Community Awards 2024

When Tanya retired from teaching, she wanted a new challenge. She completed a bereavement course with the charity Cruse Bereavement and has been a bereavement volunteer for 24 years now. Tanya was nominated by a colleague at Cruse who described Tanya’s voluntary commitment as nearly a full-time role.The nomination highlights so many of Tanya’s different achievements. To name a few:

• she provides direct support to those bereaved face-to-face, by telephone or Zoom, one-to-one and in groups
• she’s trained specially to support young people as well as adults and those affected by trauma or suicide
• she’s gone on to train new volunteers at Cruse, as well as providing clinical supervision to other volunteers
• she’s been on the charity’s local committee and adapted to any organisational changes that have come along
• all the while promoting the work of the charity in the community

Tanya is now 80 and continues to give her time as a volunteer to help bereaved people. The judging panel felt that Tanya had given so much, carrying a huge emotional weight whilst supporting others, and that her impact had been truly enormous. 

Paul has been involved one way or another in managing the Cosby Coyotes – under 17s football team – at Cosby United Football Club for the best part of 10 years. He’s been the team manager for six of those which involves a huge amount of organisation:

• Planning and running weekly training sessions
• Setting up the weekly match fixtures
• Coaching and managing the team prior to and during matches
• Not to mention the admin behind the scenes, including liaison with other clubs and the Football Association

Paul plays a crucial role in helping young people in the area to keep involved in positive activities. The nomination was made by a parent whose son has trained at the club since the age of five and she highlighted the positive impact of having someone like Paul as a volunteer. Her son has gained confidence, teamwork skills, resilience and friendships, not just football skills! The panel recognised the amount of time and energy that goes into running sports clubs and activities for young people.

The judging panel also wanted to recognise Betty - or Akela - as she will be known to many children and parents in the Blaby area for her long service in the community.  Betty had volunteered in local Scouting for 44 years when she retired in December. With 30 Cubs a week, there are thousands of local children who have benefited from Betty’s guidance over the years. The panel wanted to mark this huge commitment by making a special recognition award for long service. 

Hannah turned 18 towards the end of last year and has been part of Girlguiding Leicestershire since she joined Rainbows aged seven. She moved up through the Girlguiding ranks before becoming a young leader at 2nd Countesthorpe Brownies where she’s now an integral part of the leadership team, running a unit of 30 Brownies aged 7-10 years.

Hannah has done this for four years now, every week as well as giving up some weekends to support the group on residentials or special trips, and introduced new activities to the group. She has done all this despite having to overcome a number of complex, personal health struggles. It has meant Hannah has been able to help girls in the group experiencing similar health challenges to achieve their potential, making adaptations where needed.

Hannah is also doing a college course in education and teacher training. Hannah’s nomination was made by another leader within the Brownie group and it highlighted just how special and highly regarded Hannah is: 

“Hannah simply makes time for every single Brownie to be seen, heard and respected. Our unit has changed and become more inclusive, more adaptive and certainly more fun because Hannah is a part of our leadership team. A modern approach is what Hannah brings to Brownies which has helped me as a leader of more than 25 years. She is a true inspiration and a testament to how Girlguiding done well can grow a girl into a young woman who brings a positive impact to the lives of others”.

The panel were in awe of Hannah, in particular her ongoing commitment to volunteering into adulthood alongside so many other responsibilities. 

Our runners-up this year were an outstanding group of pupils from Winstanley School: Amara Emejuru, Dion Grey, Namakau Sibongo and Rachel Rupondo. The judging panel couldn’t split them! They have all committed their time to get involved in some very important extra-curricular activities:

• All four are Stephen Lawrence Ambassadors within the school and have organised activities for Stephen Lawrance Day on 22 April such as speaking publicly in assemblies and at special events. This included representing the school at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University
• They have been involved in Blaby District Youth Council’s campaign about hate crime
• They have helped shape the Multi-Academy Trust’s anti-racism policy and delivered training to other students, staff and governors
• They have also helped organise the annual Great Get Together events to celebrate diversity within school and the wider community

The member of staff who made the nomination said of the group: “Their work has been invaluable in creating open discussions about racism, influencing policy and spreading awareness which makes a real difference to students and young people of colour to have the confidence to speak out about injustice, be aspirational and make positive changes within our community. Their work cannot really be quantified in any way, but their influence on others’ attitudes and especially within our school community is huge, impactful and ongoing.”

The panel felt that they were a fearless group of young people and truly inspiring role models to us all.

This year’s winning group was described as an ‘extraordinary’ PTA. Having reformed about 18 months ago, the committee have raised over £17,000 to deliver lots of different experiences for the pupils at Thistly Meadow primary school and the wider community.To name but a few things, the PTA have brought about:

• the redevelopment of the school library
• gifted books to new pupils arriving at the school to encourage a ‘reading for pleasure’ culture
• provided computer equipment, sports kit and playground equipment
• provided voluntary manual labour in the playground and the Forest School provision in the paddock
• the installation of a beehive, producing honey for the local community
• organised a range of popular events such as BBQs, Halloween Spooktaculars and Christmas light displays, that bring in the wider community as well as school children and their families

The nomination highlighted how truly collaborative the PTA is – involving parents, teachers, past parents and local stakeholders, but also pupils – giving them a voice on how money raised is spent. To quote the person making the nomination: “This small but ever-growing group of volunteers deserve to be recognised for the high impact they are rapidly having within our school, community and district and to shine a light on the wonderful work they are doing”

This is a relatively new charity in Countesthorpe but one that has already made a big impact. At its heart, the charity rescues, rehabilitates and aims to rehome horses, ponies and foals in need of care. 

There can be up to 35 at one time at the centre. The animals could be abandoned, sick or injured, or need to be cared for as their owners can no longer keep them for a variety of reasons. The charity relies solely on funding from the public and the relentless fundraising by their volunteers to cover the costs of food, supplies and veterinary care. The charity works closely with local partners such as the police, RSPCA and vets to keep the animals, and the public, safe.

There’s also a very human impact from this work which is highlighted in the nomination. There is no shortage of volunteers, despite the hard physical graft at the stables, particularly in the wet weather. It is clear that volunteers get a lot out of being in the fresh air and ‘at one with nature’, building trust with the animals, and nurturing them back to health. The charity has a positive impact on the mental health of those who volunteer, visit or go on to adopt and they are keen to connect with social prescribers to spread the benefits that volunteering can have. A number of their visitors have mentioned the therapeutic impact of spending time at the centre following bereavement.