King's Award for Voluntary Service: our celebration!

In 2023, Marmalade Trust was awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS). On 9th April 2025, we're hosting our official celebration!

Marmalade Trust were awarded the King's Award for Voluntary Service in 2023.

Marmalade Trust are delighted to announce that 9th April 2025 will mark our official celebration of being awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service in November 2023. Just over a year later, revisiting the award presents a valuable opportunity for us to reflect on our achievements to date, as well as to recognise our continuing growth and development.

What is the King's Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS)?

Equivalent to an MBE, The King’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest Award given to local voluntary groups in the UK. Created in 2002 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee and previously known as The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS), the award shines a light on the fantastic work of voluntary groups from all across the UK.

To celebrate, we will be hosting a private afternoon event for our dedicated volunteers, who are the the foundation of our success. Alongside them, ‘project members’ – members of the community directly supported by our services – will be honoured at the tea party event, where Peaches Golding, Lord-Lieutenant of the County and City of Bristol, will formally present Marmalade Trust Founder and CEO, Amy Perrin, with the award.

The award is equivalent to an MBE for voluntary groups in the UK.

Reaffirming our commitment

At the time of the award in 2023, Amy commented; "We are deeply honoured to receive The King’s Award. This award reflects the incredible passion and hard work of our team, and our dedicated supporters and volunteers. It also reaffirms our belief that, together, we can create a society that acknowledges loneliness and supports each other to find new social connections.”

Now approaching our 12th anniversary, we remain committed to reducing the stigma around loneliness and encouraging everyone to form meaningful social connections.

Thank you to our amazing volunteers!

Let's hear it for the volunteers!

We'd like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our incredibly kind community of volunteers. We couldn't do what we do without you, and we are so grateful for your continued support and shared belief in the importance of meaningful connections!

Look out for photographs from the event on our social media, and follow us on Instagram and Threads @marmalade_trust, and on Facebook and LinkedIn, to get all of our updates.

About Marmalade Trust

Marmalade Trust is an award-winning loneliness charity for all ages, dedicated to raising awareness of loneliness and supporting people to find new social connections. Since 2013, they have directly helped over 4,000 people via their projects, delivered loneliness training to more than 55,000 people, and reached hundreds of millions across the world with their global awareness campaign Loneliness Awareness Week (this year 9 - 15 June). In 2023, Founder and CEO Amy Perrin, formerly an occupational therapist, was awarded an OBE for services to older people.