Charities ready for big day as Queen's Award recipients

Volunteers from Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton will be amongst those celebrating and receiving their Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS) from the Lord-Lieutenant for the West Midlands, John Crabtree OBE, on Sunday, October 30 at the Birmingham Hippodrome.

The QAVS is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE and eight groups from the region have received that honour.

In Sandwell, three organisations will take to the stage to receive the award from the Lord-Lieutentant.

Special Olympics Sandwell hosts sporting events for children and adults with intellectual and learning disabilities.

Norma Hyde, chair of the group, said on behalf of the committee it was "absolutely fantastic" to be recognised for their hard work with The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.

And it has come at the right time, with the group – which offers a range of sport including swimming and badminton along with others – set to celebrate its 40th anniversary next year.

The 69-year-old said: "It's absolutely fantastic, it really is. It's an amazing award because it's equivalent to an MBE – Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – which sounds really grand. Our volunteers are really dedicated and carry on regardless, but they feel at long last we've been recognised.

"We've been going nearly 40 years, so it's our 40th anniversary next January so it's very good timing for it."

She added the number of volunteers helping out fluctuates but some had been there for "many, many years, and without them we wouldn't be able to operate as we have been".

The retired special school teacher said she was proud to see those with intellectual and learning disabilities develop – in terms of their skills and self-confidence, with them also being able to make new friends – and described the activities as "life-changing" for those involved.

Mrs Hyde received the news of the award before its official announcement and it was discussed with the group's board, with it kept "small scale" to prevent the news from getting out – but she added the group received lots of feedback after the information was released.

Sikh Helpline has been offering support for 25 years through its multi-lingual telephone and email service, as well as in-person advice and counselling.

CEO Giana Sukha Singh Ji said: "We started in the 90s helping kids who were being bullied at school, but we quickly got lots of calls about kids getting into drugs and domestic abuse.

"We realised there are a lot of problems in the community, including discrimination and alcohol abuse."

The service expanded, and offers free and confidential advice and support to people who need help.

This includes supporting people suffering from abuse, mental health issues, substance addictions, and relationship problems.

The helpline is able to assist by: offering family mediation and support, to work with families to overcome cultural taboos and social barriers; supporting victims through counselling; offering mindfulness based intervention for depression, anxiety, anger management and substance abuse;

self-development and empowerment based support; identifying safe houses where necessary; and sign-posting to external reputable support services where appropriate.

Over 70 volunteers help at Sikh Helpline, which receives around 50 approaches a week and around 2,000 each year.

The CEO added: "We were very pleased with out award with all the effort and time our volunteers put in. We operate for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the whole of the UK."

The final group in Sandwell to be awarded the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service for 2022 is the Medical English Group.

Led by founder and group coordinator Dr Laura Pugh, the Medical English Group aims to support immigrant, refugee and asylum-seeking health professionals, trained abroad, who are seeking to secure employment within the NHS.

The volunteer NHS doctors, retired nurse, retired teacher, trainee lawyer and medical students offers expertise, interview role-playing and support for preparation with exams.

Their kindness and willingness to help have been a huge boost to the professionals who have a smoother and more successful journey to securing employment and supporting the NHS to take on many skilled staff they need.

Two organisations from Dudley working with ethnic communities and providing a green space will be in attendance for their awards.

The Halesowen/Dudley Yemeni Community Association fulfils an important role in supporting the Yemeni community across the Halesowen and Dudley areas and helping them to not feel isolated.

Volunteers offer Arabic-speaking benefits to Arabic speaking refugees and asylum-seekers from Syria, Iraq and Yemen and people are offered advice and guidance and links with services locally so many “hard to reach” people can gain the support they need.

The facility provides cultural activities and educational classes, as well as excursions and acts as a meeting point for groups to socialise.

Chairman Marwan Bakaili said he was proud for the group to receive the award, saying it recognised the work it was doing in the community.

He said: "As a community, we feel very proud about the award we have received, which is the highest award you can receive in the voluntary sector for community and voluntary services.

"All of the community are very proud of us for receiving this award, with Yemeni communities across the region and the country telling us how proud they are.

"It's not an easy award to get and is one that we have earned through a lot of hard work and really is a massive achievement for the work we have done and the partnerships with other groups we have developed."

Mr Bakaili said he was pleased to be able to receive the award on behalf of the whole Yemeni community and said the centre would continue to help those in need, as well as act as a community hub.

Since 2014, Hawbush Community Gardens has been an important facility offering so many benefits to many people, thanks to Dr Ken Smith, a retired soil scientist, and volunteers who transformed a four-acre piece of overgrown scrub land into a vibrant community hub.

It began by offering plots to grow vegetables, which now provide food for a food bank and developed into a wonderful environment where it offers therapy for those with mental and anxiety issues.

There are classes in growing fruit and vegetables, horticulture, wood work, social art, forest crafts and the gardens are a base for regeneration projects.

During Covid-19, volunteers installed an art project that helped showcase different cultures and it has been a catalyst for community cohesion with 770 group visits and is regularly used by many local groups.

Chairman Dr Ken Smith said the award had come out of the blue, but was a great boost for the charity and could only help with future funding.

He said: "There's been a lot of work done, particularly over the last two or three years, and the award is a nice encouragement to see and a great boost for all the volunteers and all their hard work.

"I think it will help us in the future when we are applying for funding and is a wonderful recognition of our work, as well as the fact that it can help to attract other groups to join us.

"The Queen's Award also give us a bit more confidence that this site can continue in to the future and really puts us into the public domain."

A mentoring programme, a charity working with young people and a forces charity will represent Wolverhampton at the awards.

The Way Youth Zone in Wolverhampton is being given the award for its highly successful Mentoring Programme, which has seen 290 young people benefit from the support of 315 mentors since its launch in 2017.

The Way Youth Zone’s Mentoring Programme provides young people with one-to-one support, as well as facilitating group mentoring sessions, working within schools and providing young people with the opportunity to train as peer mentors.

It places a strong emphasis on the diversity and uniqueness of each young person they support, as well as the mentors who volunteer on the programme.

There are no restrictions on the reason they feel mentoring would benefit them, only a commitment to supporting every young person referred as individuals.

Their support goes beyond advice; they offer books, games and activities in their wonderful hub to coach young people out of shyness and provided breakfast packs during Covid.

Head of Youth Services, Rebecca Bunger said the award was recognition of the work done by volunteers and offered her own thanks to everyone for their hard work.

She said “We are so proud of the work our mentors do to support our young people.

"This award reinforces the significant contribution our volunteers make to every individual who is referred.

"A special thank you to the Steve Morgan Foundation whose funding for the programme has made this possible.”

Let Us Play, based in Wolverhampton, offers between 300 and 400 sessions per year for children with special needs, working with more than 120 families since it was formed in 2003.

Sessions include a wide range of activities, adapting to individual needs while promoting independence where possible.

The sessions offer parents of children with complex needs much-needed respite, and the charity also holds an active parents group to offer support.

Kim Hatton, charity manager, said: "To receive the award means a lot, it is quite difficult to explain really.

"Because we are not funded by anybody, since Covid it has been hard to find that essential funding.

What the Queen's Award seems to have done is give us a big tick that says ‘this organisation is good enough'.

"It has changed the way people have funded us, people have come to us to ask us if they can fund us or pointed us towards opportunities.

"For me, day to day is the same, but when you step back and think about it has made a big difference."

Kim says the award would not have been possible without her team of 15 paid staff and 20 regular volunteers.

She said: "We have a very special staff pool, the work we do isn't for everybody, it is hard.

"I can tell during the first session whether someone will come back.

"Because of it, I spend my life in a different world, the people I work with are incredibly kind and giving.

"Young people often get bad press, but I have a building full of under-25s helping to make a difference.

"It has made people proud, I know my family are proud."

An association dedicated to helping service and ex-service members of the armed forces and their families has received the honour of the Queen's Award.

The Staffordshire Regiment Association (Wolverhampton Branch), has been recognised for it's work with the armed forces community and their families.

The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to volunteer groups in the UK, and recognises outstanding achievements by volunteer groups.

Branch Secretary, Corporal Paul Hart, 38, talked about the honour of winning the award, he said: "It's a massive honour. It has been a big thing for us, especially coming off of the back of Covid."

Members of the Association were given a certificate, signed by the late Queen and a domed glass crystal with the Queen's Award emblem inside.

Mr Hart said: "With the association, it's all volunteers, everyone gives up their own time to fill various roles, also the majority are ex forces who have sworn their duty to the queen, so to receive this award, it's a huge honour.

"For us to receive what is the last round of Queen's Award, and to get the letters and gifts, that is something that the association will display."

The Corporal continued "This for everyone, not just current members, this is for member of the last 10 years who put the association and the branch in the forefront, for going out into the community and meeting people and wearing their caps and medals with pride."