| 2004
Award Winners
A-H
| I-Q | R-Z
Sahara in Preston
The organisation was established in 1991, to
meet the needs of ethnic minority women to enable them to participate
in the economic, social, political, education and training opportunities
in Preston and surrounding areas. Their common vision was to develop
a free and confidential holistic service, in a secure and comfortable
environment, to enable the women to make informed and self determined
decisions about their lives and to reach their potential. Sahara
also offers employment advice and a translation service. More than
40 volunteers are involved in all their activities including helping
other volunteers with placements in the area.
Sahara remains committed to their women only
services and continues to build on its success within the community
by extending their services to children and families.
Contact: 01772 702090
Save the World Club
The group, founded in 1987, works to encourage
people of all ages and all backgrounds in Kingston-upon-Thames to
take pride in their neighbourhood through civic awareness and the
promotion of the sustainable use of resources.
On a daily basis there are twenty volunteers
who focus on practical action as well as education. The volunteer
group engages community members, particularly young people on the
edge of social exclusion, in anti-graffiti work, in parks, playgrounds,
train stations and organises after school clubs and workshops which
produce mosaics to cover up the graffiti. Over 1,800 people took
part in the organised activities during 2003 and 2,000 in 2004.
This member-led group includes unemployed adults,
young people and retired residents. Their efforts benefit the community
and environment.
Bernadette Vallely, programme manager said: “This
Award validates the work of our volunteers, especially those who
have had lives of disadvantage or difficulty themselves, and are
now giving back to the community through Save the World Club. The
work the volunteers carry out has helped many to turn their lives
around."
Contact: 020 8974 8608
Shades of Black Community Family Project
The aims of the group of 19 volunteers are to
enhance and develop local community projects assisting disadvantaged
young people, and helping the housebound to enjoy a better quality
of life.
Established over 14 years ago in Handsworth,
Birmingham, the group organises activities ranging from farm trips
for younger members and forums on local issues to assisting with
education, health and social skills. Practical sessions to encourage
young individuals to work together are held in a fun and relaxed
atmosphere, for example, a group of students from Handsworth Wood
Girls School cultivate their own vegetables on allotments. They
offer their produce primarily to senior citizens in the local community,
who delight in receiving organically grown vegetables.
This project has strengthened awareness of the
diverse mix in the local community, bringing together people from
different generations and backgrounds.
Contact: 0121 554 8122
Shepway Volunteer Centre’s Transport
Service 
With more than 500 clients on its books, at least
300 of whom make regular journeys, the Transport Service carried
out more than 10,000 trips in 2003. Clients are elderly or have
a disability that makes accessing public transport difficult.
Run by a part time co-ordinator and helped by
five volunteers, the Service has approximately 50 volunteer drivers,
who use their own cars to take clients to doctors’ and dentists’
surgeries, hospital and clinic appointments, day centres and on
social trips such as shopping or hairdressers.
The service is very much appreciated by its clients
who often say they don’t know how they would manage without
it. It helps many of them to retain their independence. The drivers
often wait with their passengers at appointments and provide much
needed support at stressful times. They take good care of their
clients, and for those who are lonely, they often carry out a befriending
role as well.
Contact: 01303 253 339
Somali Family Support Group
Established three years ago, the group provides
invaluable support, where little previously existed, for Somali
and other impoverished refugees from East Africa, a vulnerable and
often misunderstood community. The group assists individuals from
these communities to access appropriate healthcare services and
training opportunities which improves their employability.
The 11 volunteers have had success in tackling
racial incidents on a housing estate in Barnet, North London. Following
meetings with the local Council and residents, security on the housing
estate has now improved, with the provision of a special mobile
phone helpline and membership of a Multi-Agency Racial Harassment
Group. The Group has also become a Trustee of Victim Support Barnet,
which helps to reduce crime.
The group also participates in the Refugee and
Barnet African Community Forum and in local events.
South Gloucestershire Asian Project
The project's aims are to improve the quality
of life for the Asian community living and working in the region
by providing a range of activities and services including dance,
language, tabla and singing classes for children and young people.
Established five years ago, the project now has
250 members, with over 200 of them taking part in their Annual Show.
Members now receive a regular bi-monthly newsletter and a dedicated
website has been set up.
The group has firmly established itself as part
of the social fabric in the South Gloucestershire area enabling
the local Asian communities to interact with each other, thus combating
the isolation previously experienced by them.
The project has built up a unique and enviable
reputation among local people and other community organisations.
It regularly participates in wider community events such as local
festivals and seminars and has carried out research on behalf of
the local Council, which directly benefits the local community.
Volunteers of St John's Hospice Lancaster
The volunteer workforce has been active right
through the organisation and running of St John’s hospice
since it opened in 1985.
Hospices are very much part of the locality in
which they work and the volunteers of St John’s - currently
over 200 - give so much to the local community. This can range from
helping with the care on the wards and helping patients who have
been discharged to settle back in their own homes, to helping at
the Reception, at fund-raising events, bereavement visiting, gardening,
serving in the shops …. a whole host of valuable tasks that
also includes helping the professionals to keep their feet on the
ground!
Without its dedicated team of volunteers, running
St John's would be far more difficult. Indeed the voluntary will
to serve and the commitment that the volunteers bring to the Hospice
would be impossible to replicate.
In the words of one of its volunteers “it
is really a pleasure to be part of a team that constantly works
to make St John’s the very special place it is. Many congratulations
to all my fellow volunteers”. '
Contact: 01524 382 538
St. Wilfrid’s Day Centre
The group began twelve years ago as a local church
project in Sheffield, offering tea and sandwiches to homeless people.
Now the Centre helps 60-70 people daily, providing basic welfare
services, advice, information, advocacy, education programmes and
employment support. The range of activities available includes pottery,
woodwork, literacy, drama, art and useful life skills to help integrate
people back into society.
Two recent developments have been the organisation
of an annual holiday for people who have never had or have no opportunity
to go away, and the establishment of a credit union, to help people
develop good saving patterns and avoid loan sharks.
Core staff at the Centre are supported by 70
regular volunteers whose time, energy, loyalty and commitment help
to create a caring community in which the most vulnerable in society
can find a sense of belonging and the practical help they need to
overcome life’s difficulties.
Sister Kathleen Page, Director of St Wilfrid’s
Day Centre said of the Award: “… has been a great honour
to receive, and a fitting tribute to the hard work, commitment and
energy that the volunteers give to this project. It has brought
a great pride to all who work at and use the services of the Centre’.
Contact: 0114 2555720
Website: www.stwilfridsdaycentre.org
 Stalham
Brass Band
East Anglia’s longest standing brass band
formed in the 1870’s -Stalham Brass Band provides many hours
of musical pleasure at local activities. These include fetes, church
services, harvest festivals, Remembrance Day services and charity
events – as well as performing locally at the Queen’s
Golden Jubilee Celebrations.
As well as encouraging people of all ages to
become involved in brass bands, the members are trained in traditional
skills as brass musicians. All twenty-four members of the band are
volunteers who give their time freely when playing at community
events.
Tim Thirst, Director of Music said: “Our
volunteers love to make music. So much work goes into band rehearsals,
and we are always very busy supporting local events. This Award
is great for the volunteers - a real acknowledgment of their hard
work.”
Contact: 01692 650077
Sundowns
The group, set up in 2000, supports Downs Syndrome
families in Wirral and South Wirral through events, activities and
a newsletter.
Ten volunteers work on the committee and organise
family events and outings to support thirty-five families. Through
these social events, the families have a support network that they
can depend on and for many it removes the sense of isolation that
comes with having a disabled child and brings the whole family together
to support each other.
Volunteers also organise educational conferences
for professionals and families on techniques for teaching disabled
people, and place publications with information in hospitals and
schools.
Lisa Masters, Secretary of Sundowns said: “This
Award is a great boost for our families, and the team of volunteers
on the committee. In providing this support network in our local
area, we hope it will encourage other families with Downs Syndrome
children to join the group.”
Contact: 0151 645 0789
Surrey Witness Service
The Service was set up in the Crown Court in
1995. It is an independent branch of victim support, assisting victims
and witnesses, by helping them to understand the court process and
making them feel confident about giving evidence. It provides a
link with the court staff, CPS and Police.
Fifty volunteers and four paid staff look after
witnesses and victims at trials in the Crown Court and more recently
at all Magistrates’ Courts in Surrey. The confidential service
offers an opportunity to familiarise people with an empty court
and court procedures in advance of the trial date and provides practical
help in form-filling. The volunteers also provide a sense of security
and have helped over 13,000 witnesses.
Dick Field, Manager of Surrey Witness Service,
said: “It is thanks to the hard work and professionalism of
our volunteers that we are accepted and respected by all the justice
agencies in the area. Receiving The Queen’s Award is a really
great boost to the team, who have all made a huge commitment through
dedicating one day a week to the service, this should help us develop
our work still further.”
Contact: 0183 300974
Swffryd Community Centre
Established in 1965, partly through money from
the Coal Industry Social Welfare Board and the Ministry for Education,
the Centre was originally just a hall and a small kitchen where
local people could meet. Now the centre has 19 volunteers who are
involved in supplying refreshments, first aid, centre maintenance,
and support to groups using the facilities, such as parent and toddler
groups, youth clubs, brownies, senior citizens' groups and day centre.
Educational activities and social evenings are also held at the
Centre which is at the heart of the local community in a village
that was previously very isolated.
Dennis Hughes, Chairman at the Centre said: “This
Award is for years of dedication and service that individuals have
put in to running the Centre. Without this effort, the Centre could
not exist ".
Contact: 01495 248290
The Carers’ Resource
The group, set up in 1995, provides information,
relief, advice and support for some 4,000 carers in Harrogate, Craven
and Airedale Districts, who find it difficult to identify themselves
as carers.
Volunteers at The Carers’ Resource work
alongside paid staff assisting in administration, befriending new
carers and helping the support workers by keeping in touch with
carers by phone. They also organise fundraising events as well as
working as drivers, ferrying young carers to and from the many activities
organised by the Young Carers’ Project.
Many of the volunteers have learned skills through
The Carers’ Resource Changing Lives scheme, which helps carers
get jobs and links them to local employers, and have come back to
the Resource to teach others, or provide one-to-one support for
learners.
Anne Smyth, Director of The Carers’ Resource
said: “It is so important to make sure that people who can
be marginalised in society are appreciated more. Carers are a prime
example of this, so this Award will give them the recognition they
deserve, and reinforce the vital role they play in society.”
Contact: 01423 500555
The Cocktail Crew
Set up ten years ago by a staff nurse and patients,
the group now has 30 volunteers who visit oncology and orthopaedic
patients in Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals, serving them
nutritional supplementary drinks.
These volunteers are a lifeline for the patients
they help and visit seven days a week, three times a day. Not only
do the volunteers go onto the wards and make up the drinks, they
also befriend the patients and liaise with dieticians to try to
encourage weaker patients to take the supplementary drink that is
integral to their nutrition.
Janet Booth, Voluntary Service Manager of Hammersmith
Hospital NHS Trust said: “The volunteers who work for the
Cocktail Crew have really helped to spread the word about the importance
of cancer back up treatment. It is a unique group, and other hospitals
have actually approached them to learn from them about the work
they do. This Award has helped the volunteers to recognise the importance
of their role, and is a great reward for them all."
Contact: 020 8846 1665
The Food Chain
The group, set up in 1988, work to provide nutrition
services for some 450 housebound London residents with AIDS related
illnesses. The 700 volunteers help out in 6 borrowed kitchens around
London, deliver meals to those in need and get involved with fundraising.
The volunteers are a lifeline for those living in poverty or housebound
due to AIDS related illnesses.
This unique organisation is entirely run by volunteers,
many of whom have been touched by HIV or AIDS. All share a commitment
to helping those with AIDS related illnesses.
Liza Dresner, Spokesperson for the Food Chain
said: “It can be hard for an AIDS organisation to get mainstream
recognition - however the Queens Award has given us just that. This
Award is an acknowledgment of the hard work and dedication of our
volunteers, and shows the people that we help that the outside world
really does care about them”.
Elton John, a supporter of the Food Chain said
“I am delighted to offer my congratulations to the Food Chain
on the joint achievement of receiving The Queen's Award for Voluntary
Service and serving a quarter of a million meals. My Foundation
has been a proud supporter of the tireless work put in by their
volunteers and staff… A friendly face delivering the food
can feed the heart and be as important as the food."
Contact: 020 7272 7272
The Fragile X Society
The Society, set up by a handful of parents in
1990, provides support and information to families, raising awareness
and encouraging research into the Fragile X syndrome. This is an
inherited genetic condition, causing learning disabilities amongst
boys and girls, as well as social, language, emotional and behavioural
problems.
With twenty-five volunteers who are all parents
or relatives of Fragile X children and adults, the Society works
hard to provide mutual support to Fragile X families throughout
the UK. “Families supporting families” is the ethos
at the heart of the Society.
Volunteers produce a newsletter three times a
year, organise conferences to educate families and professionals
and manage a huge number of telephone enquiries on a daily basis.
These volunteers are a life-line to the 1,500 families whose children
have Fragile X.
Lynne Zwink, Chair of the Fragile X Society,
said: “Receiving the Award is a great achievement for the
Fragile X Society and rewards the dedication and commitment of our
volunteers who have worked hard for many years, devoting their free
time to helping families cope with the problems that Fragile X brings
and improving the quality of life and opportunities for their children."
Contact: 01371 875100
The Vassall Centre Trust
A Bristol-based charity, the Trust provides equality
for disabled people by transforming and extending a 43,000 sq ft
building known as “The Vassall Centre”. It offers long-term,
low-cost, barrier-free accommodation to voluntary organisations
providing services to disabled people that are managed by disabled
people. Currently, there are seven voluntary organisations based
at the Vassall Centre and around 15% of people working there are
disabled (five times the national average). Several voluntary organisations
have expressed an interest in renting space when available.
The Vassall Centre will eventually be barrier-free
throughout and this will enable disabled people to manage and work
for voluntary organisations providing services for disabled people.
This includes large numbers of volunteers. The cost to transform,
regenerate and extend the whole building is
£4 million. To date, £1.3 million has been raised and
spent on this work. Once fully transformed, the Centre will have
capacity to accommodate between 20 to 30 organisations.
This work is unique and is pioneering a template
for barrier-free workspace that can be adapted to other buildings
throughout the country. It is influencing policy and practice concerning
equality and empowerment of disabled people.
The organisation also runs a highly successful
conference centre, which is totally accessible and consequently
used extensively. Around 7,000 people visit the Centre each year
and services provided from the Centre to over 20,000 people are
growing continually.
The Yellow Teapot Club
Set up four years ago and run by parents and
volunteers, the club is for children and young people aged 6-16
with special needs. The Club's 14 volunteers, who are mainly in
their late teens or early 20’s, undergo training, learning
how to look after individual youngsters, including arranging social
activities. The volunteers help them with physical activities, social
skills and communication, and going out into the wider community.
For many of the children, this club has provided
the opportunity to get out and about without parental supervision.
This opens up a range of social opportunities and helps them to
integrate into the local community, becoming more confident as young
people. Many of the volunteers have used their experience to gain
full-time jobs in the Care profession.
Elizabeth Stevenson from the Yellow Teapot Club
said: “Through the recognition the Award will bring, we are
hoping to be able to attract more volunteers to help open up the
social skills of these youngsters. We may even be able to access
funding to benefit these children, whose lives have really improved
due to the work and commitment of the volunteers".
Contact: 01501 771 884
Volunteer Bureau - Banbury & District
Opened in 1979 to offer help in the community,
the Bureau places volunteers with other charitable organisations
– matching their interests and skills with the work to be
carried out - and offers help and advice on voluntary organisations
in the area. It also provides transport for elderly and disabled
people, who have no public transport available to get to doctors,
hospital appointments (locally and in Oxford), dentists, podiatrists
etc. The drivers are all volunteers.
The office is open Monday to Friday between 10am
and noon, and is staffed by volunteers, all of whom are retired.
There is an answer machine for messages outside these times.
The Bureau works closely with the Councils for
Voluntary Service, Age Concern and other local voluntary organisations
to help improve the quality of life for many older folk in the community.
Contact: 01295 279515
Weardale Open Air Swimming Pool Association
Opened in 1974, the pool is the only public,
charitable, heated open-air pool in Durham County providing leisure,
fitness and sports activities as well as a safe environment for
swimmers. Originally funded and built by the Weardale community,
it was highly successful for many years, however in 1997, in spite
of strenuous work by the former committee and volunteers, funds
were scarce, vandalism rife and support low.
With the dedication and hard work of a new committee
of volunteers, the pool has continued to operate and deliver the
experience of swimming in the open air. From fundraising activities
to hands-on pool maintenance, the Association is responsible for
providing the resources and publicity required for the pool to operate.
All volunteers have full-time jobs in addition to their work for
the Association.
Julian Hayes, Treasurer of the Association said:
“It gives the volunteers a badge of approval and recognition
for their hard work. The pool has brings enjoyment to many in the
local community."
Contact: 01388 529400
Youth Plus
The group, founded five years ago, encourages
and supports young people with learning difficulties in Ongar, helping
them to become actively involved in the community. Being member
led, all 120 volunteers contribute to organising events and are
actively involved in running the group on a daily basis.
The group assists in normalising the lives of
these young people, helping with integration into the wider community
by organising recreational and social activities, weekends away
and improving their access to local services.
Brenda Rugeley, founder and co-ordinator of Youth
Plus, said: “Youth Plus is dependent on the voluntary involvement
of parents and young people alike to organise and co-ordinate its
events. It is very exciting and a great encouragement for the volunteers
in the group to be rewarded for their efforts by winning such a
prestigious Award.”
Contact: 01277 363307
Why not ake a look
at the 2003 winners case studies?
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