Yorkshire and Humber regional winners
Congratulations to the following Yorkshire and Humber regional award winners!
Best new volunteer
Andrew Coe
Animal lover Andrew Coe, 18, from South Yorkshire has been volunteering at a local animal sanctuary for around 6 months after he stumbled across an advert online. The sanctuary, whose motto is 'for the neglected we care' had recently been at risk of closure and was reliant on kind-hearted volunteers. Andrew knew instinctively that he wanted to help. He called up the very next day, went through the application process and started at Thornberry the following week.
Not only does Andrew care deeply for the animals, but he loves showing people around the sanctuary and supporting the paid staff. He also raises funds for the centre by participating in street collections.
Overall commitment to volunteering
Sam Booth-Malone
Sam has been a passionate volunteer since his final years in school, when he was assigned as a project leader for Macmillan, the cancer charity.
Now at University, Sam remains as dedicated to his volunteering as he was then - if not more so. As well as being a course representative and Law Learning Leader, he is also a community rep and volunteers for RAG week. His main volunteering role however is Write Place, Write Time, an award winning voluntary project, which he set up in line with NSU’s volunteering programme. Fuelled by his own experience of visiting his Great Grandmother, (who had Alzheimer’s) at her residential home, he was saddened to see how many elderly people had no visitors. It was from this that Write Place, Write Time was born.
Youth Worker
David Plumtree
David has been working with young people for around six years. After starting as a volunteer at a local youth centre he worked full-time on a youth volunteering project and has recently set up his own charity, helping young people to set up their own volunteering activities.
Most recently he has helped young people to set up their own vintage clothes shop to raise money for local causes. He is passionate about giving young people the freedom to use their own creativity for good.
National Citizen Service (NCS)
NCS Hull
The NCS Hull team worked on a conservation project in their local area for their social action project. As well as rebuilding a vandalised dry stone wall, they were determined to spread their new-found passion for their local environment by building bee hives and bat boxes and distributing them in their area. The team is still working together on ongoing environmental projects in the area.
Team
Jigsaw befriending
The Jigsaw Befriending scheme, which is run by Sheffield Hallam Student Union, provides buddies for children with autism in the local area. Team members are paired with a child in the area and visit weekly or fortnightly to help the children develop their social skills and offer parents some respite.
The team members offer each other support and motivation, as well as sharing ideas to support their individual mentee. The demand for support from the team far outstrips supply as parents have spread the word about the amazing difference the volunteers have made for their children.
Bringing communities together
Megan Griffiths
Megan started volunteering when she was just 12. She felt then that the perception of young people was unfair and that all young people were bunched together, so she set out to prove that idea wrong. After many years volunteering with Links for Youth she now, amongst many other things, runs a youth theatre group, Kidz Du Care, which brings young people and the rest of the community together to raise funds for local causes.