Supporting Voluntary and Community Action
www.creativeyouthnetwork.org.uk
Aishah Shakoor | Anna Ludwig| Cartelea Howell | Charlene Newman | Teeka Rendle | Yi Zeng
The winner of this award will be decided by a panel of judges - the following are extracts from all the nominations received
Aishah worked as a volunteer Youth Ambassador at Babbasa to design and execute EMPOWERED. She took on a leadership role and went above and beyond what was expected of her to ensure that the event - which was her own brainchild- was a success. She led a team of other volunteers and dealt with the task of multiagency working in a highly professional and organisaed manner. Her ideas were always excellently thought through and her efforts to bring together young people from different postcodes to celebrate achievement and talent were well rewarded with an excellent turnout and a professionally delivered event which included live performances, local dignitaries and, of course, the awards themselves. Aishah has worked tirelessly to contribute of the lives of the local community, especially young people in Easton, Lawrence Hill and St Pauls. She is an excellent role model to other young people and her efforts have now paid off as she has recently secured employment in her sector of choise and completed a degree - all this whilst spending countless hours volunteering to design and create the event, EMPOWERED, in March 2015. EMPOWERED was a youth awards event run by young people for young people, which recognised talent in local areas that is often overlooked in more traditional settings.
Anna’s role with Victim Support involves providing confidential emotional and practical support and help to people who have been victims of crime in Bristol. Additionally her role also involves providing information and sign-posting, as well as helping to advocate on behalf of victims when required.
The support that Anna provides is tailored around the needs of the individual and involves the application of a multi-agency and person-centred approach.
Anna dedicates a huge part of her week to travelling out to meet with victims across the city, and she manages a significant caseload alongside her other commitments. Anna is a caring and compassionate individual who will go above and beyond the call of duty to help others, as is demonstrated through the support that she provides to victims of crime in Bristol.
Anna’s role with Victim Support involves providing emotional and practical support to victims of crime, empowering victims to overcome the emotional, psychological and practical effects of their experience. Feedback from those that she has supported has been exceptional, and consequently she has progressed to also supporting victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse.
Anna is a caring and compassionate individual who displays a maturity beyond her years, and who dedicates so much of her free time to helping others back on their feet following often traumatic experiences. She has an infectious sense of enthusiasm, is highly motivated and manages a significant caseload alongside her other commitments.
Cartelea's main consistent role with 1625 is her involvement with the Youth Board, this a group of current and ex service users who commit to regular meetings, working at the same level as the Board to help shape the services provided for young people and set priorities for the organisation. This requires commitment, passion, organisation, reliability, creativity and wanting to make a difference for others, especially other young people. Through her involvement with 1625 Cartelea has also been involved in other projects such as our Peer Support project and Peer Education which are also about supporting other young people. Cartelea was also involved in a group of young people who were passionate about getting other young people to vote to have their voices heard, Cartelea provided outreach support to young people helping them register to vote. She has also been involved in recruitment and fundraising at 1625. Cartelea has also been involved in other organisations as an Ambassador including Off The Record, St Basil's NYRG, Urban Fit and Princes Trust. Cartelea has faced some challenges in her life that could have affected her tremendously and her life could have easily taken a very different less positive route, which is often the case for a lot of young people I have supported in my career. However due to Cartelea's passion, determination and ambition there is very little that could possibly stand in her way and stop her achieving her goals and supporting others. Cartelea is one of the most hard working young people I have had the pleasure of working with and from the first time I ever met her when starting my job with 1625IP I knew I'd met a very special young person with so much to offer her peers and wider community. Cartelea is still very actively involved in Volunteering even though in recent months she has began working full time and always found the time when also studying full time.
Charlene has worked as a Peer Educator delivering sessions around youth homelessness in schools. She has also worked campaigning for us and both roles involved a lot of public speaking, something Charlene was previously very nervous about. Charlene also actively encourages other young people to participate. She has flourished and is always finding new challenges to take on. Charlene has given up so much of her time and pushed herself to step out of her comfort zone in her voluntary role. As a result we have seen her confidence grow and as a team we are so proud of her achievements. She is a hardworking and thoughtful person who has given up a lot of her time to try and improve the lives of other young people in Bristol.
Teeka devotes so much of her time to community projects working with young people and families from Southmead on top of her work and study.
She helps out as a volunteer at Southmead girls group which is a group initially run by the Council but volunteers stepped in to keep it going. Providing a safe space and fun activities for teenage girls in an area where there is not much to do.
She helps with our After School club holding babies; doing craft with children; hanging out with teenagers and making cups of tea and chatting to Mums.
She is gifting with putting people from any age at ease and making them feel loved.
She is currently helping out this week at a Jungle themed Children's holiday club. "Teeka devotes so much of her time to community projects working with young people and families from Southmead.
She swaps work shifts and study commitments to be at every session of our After School Club.
After each volunteer session she sends me (Volunteer coordinator) an encouraging text to say what she loved about the session and what a great job I am doing.
She comes up with amazing; creative and innovative ideas - We had our first ever REACH sports Day which everyone loved!
She doesn't mind doing the dull jobs or cleaning.
She never complains and is always smiling!
Yi has volunteered for more than 14 local organisations, throwing herself in to life in Bristol and contributing to many different projects large and small. Emma Thompson at Bristol 2015 commented that 'she has been so active while in Bristol and knows a lot about what is going on for the Green Capital Year'. Yi Zeng has thrown herself completely in to Bristol’s year as European Green Capital by spending over 170 hours volunteering for 14 organisations. She is an international student, studying Msc Nutrition, Physical Activity and Public Health. Upon learning her university city had been awarded the title, Yi used University of Bristol SU’s volunteer hub to find different ways to get involved. These have included being a member of the ‘welcome team’ providing information for people around Bristol, working at Bristol 2015’s Youth day and working a variety of local events including Redland May Festival, Food Connections Festival, Walk for Health and Changes Bristol. Yi says that volunteering has ‘enriched my student life in the UK’.