Winners of WCVA S Third Sector Awards Cymru Announced
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Winners of WCVA’s Third Sector Awards Cymru announced
The work of community groups giving up their spare time to make life better for people across Wales were recognised on Thursday 4 February at a national awards ceremony hosted by television and radio presenter Jason Mohammad.
The annual awards are run by Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), with principle supporter Class Networks, and Public Health Wales joining the ‘team’ by supporting the programme for the evening.
WCVA Chief Executive Ruth Marks said: ‘Every year, the judging panel tells me that the quality of the nominations we receive is excellent, showing clearly the innovation, talent and resilience of the third sector in Wales. Very difficult decisions have to be made.
‘This year, for the first time, we put the award for the most admired organisation to the public vote, and the number of people who participated in the process was encouraging.
‘I am proud to present to you the winners and runners-up of this year’s awards. We are also very grateful for the support of Class Networks, our award partner and principle supporter, for the 8th consecutive year.’
Jonathan Levy, Chief Operating Officer of Class Networks added: ‘Class is very proud to be supporting the Third Sector Awards Cymru. Each year, we are both humbled and inspired by the work of all the nominated organisations. This year was no exception.’
The winners and finalists in each category are as follows.
The Class award for best communications - for groups with effective or innovative ways of communicating their message to service users and volunteers.
WINNER
· Keep Wales Tidy’s ‘Be Tidy’/’Tacluswch’ clean-up initiative was a multimedia communications campaign designed to inspire and support people to help clean up an area in their community. The campaign introduced Wales to Simon the Seagull, who ‘popped up everywhere’ on social media, the radio, websites and in newspapers.
RUNNERS-UP
· Social media is a particularly strong element of Chapter in Cardiff’s communications policy, with the centre having 45,000 Twitter followers and 11,000 likes on Facebook. Wales Online listed @chaptertweets as the eighth most influential Twitter account in Wales and the 32nd across the UK.
· Taff Housing’s Tŷ Seren is a Cardiff-based supported housing project for 29 homeless young women, supporting them to move towards a stable future. The group created a free media app, ‘Yes means No’, as an up-to-date way of communicating with other young people, along with a short film on the real life experiences of fellow residents who had experienced exploitation.
The environmental award - for organisations that have helped deliver environmental benefits for their communities.
WINNER
· Powys Species Habitat Protection Group works to protect Barn Owls and their breeding sites. At the beginning of 2000, Barn Owl nests in the county had declined by at least 70%. The group has helped restore farm buildings that had been allowed to fall into disrepair, allowing breeding pairs to continue to inhabit the space, and have installed 80 boxes fitted with monitors to inspect with the least disturbance.
RUNNERS-UP
· Green Phoenix is a Ceredigion project that over the past 10 years has seen more than 200 volunteers working to transform the flagship Coed Phoenix non-native plantation site in Bronant into a nature reserve where they have recorded more than 1,000 species of plants, birds, mammals and insects, many of which were local, scarce or under threat.
· The Trinity Care and Support Grow Your Own Club in Porthcawl is a partnership project between the local Wilderness Allotment Association and Trinity Care and Support, which provides respite care for adults and young people with mental, physical and learning disabilities. Club members have followed organic, sustainable gardening principles to grow over 24 different crops, and then gone on to cook up the produce for a luncheon club, as well as selling chutneys and pickles.
· For more than 20 years, the Wye and Usk Foundation has worked across the entire 2,200km (6,070km2) of both rivers to improve environmental and water quality. Volunteers and staff have restored the salmon and trout populations and achieved a number of EU Directive targets, as well as setting up a letting scheme to allow visitors to book fishing and accommodation.
The Health, social care and wellbeing award - for groups that have helped people ‘to be happier and healthier in their communities’.
WINNER
· African Community Centre has supported over 400 individuals and families in Swansea from different ethnic minority backgrounds, most of whom are asylum seekers and refugees, to overcome the devastating effects of trauma and isolation – as well as various barriers to accessing services and support - and go on to rebuild their lives and develop sustainable livelihoods.
RUNNERS-UP
· Barnardo’s Cymru Children with Additional Needs Support Project (CANS) in Newport, provides early intervention, advice, guidance and support to the parents of children with disabilities or additional needs. Working in partnership with families, CANS identifies and builds upon strengths, and takes a ‘team around the family approach’ to provide holistic support that meets their needs..
· Men’s Shed Denbigh Group is a joint project involving mental health charity Vale of Clwyd Mind and the Men’s Sheds Association. The project offers members the opportunity to share tools to work on projects of their own choosing - at their own pace and in safe and friendly venues.
· Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind’s LEAP (Learning Employment and Action) project has used restorative approaches to support people with learning disabilities/autism to become more involved in their local community, to raise their aspirations for work - resulting in an increase in their confidence, motivation and social inclusion.
The award for good governance - to recognise those groups whose trustees ensure their organisation is well run and exemplar.
JOINT WINNERS
· Cardiff Community Housing Association, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, has 12 volunteer board members who have undergone extensive training to help them better understand their roles and responsibilities. The board is made up of a wide range of people from different backgrounds and occupations, with four of them tenants - meaning service users are at the heart of the decision-making process.
· The trustees of Y Bont in Bridgend have expanded services to provide a comprehensive range of support to disabled children, their families and the professionals who work with them - also turning around the project from having an annual deficit to an annual surplus and substantial reserve.
RUNNER-UP
· Keep Wales Tidy trustees volunteer with the charity outside work hours and fostering a coaching culture within the organisation, ensuring that training and advice is available for staff to improve performance and internal communication. They have ensured good governance by regularly monitoring and reviewing the charity’s auditing procedure.
The award for innovative fundraising - for organisations that have run campaigns or events demonstrating creativity and innovation in fundraising.
WINNER
· Merched y Wawr’s ‘Ategolion at y Galon’ (Accessories for the Heart) campaign has seen the sale of donated accessories raise more than £23,000 in its first year, all of which has been given to the British Heart Foundation in Wales. The accessories have been sold at a wide range of locations including the National Eisteddfod and a coffee afternoon at Cardiff prison.
RUNNERS-UP
· NewLink Wales is a substance misuse charity working throughout Wales providing training and volunteering opportunities which turn negative pasts into positive futures. Dressed as superheroes, the ‘Heroine Day’ fundraisers reached their £10,000 target. Their social media campaign reached more than 107,000 people and the positive message of recovery from substance misuse and addiction changed the perception that many people have about those needing support.
· Prostate Cymru is aiming to earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records with its ‘Big Walk 2016’. Hoping to be crowned the ‘longest and most challenging group charity walk in Wales’, The Big Walk is a total of 30 miles and up to nine hours of walking. The event was founded in 2014 to increase awareness of prostate cancer, with a group of 60 fundraisers walking from the Millennium Stadium to their local rugby club in Kenfig Hill, Bridgend.
· Homeless support service Solas Cymru’s Cre8 project ran an ‘Apprentice’ style fundraiser, with each team of service users following business plans with the aim of turning £50 into as much money as they could within the month of September. A total £2,722 was raised towards training, employment, volunteering, health and wellbeing activities and volunteer support expenses.
Award for the most admired organisation - for organisations most respected for their inspirational work and the causes they represent. The winner of this category was chosen by public vote.
WINNER
· Cardiff-based Pedal Power is an ‘extraordinary, sensitive and caring’ specialised service that encourages and enables children and adults of all ages and abilities – including those with learning disabilities, autism and the most profoundly physically disabled - to experience the benefits of cycling, with free cycling for carers and 1:1 learn to ride classes. The project is unique in that it supports parents, carers and friends to accompany service users on bike rides.
RUNNERS-UP
· African Community Centre’s I Can Project is funded by BBC Children in Need and targeted at children, young people, parents and toddlers from asylum/refugee backgrounds and African/Caribbean heritage, 90% of whom experience issues around social deprivation, trauma, depression, language barriers, culture shock and bullying.
· The Antioch Centre in Llanelli is a church-run facility that has been working with the local community in one of the poorest wards in Wales for more than 20 years. It has helped change the lives of people from all cultures, backgrounds and ages for the better, allowing them to access services including a food/clothes/furniture bank, and money/debt/benefit advice.
· Penparcau Community Forum near Aberystwyth was set up with the aim of creating a vibrant inclusive community where people could feel safe and proud to live or work. The Forum has developed new community spaces and biodiversity projects, assisted a local couple to develop a memorial garden to encourage awareness of organ donation and has large-scale projects in the pipeline to run a café, community minibus and a grass-cutting service for parks and the football club.
· The Roots Foundation Wales is a volunteer-led Swansea charity that supports young people in care, care leavers, children in need and adults who have left care – many of whom have suffered horrific events in their lives and are vulnerable and socially isolated. Most of the Foundation’s volunteers have direct knowledge of the care system, and are trainee social workers, probation officers or retired foster carers.
For more information please contact Lynne Reynolds on 029 2043 1718 or Jackie Huybs on 07814 070239. WCVA website www.wcva.org.uk
Notes
· WCVA supports and represents the third sector in Wales, with more than 3,000 members including a wide range of organisations working on issues such as housing, economic regeneration, childcare, community development, transport, the environment and health.
· You can find full versions of the winners and runners-up stories on our website, www.wcva.org.uk.
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