Community Awards 2014

 

Thank you to all who came along to be part of the Castle Vale Community Awards 2014 hosted at Greenwood Academy and compered by Ashlee Walsh.

Below are the nominees and winners for 2014:

Valued Contribution Award

Sponsored by the TRA and presented by Ray Goodwin

Anne Largie has been an instrumental community member for many years. She started her involvement on Castle Vale as a local GP, then met her husband Earle and took over the Christian Fellowship where they worked closely with the community including many young people as part of their own youth programmes. Anne has coordinated many residential’s, trips and summer activities and supported partners activities on the estate.

Trevor Williams has supported Castle Vale’s Community Health Programme over the past 6 years through the Health Improvement Forum. He was also one of the founder members of the Telbuddy Scheme where his daily phone calls made a positive contribution to other tellebuddies. He has also been very active at The Ridings, helping to raise funds and awareness of their good work.

Young Person’s Award 

Sponsored by the Youth Council and presented by Jonathan Davies

Daniel Harvey first started attending youth sessions when he was a young boy and he was a member of the youth council for many years. He has been a youth worker at CVCRS for the past two years and previously a volunteer where he worked with many CV young people and is well liked and respected. Daniel has recently gone on to get himself a good job after gaining the skills he has needed.

Jamie Huggins does a lot of charity work in the community. She is a model student, getting involved with many extra curricular at Greenwood Academy. She gave her all to the heritage project, volunteering for the Youth Forum and being a pivotal member of that throughout the project and shaping the project for her peers. Jamie uses her wealth of skills to encourage others to participate too – just recently she has recorded a video shown to all pupils to promote CVCRS Health and Wellbeing Youth Zone at the Academy and delivered an assembly to recruit for the science department stem club.

Laura Hicklin was one of last year’s nominees and continues to give to the community. She is active in the weekly swimming sessions and continues to fight to keep the pool open alongside Castle Vale Pool User Group. Laura was instrumental in the Year of Celebration Event and attends steering groups meeting to ensure there is representative for young people. Laura is proactive in many groups such as Centre stage and Knits N Pieces and was integral with CVCRS’s Sexual Health Education Course where she became a peer leader in encouraging other young people to participate.

Volunteer of the Year Award

Sponsored by the Community Environmental Trust and presented by Tracey Barrington

Dean Kavanagh works a full time job as research scientist, has a young family and still puts in hundreds of hours into to managing Switch Radio in an entirely volunteer capacity. He often sends emails at 3-4am and he is the hardest working person they know and the station would not be here today if it wasn’t for him.

Fay Hoare is the in house counselling at CVCRS and volunteers at The Sanctuary on a weekly basis, (sometimes over 30 hours per week) providing one to one counselling alongside supporting some of the health & wellbeing groups, such as cancer support, 2-4 all and Alzheimer’s group. Fay has worked her magic on many clients and enabled people to become part of the community they live in, encouraging them to attend group sessions and new activities.

Jan Davies attends lots of groups on the estate including neighbourhood tasking, 2005 group, housing and environmental sub group etc. She also attends monthly walk and talks as well as being part of Active Arts. She also helps residents at the family tree group. Jan always makes a positive contribution to these groups/meetings and picks up various issues on behalf of many residents. Jan will work with people to identify a resolution and share information.

Sue Spicer has been involved in making the estate a better place to live for many years. Sue is committed to ensuring that the service providers in Castle Vale provide the best possible service to residents by raising issues and concerns at various meetings. Sue volunteered a lot of time each week to this and is currently the chair of CVCHA. Sue was the vice chair of the neighbourhood partnership board for many years and even acted as the acting chair for a while. Sue gives her time freely and ensures that residents priorities are picked up and auctioned.

Apprentice/Young Enterprise Award

Sponsored by Merlin Venture and presented by Wendy Stokes

Ashton Jeffrey has worked at Pegasus Tiggy Winkles Day nursery since 2011. Ashton first came to the nursery on placement from college then when an apprenticeship became available Ashton applied and was successful. Ashton completed both her NVQ level 2 and level 3 in childcare then was taken on as a nursery nurse in October 2013 . Ashton is a valuable member of the team and a pleasure to work with. She is trustworthy, reliable and an excellent member of staff.

Jake Alders joined the Advance programme on 10/05/2013 and started a Foundation Learning course in construction skills at Merlin Training which he completed. Tina Champion, Senior Training & Employment Advisor and Jackie Elston, Training Centre Manager worked with Jake and helped him in applying for Apprenticeships. Jake started employment in September as a Apprenticeship Plumber working for Mitie Builders and is now in the seventh month of his apprenticeship.

Kirsty Clarke has shown great commitment to her supporting role at CVCRS with the Employment Support Worker and has been working regularly with a number of clients, one with learning difficulties and another with Aspergers syndrome. Her interaction with people is excellent and the achievement she makes with them. She has gone above and beyond her duties. For a young person Kirsty is mature and not afraid of rolling her sleeves up and trying anything.

Sophie Swann has worked at Chivenor Tiggy Winkles Day Nursery since 2011. Before Sophie started as an apprentice she completed 2 weeks work experience with Merlin from school and also did voluntary work while on school holidays. Sophie then started as an apprentice doing her NVQ level 2 in childcare. Once this was finished she progressed on and completed her Level 3. Upon completing her qualification in January 2014 Sophie was then employed by the nursery as a nursery nurse. Sophie is a very valuable member of staff who is dedicated, reliable, trustworthy and has a natural caring nature towards children.

Arts & Creativity Award

Sponsored by AACV and presented by Sheila Arthurs

Anna Marie Webster has been agoraphobic and hadn’t left her house in 4 years, however with help she has overcome this and has accessed the social prescription photography group & walking group.  She has a real passion for photography and started distributing her work on flickr.  From this she now takes photos for the local Olympic football team on a weekly basis and approached by others.

Ann Lawton has been involved in the Knits and Pieces group since the beginning and has taught many of the participants how to knit or crochet. She is extremely patient whilst teaching people and continues to assist participants at every session.

Pam Mooney has been involved in the Knits and Pieces group since it started and has made some amazing pieces. Pam is always keen to pass on her knowledge and experience and often offers the group useful tips. Her beautiful work has raised money for the Year of Celebration.

Sam Bills has attended all art activities as part of the 2-4 All Group, is a regular member at Crafty Ladies and heavily involved with the Knits N Pieces group. Sam has become a recent member in CVCRS’s Photography group and continues to show massive talent throughout her involvement with arts and crafts.

Sports, Fitness & Wellbeing Award

Sponsored by CVCHA and presented by Peter Richmond

Anthony Brennan of Little Ninja’s Tae Kwon Do club runs the group on a weekly basis for children aged 4-11 and it is an extremely successful group, not only does he teach the children tae kwon do he also teaches them life skills and respect.  He also supports the health and wellbeing team outside of this class by attending events to raise awareness of his class.

Brian Savage and Connor Mackinnon both attend a large range of extra-curricular clubs both before and after school at Greenwood Academy. They are very supportive during fitness sessions in the fitness suite with their peers, giving advice and guidance for exercising different muscle groups. They are also respected members of the free running curricular team.

Harry Morbey is a Birchfield Harrier athlete who will hopefully soon be in the British squad for Javelin, currently training at Loughborough University. He is also Rank 1 for Badminton at Greenwood Academy assisting the school in making the Birmingham finals this year and has played key roles in the very successful school basketball and football teams. On top of this he is working towards an A grade in GCSE PE and embarking on a coaching course this summer to set him up for Post 16 Sports Courses next year.

Keaton Cutler and Tom Roe both help out at Castle Vale swimming baths every Saturday. By helping teach the younger/less experienced children to swim. They have been doing this for some time now and show great commitment.

Tyburn Ward Councillors Award

Presented by Lynda Clinton, Mike Sharpe & Mick Brown

CVCHA Wardens, to recognise their committment and achievements in helping the tenants and residents in Castle Vale.

Open Votes Awards

There were lots of great suggestions and this year a panel narrowed it down to three names in each category that kept coming up and clearly valued by the community.

The Unsung Hero Award

Sponsored by the 2005 Group and presented by Lamidi Aminu

Bill Griffiths support of his daughter over the years has enabled Claudette to be a very active member of the community sitting on a range of committees for example the Health Improvement Forum and accessing groups such as the Knits N Pieces, Photography Group etc. This has made William one of Castle Vale’s Unsung Hero’s as Claudette would not have been able to have contributed to the work on Castle Vale without his ongoing support.

Laura Hicklin was shortlisted for this additional award due to wanting to recognise that she is an extraordinaory person who we know will go on to achieve so much more yet. You can’t help notice that whenever there is an event on in Castle Vale she is there and quite often has been helping in the background.

Luke McLean was nominated by a number of people to recognise all that he has done over a number of years to help others get involved in activities. Most recently he has been developing the Youngstars alongside others and is always looking at ways of raising money to run activities on the estate.

The Year of Celebration Award

Sponsored by the Neighbourhood Partnership Board and presented by Ruth Miller

Brian Cragg is notorious for his challenging questions in meetings and keeping organisations on the estate in check with what they’ve promised to do. He’s been an engaged community member for many years and most recently been a key member of the Year of Celebration events, without whom we would not have had the vision, ambition and achieved so much. His drive particularly helped shape the success of the Castle Vale Festival last year and this year he is helping to make happen The Last Leaf sculpture as well as other events.

Helen Webley has been part of the estate almost from the very start and is the ultimate Castle Vale volunteer clocking up nearly 50 years of volunteering. She helps at St Cuthbert’s Church, is a trustee for Active Arts, sits on many groups including attending CAG and most notably she has had a long service with the local Scouts groups. She works late into the night, gets up early to carry on and weekends are always busy.

Lamidi Aminu like our other nominees has lived on the estate from it’s early beginnings and has been key behind the scenes. Not many people will know Lamidi and his contribution as he keeps himself quiet. But he asks the right questions and helps steer positive activities. For a moment we thought we’d get him abseiling for the Vale Challenge but he managed to be busy that day. We did get him involved in our opening ceremony performance last year in the symbolic handing over of the key.

Sponsors

Thank you to our funders and sponsors this year

• Active Arts Castle Vale
• 2005 Group
• Community Environmental Trust
• Castle Vale Endowment Trust Fund
• Castle Vale Youth Council
• CVCHA
• Greenwood Academy
• Merlin Venture
• Neighbourhood Partnership Board
• TRA
• Tyburn Ward Councillors

 

Raffle Prizes

Thank you to the generous people and companies who donated prizes for the raffle and helped to raise just under £200 towards the Last Leaf sculpture.

JAN DAVIES for the whisky

MICK BROWN for the bottle of wine

THE POST OFFICE for the 2 bottles of red wine, & 2 white  from

LLOYDS for the teddy bear

SMYTHS for the £10 voucher

COSTCUTTERS for the bottle of Blossom hill

NISA for the small box of Maltesers

K&K for the 3 male & 3 female beauty sets

ASDA for the £10 voucher

ECLIPX for the Cut & Blow Dry

GEMINI SALON for the Cut & Blow Dry & Spay Tan

NEEDLE TO SKIN for the £50 voucher

SAINSBURY’s for the chocolates and the flowers for the award winners