Three main sponsors have now been confirmed for the Cumbria Community Awards, the new County Council-run awards which recognise and celebrate the work done by scores of volunteers around the county.
The Northwest Regional Development Agency is the latest major organisation to back the awards by sponsoring the Build Strong Communities - Social Enterprise Award.
The NWDA has an active programme of support for the social enterprise sector and helps fund the steering group behind the Social Enterprise Action Plan, which was introduced in 2006 and aims to increase the formation, growth and survival rate of social enterprises. It does this by improving research, information and communication within the sector; developing new market opportunities for social enterprise organisations; and tackling the barriers that they can face when bidding for contracts.
The NWDA's involvement follows the confirmation that the University of Cumbria is sponsoring the Building Strong Communities - Education & Learning Award and Digital UK is sponsoring the Volunteer of the Year award.
Cumbria County Council's Leader Tim Stoddard said:
"It's great news that our partner organisations are recognising the huge role that the voluntary sector plays in Cumbria. Their backing gives these awards even more prestige. We want the public to nominate anyone in their community - young and old - who deserves some recognition for the hard work they put in for others. It's time we started singing the praises of Cumbria's unsung heroes."
Nominations are now open for a total of 13 awards, which will be presented at a ceremony to be held at Rheged near Penrith on November 1st.
The 13 categories up for nomination are:
- Young Volunteer of the Year (under 18 years)
- Volunteer of the Year
- Safer Communities Award
Under the banner 'Building Strong Communities':
- Children and Young People's Award
- Education and Learning Award
- Disability Award
- Young Carers Award
- Older People Award
- Social Enterprise Award
- Environment Award
- Arts Award
- Healthy Living Award
And the final award will reflect the diversity of Cumbria's communities for projects that help to make Cumbria a place where people get on well together:
- Chairman's Award - Connecting Communities.
Nominations will close on Monday 17th September and nomination forms can be downloaded from the website detailed above or people can contact:
Cumbria Community Awards
Penrith Library
St Andrew's Churchyard
Penrith
CA11 7YA
Tel: 01768 242365
The finalists will be notified during the week beginning the 8th October and be invited to attend on November 1st.
Notes
- There are 3,000 organisations in Cumbria registered with the Charity Commission.
- 17% of Cumbrians are either employed or active volunteers.
- At present around £25m public sector support is provided to the voluntary and community sector in Cumbria, over £20m of this is through the County Council. Support comes in the form of grants, service level agreements and commissioning of services.
ENDS
Media enquiries to Gareth Cosslett, News Manager on 01228 606332
Follow this link to view full details on the categories up for nomination