London regional winners
Congratulations to the following London regional award winners!
Best New volunteer
Pamela Masha
Pamela has been a volunteer for the Descendants, Acton, West London since August 2011. The project focuses on teaching youngsters, predominantly of African-Caribbean descent, about their heritage and traditions. This is done through music, drama and dance. Pamela is a fundraising assistant and also lends a hand at the Friday evening classes held for the Descendants' children.
Overall commitment to volunteering
Adam Yasir
Adam arrived in London as a refugee in 2007. Inspired by the support he had received from British volunteers in Darfur, he began volunteering at Croydon Voluntary Action. He has supported projects ranging from youth inclusion events, inter-cultural projects, and created his own environmental campaign at his college.
As a result of the confidence and skills gained through volunteering, he was able to complete his school exams and is now studying International Relations at university, in the hope that he may be able to help others in the way that British volunteers helped him in Darfur.
Youth worker
Patrick Taylor
Patrick is a Youth Worker at Envision, managing volunteering projects across the South East, working directly with groups of young people. Most recently he worked with a group of school girls from Hackney in London to create a project to bring pride back into their community. Patrick believes that the key to his work with young people is empowering them to make their own choices.
National Citizen Service (NCS)
NCS Harrow
The Summer of a Lifetime Harrow team chose homelessness as their social action project. They put themselves in the shoes of homeless people by holding a sponsored sleep-out and donating funds to a homelessness charity.
They also volunteered at a local soup kitchen and organised a community fun day to showcase what they had achieved. Despite coming from very diverse backgrounds, the young people gelled well as a team and are still working together on community projects.
About NCS:
NCS aims to promote a more cohesive, responsible and engaged society by bringing young people from different backgrounds together to make a difference in their communities. It is a voluntary programme for 16-year-olds which focuses on their personal and social development. It includes challenging activities, from away-from-home residential experiences to a self-designed social action project.
Team
City Year London
In the short time that the City Year London has been working with children in a tough Hackney school it has transformed the lives of many young people. The team has given up a year to volunteer full time with primary school children, helping teachers and staff to improve their confidence, behaviour and attainment.
There are countless stories of children who have been completely transformed by the support, understanding and compassion of this team.
Bringing communities together
Torron-Lee Dewar
Torron-Lee set up the Alliance Dance Unit dance school to teach young people in his area dance skills and give them a place to go. Three years on Torron-Lee’s school has several classes with around 20 students in each class and several volunteer teachers. The school puts on an annual show, with the last one selling out a 500 seat venue on two nights.