A children’s therapy centre, a circus and a farming support charity were among the winners at a prestigious voluntary sector awards ceremony.
Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre and NoFit State Circus of Cardiff and Powys’ Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution were among the winners at this year’s Third Sector Awards Cymru. Other winners included a housing group in Newport, a YMCA in Swansea and a leading domestic abuse charity based in Carmarthenshire.
Organised by umbrella body Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) and sponsored by voluntary sector services specialist Class Telecommunications, the presentation ceremony, hosted by TV presenter Jason Mohammad took place at the Marriott Hotel, Cardiff, on 23 January 2014.
The groups were shortlisted in the following six categories:
- The Class Award for Best Communications – for groups with effective or innovative ways of communicating their message to service users and volunteers.
- The Environmental Award – for organisations that have helped deliver environmental benefits for their communities.
- The Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Award- for groups that have helped people to be happier and healthier in their communities.
- The Award for Good Governance – to recognise groups whose trustees ensure their organisation is well run and exemplar.
- The Award for Innovative Fundraising – for organisations that have run campaigns or events demonstrating creativity and innovation in fundraising.
- Award for the Most Admired Organisation – for organisations most respected for their inspirational work and the causes they represent.
Third Sector Awards Cymru 2013 – shortlisted groups
Class Award for Best Communications
Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) – WINNER
RABI was formed in 1860, but because it works discreetly to protect the privacy of those it helps, has been relatively unknown. The charity’s Just Ask! communications campaign, launched to raise awareness of how it can support farming families in financial difficulty, saw it give three times as many grants to working farmers between January and October this year as in the same period in 2012 – £172,000, compared with £58,000.
Time to Change Cymru – Runner-up
Time to Change Wales is the first national campaign to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems in Wales. A three-year project run by a partnership of Mind Cymru, Gofal and Hafal – and funded by the Welsh Government, Big Lottery and Comic Relief – it is running a social marketing campaign encouraging people to befriend others with mental health problems, with the launch in December of an online ‘HYPERLINK “http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/pledgewall”pledge wall’, asking people to pledge to talk about mental health.
St John Cymru Wales – Runner-up
St John Cymru Wales developed a free first aid mobile phone application to help people working in the most dangerous industry in the UK – agriculture – in a bid to lower statistics showing an average of between 40 and 50 workers killed on British farms every year. The app has already saved at least one life, and is also now in widespread general use across the country, having been downloaded by more than 7,000 people since its launch in July 2013.
Environmental Award
Radiate Project, Newport – WINNER
Charter Housing Youth Team and Bron Afon’s Radiate project has seen young unemployed people in Monmouthshire, Torfaen and Caerphilly improve their job prospects while helping older people afford to stay warm in their homes. The young people have been trained to fit energy saving measures and already done so in more than I00 homes. Between now and June 2014, the Radiate trainees will fit over 200 homes with the energy efficiency measures, giving an average annual saving of £186 per household.
Merthyr Tydfil and District Naturalists’ Society – Runner-up
The fortunes of the declining bee population are being reversed in Merthyr Tydfil, thanks to the work of the county borough’s Naturalists’ Society, whose Bees and Biodiversity project has resulted in the management of 65 local bee hives and a link with European partners. The group is also involved in a wealth of planting and general environment improvement work.
Menter y Felin Uchaf, Pwllheli – Runner-up
The sustainable development education centre provides quality volunteering opportunities, skills training and work experience, and is a catalyst for green enterprises in the area, having started a green tourism initiative to encourage and mentor responsible tourism businesses. Its new visitor centre, opening at Easter 2014, will be a training centre in sustainable living aimed at young people who want to create a positive social change in the world.
Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Award
Hafan Cymru – WINNER
In just the past year, Hafan Cymru has helped more than 2,500 women, men and their children across Wales become happier and healthier by rehousing families escaping domestic abuse and helping them live independently, encouraging parents to improve their skills and job opportunities. Since 2005, the charity has also worked with more than 131,390 young people in secondary schools, educating them to spot the signs of domestic abuse.
MS Support Centre, Saltney, Flintshire – Runner-up
The MS Support Centre, which covers all North Wales, Cheshire, Wirral and Shropshire, is an independent charity that offers practical support, therapies and helpful strategies to manage the symptoms of MS and other neurological conditions as effectively as possible in a happy, supportive and understanding environment. With around 300 members, the centre’s aim is to give as many people who have a long term neurological condition the opportunity to live as independently as possible.
The Outdoor Partnership, Plas y Brenin, Capel Curig – Runner-up
The formation of the Outdoor Partnership has seen more than 30,000 people from North Wales – children and young people, families, adults, women, young people with disabilities, people aged 50-plus and the unemployed and economically inactive – take part in a range of outdoor activity programmes and events over the past eight years. It has established 80 community outdoor activities clubs, which are managed by over 600 volunteers, and currently boasts a membership of more than 5,500 local residents.
RCT People First – Runner-up
RCT People First’s research has shown that people with a learning disability are very often not believed when they say they have been abused and ‘nothing seems to get done about it’. As a result of the success of sending trainers to Croatia to run a workshop showing and how self-advocacy can help protect people with a learning disability right across Europe, the organisation is also delivering awareness raising sessions to local schools, colleges and other community groups to alert them to the issues members face in their communities.
Award for Good Governance
Swansea YMCA – Winner
Swansea YMCA, established in 1886, underwent a major transformation between 2007-2013. The change was ‘proactively and innovatively’ led by a dynamic, forward thinking visionary board, members of which committed thousands of hours of their time to support and nurture the organisation. During that time, it has grown from four people with a turnover of £150,000, operating locally as a community centre, to a leading social business employing 31 people and managing another 34 across Wales, delivering an all-Wales portfolio with a turnover of £1.5m ‘to make a genuine difference to people’s lives’.
Vale Centre for Voluntary Services, Barry – Runner-up
The Trustees of Vale Centre for Voluntary Services (VCVS) have led the organisation on a programme of continuous improvement since the adoption of the quality assurance system, PQASSO (Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations), more than10 years ago. They ensure good governance by working effectively, both individually and collectively – identifying, selecting and recruiting new board members to meet the organisation’s changing needs in relation to skills, experience, knowledge and diversity and providing all board members with appropriate opportunities for training and development.
University of South Wales Students’ Union – Runner-up
The University of South Wales Students’ Union was formed in April 2013 when the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales Newport merged to form the largest university in Wales. Both students’ unions had to merge in a parallel process, completing it within seven months. The resulting union is the representative body of 33,000 students – and would not have developed as quickly and as successfully without the Board of Trustees’ ‘excellent guidance’.
Award for Innovative Fundraising
No Fit State, Cardiff – WINNER
An inventive campaign run by the UK’s largest contemporary circus company to renovate its Cardiff headquarters has raised more than £12,000. The Raise the Rig campaign, designed to support the redevelopment of Four Elms – a Grade 2 listed building in the heart of Cardiff – into Wales’s first permanent circus training and creation space, comprised online giving, a cabaret event and Walk the Wire – a sponsored high wire walk.
Merched y Wawr – Runner-up
Merched y Wawr holds more than 3,000 annual events in communities across Wales. Its work with Christian Aid saw new president Gill Griffiths visit Ethiopia to see how women there lived and strived to raise a family. A bags collection scheme involving Merched y Wawr’s 270 branches and clubs saw an ‘astounding’ 14,000 bags arrive at the charity’s national centre in Aberystwyth, where they were sorted and sold at events across the country, raising £18,200 – with money is still coming in. The impact of the campaign is far-reaching and the money will make a massive difference to the work of Christian Aid in Ethiopia.
Llamau, Cardiff – Runner-up
A fundraising idea to increase awareness of homeless people is set to result in £40,000 being raised to support work with homeless young people and vulnerable women and families in Wales. The most innovative element of Llamau’s fundraising calendar is Sleepout, a UK-wide national event participated in Wales only by the Cardiff charity. A record-breaking 131 people took part in 2013, more than doubling the number the previous year – a ‘transformational project’ for the organisation, proving incredibly popular with the business community and producing new supporters and new charitable partners.
Award for Most Admired Organisation
Bobath Children’s Therapy Centre, Cardiff – WINNER
Bobath was established in 1992 in Whitchurch, Cardiff to provide specialist therapy to children across Wales with incurable Cerebral Palsy, using occupational therapy, physiotherapy and speech and language therapy. The organisation was started by a small group of parents who realised there was no real provision for their children in the regular state scheme. The centre has grown to currently provide therapy to children across Wales, currently treating up to 500 – representing around 16% of children in Wales living with Cerebral Palsy.
Duffryn Community Link, Newport – Runner-up
Duffryn Community Link has grown from a community-led group of volunteers to a community-led set of businesses with 37 employees and a turnover of around half a million pounds. The organisation has been at the heart of community development in Duffryn in the Tredegar Park ward for the past decade, successfully empowering local residents to be in control of the solutions to the needs, problems and opportunities experienced by the community. Its successes include refurbishment of its Community Centre IT suite, providing work space for international companies and attracting more than £50,000 investment in Duffryn Community Link’s childcare social enterprise by Newport City Council.
Construction Youth Trust Cymru – Runner-up
An innovative project to identify skills gaps in the construction industry and train disadvantaged young people to fill them has reaped benefits for both, providing training and giving the industry hidden talent. The Trust’s mobile classroom provides construction tasters to help young people overcome barriers they may face. It also provides the opportunity for people to come together as a community, learn new skills, make friends and increase their confidence by gaining qualifications, going on site visits and work placements, or entering employment or training as a result.
