The Northern Ireland Social Enterprise Awards 2025 were held at the Crowne Plaza, Belfast on Friday 7 November 2025 with a room full of 600 people form across the social enterprise and community sector.

The annual awards recognise the impact of the community and voluntary sector across a many disciplines and missions.  The Building Diversity, Inclusion and Equality award was a new category this year and we are delighted to have scooped the award on the night.

The awards were attended by members of our team with support from our employer partner the Henderson Group with Gayle Glinghan and Rebekah Taylor from the HR team in attendance.  The award also recognises the impact of our partnership with the Henderson Group.  The partnership has delivered 12 inclusive employment academies, resulting in over 35 people with disabilities
and barriers to work gaining permanent employment in 5 Henderson stores.

Henderson’s HR and store leadership teams are directly involved in our academies — helping break down stigma,
boost inclusion, and build a culture of equity. Inclusion is now embedded in their resourcing strategy and is part of
every new store launch plan.

Our Director of Marketing & Communications, Ciara Brennan picked up the award on the night and comments “This award sums up what we are about at Stepping Stones NI, this is what we strive for on the daily, we believe that everyone should have the equal opportunity to thrive in life and work and so building diversity, inclusion and equality is what we do.  Together with our employer partners we are creating lasting change and providing opportunities for people with learning disabilities and barriers to employment and learning so that they can gain new skills, qualifications and employment.  The impact of our work has a rippling effect throughout our community, families and wider society, we always say that we love what we do and being recognised with this award in some ways flows the love of what we do back in recognition.”

If you would like to find out more about how we support businesses with their socially responsible recruitment strategies you can contact Simon Alexander, Employment Services Manager at simon.alexander@stepping-stones.org.uk  or call 02892 794466.