We are delighted to announce that we won the top prize in the Children & Youth category at this year’s Charity Awards, the longest-running and most prestigious awards scheme in the charity sector. We are delighted and truly honoured to have received this award and we accept it on behalf of everyone across prisons nationwide who help us to deliver this project.

Alongside the nine other category winners, the Overall Winner and the recipient of the Daniel Phelan Award for Outstanding Achievement, Storybook Dads was presented with the trophy at a black-tie ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on 9 July, hosted by broadcaster, commentator and writer Baroness Ayesha Hazarika.

The Charity Awards shortlist is chosen by an independent panel of expert judges, themselves all eminent figures in the charity sector. The judges score each entry against six Hallmarks of Excellence before coming together for two days of challenge and discussion to select the winners. Matthew Nolan, chief executive of Civil Society Media which organises the Charity Awards, congratulated Storybook Dads on making the highly-coveted shortlist. He said:

“Storybook Dads won our Overall Award 18 years ago, and since then it has gone from strength to strength, growing both in scale and impact. It is a shining example of the enormous difference that charities make to people’s lives, and of how great leadership underpins a sustainable, scalable and ultimately successful organisation. We are delighted to recognise it again – huge congratulations to Storybook Dads.”