James Partridge - Beacon Prize 2010

James Partridge has been awarded The Beacon Prize for Leadership for his inspirational work founding Changing Faces, the leading UK charity that supports and represents people who have disfigurements to the face, hand or body from any cause.

Badly injured in a car accident when he was 18, James set up the charity in 1992 to combat the taboos surrounding disfigurement and kindle enthusiasm for successful rehabilitation. ' Thanks to the implication of ideas first put forward by James in a book of the same name, Changing Faces quickly established a reputation for providing personal support for children, young people, adults and families as it worked with schools, employers, health and social care professionals to ensure a culture of inclusion for people with disfigurements. James' drive has notched up some notable victories for the charity, most importantly successfully campaigning for the law to change so that people with serious facial disfigurement are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. The charity is contacted by up to 1,000 new clients annually and counsels and supports 2,000 ongoing cases.
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About the Beacon Prize:

The Beacon Fellowship is a charitable organisation set up to encourage individual contributions to charitable and social causes and to celebrate and showcase best practice in giving. Beacon awards annual prizes to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to charitable causes or to organisations that benefit the public.

An overall winner will be selected every year, who will be given a cash award of £30,000, to be invested in an innovative way by the winner in a charity of their choice. Beacon believes that by highlighting the achievements of the prize winners and showcasing innovation and best practice in philanthropy, others will be inspired and encouraged to make their own contribution.

The wide range of nomination categories means that the Beacon Prize programme is truly unique -- it brings together a remarkable blend of individuals of different socio-economic and professional backgrounds. The fact that a grass-roots activist is as well represented as an individual who donates millions of pounds each year is in itself a great achievement, and one of the many components of a process that makes the Beacon Prize such a powerful tool for changing the culture of giving in the U.K.

Since 1st April 2009, The Beacon Fellowship Charitable Trust has been incorporated with the Community Foundation Network, a registered charity committed to developing philanthropy particularly at a local community level, representing 57 Community Foundations who last year supported 1400 significant clients who invested £70m into 20,000 philanthropic projects.

If you'd like to learn more about the Beacon Prize 2010, please visit www.beaconfellowship.org.uk


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[princewillip]

Fantastic work. Well done!