A CHARITY that supports people through times of crisis has celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Faithworks was founded in 2004 and now supports people across Dorset, supporting food banks in Poole, Christchurch, Wimborne and Blandford, and running a range of other services.

It specialises in supporting those who have been affected by homelessness, food poverty, debt and those in lone parent families.

The charity celebrated the milestone with a brunch at Key West on Bournemouth Pier, bringing together a host of people who have been involved in the charity over the past two decades.

Chief executive of Faithworks, Alistair Doxat-Purser, said the charity was ‘really grateful’ to all those who came.

(Image: Faithworks)

“Faithworks has lots of little links to all sorts of people and they’ve all turned up to help us celebrate 20 years of the charity,” he said.

“What’s nice is, you have these people who were right at the start of the journey of Faithworks, some of them have walked with us a long time, but its great to see them here, connecting with people who are very now.

“We were able to tell some stories about guests, we like to call them, who are with us right now but have seen really radical change in their lives, because of, essentially, all the people in the room.”

Reflecting on the 20 years of the charity, Alistair said there was ‘a lot of good people who are not in the same place as they were’, saying this was ‘fundamental’.

(Image: Faithworks)

“This is about individuals, and individuals being re-storied so where their story has got a bit cracked, being able to find themselves again, get to that point where crisis is no longer part of their lives,” he said.

“That’s the heart of what we should do.

“If we look back across those 20 years, [there are] so many stories.

“That’s the point for me, we try and think, we try and pray, we try and think creatively about what is going to make the most difference, what’s nice now is because we’ve got the links with so many people in the area, where something does come up, we can go, between us we can have a go at that.

“I want to keep that spirit of we can have a go at that.”

Looking ahead, Alistair spoke about the charity’s fourth ‘hope into action’ house and the expansion of its community money and debt advice service.

“The heart of it is we remain true to our values which is being alongside people when times are tough,” he said.

“So, not just handing out leaflets, but actually saying, we listen to what your story is, we want to give you hope that there may be a better future and then we want to act of that, to help you get to a point of resilience.”

Reflecting on the celebration, he added: “The joy in the room today, when there’s a lot of bad news around, the joy in the room today is not a false joy it’s a deep joy that says we appreciate each other and it’s good to do stuff together.”