nominator said that Together We CIC generates millions of pounds per year in Cumbria for charitable causes, so that services can deliver their projects.

The team support charities such as Time to Change West Cumbria (which runs Calderwood House and Women Out West), Home To Work and Works 4 You, Beep Doctors, Safety Net (UK), Whitehaven Community Trust (which runs No.1 Lowther Street and Bakewell House), as well as many other charities in the area.

The team said they were delighted to win after seeing significant growth in recent years.

Julieanne said: “I’m overwhelmed. As a team we work so hard to support charities within our area and it is just fantastic to be recognised, because even though we know the amazing work that the charities do and are like an extension of the team, for us to be recognised for the work that we do is just fantastic.

“When we got the email to say that we had been nominated we were just in shock, we didn’t believe it.

“The business has been going now for seven years and to be honest it has grown over the last even couple of years, so when I first set off there was just me.

“I think in the last 12 months it is probably the most growth that we have had – it’s just fantastic and we are just pleased that we can support charities in the area.”

The runners up in this category were The Mardale Inn, a community pub which is said to be at the heart of its community; and Story Contracting, a privately-owned infrastructure company which gives back to the community.