And now we are finalists in the Best Group category of NYCC Community Awards. The announcement will be at a conference in Harrogate on Friday 26th October. Bob and Roger will attend on SAMS behalf to learn the result. Here is the relevant part of the NYCC Press Release
Press release from North Yorkshire County Council
County Council’s Community Awards finalists announced
Finalists in North Yorkshire County Council’s annual Community Awards have been announced.
This year’s awards attracted 66 nominations for 64 groups and individuals. From these, 17 were shortlisted. The judging panel has visited the shortlisted nominees over the last two months and finalists have been selected.
The winners will be revealed at the North Yorkshire wider partnership conference on Friday, 26 October. The winner of each category will receive £1,000 for the project, group or nominated relevant local charity in the case of the volunteer awards. Two runners-up in each category will receive £250.
The awards, now in their fourth year, celebrate the county’s unsung heroes, volunteers who make a huge contribution to their communities. They recognise the variety and value of this work to make neighbourhoods better places in which to live and to help the County Council to deliver critical services, for example by providing social networks that reduce isolation and enable people to live independently for longer.
County Councillor Robert Windass, chair of the County Council, said: “It has been wonderful to see and hear about the amazing work that is being done by volunteers in our communities across the county. The panel of judges has had a difficult but rewarding job in selecting our finalists. We are privileged in North Yorkshire to have so many people willing to offer their time and skills to make where they live a better place.”
The finalists in the four categories are: (only first category shown here)
Best community group – awarded to groups carrying out ongoing voluntary activity/activities.
- Exclusively Inclusive, Craven district: Exclusively Inclusive is a facilitated friendship group that started to give two disabled people a sense of belonging and companionship, and has grown to 30-plus members in three years. There is a regular Friday afternoon get-together to put together the Craven Gazette and generally have fun, a monthly club night, ‘come dine with me’ events and trips and weekends away occasionally. The group has an allotment in Skipton, and sometimes meets in Settle. Members travel from across Craven.
- Oatlands Community Group, Harrogate: Oatlands Community Group has a monthly community café run by youth volunteers. This offers a safe, warm and friendly space for the community together and socialise on a regular basis. The café offers inter-generational interaction where skills can be shared – the friendship blanket knitters share their skills with younger volunteers and the younger volunteers are able to share their knowledge of IT and technology. Other activities include quiz nights, talent nights, collections of food and clothing, promoting Random Acts of Kindness and Wonderful Windows – where the community decorate and ‘light up’ their windows during winter evenings.
- Sleights Area Men’s Shed (SAMS): SAMS is about wellbeing and seeks to reduce isolation in men (and women). Activities are many and varied. The aim is distraction from individuals’ day-to-day circumstances through practical tasks, including wood turning, making a walking stick or a planter, building a model, carving or even playing dominos. It is a chance to be with other Shedders and to form new friendships. The group enables members to help one another with tasks and through conversation. It is a supportive family for people with different kinds and degrees of inclusion need. SAMS has been instrumental in starting Sheds in Whitby and Staithes.
- TEMPT (Tadcaster Events Management Project Team): Following the devastating flooding and bridge collapse of 2015/16, TEMPT was established to develop a calendar of events to contribute to reviving the town’s economic fortunes and to provide opportunities for community cohesion. Since forming, it has organised the re-opening day celebrations in February 2017; the Tadcaster Cycle Festival in May 2017; the first Tadcaster Apple Day in October 2017; established an annual Heritage Day in February 2018, the first Tadcaster Arts Festival for July 2018 and is planning the first Tadcaster Soapbox Derby in September.