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HELP team wins NAVE Award

Graham Milner, Area Director Nationwide (Hampshire) with the winning team. From left to right: Emma Dalton (holding plaque), Ricky Barsley, Steve Allen, Amy Donaldson (hidden) and Nicky Highgate. Click the image for a larger version (1674 x 1614 pixels, 1.2 MB jpg)

Step by Step's HELP ((Homeless Education Liaison Project) team has won a regional award in the Nationwide Awards for Voluntary Endeavour, in the Adult Group category, a testimony to their hard work and dedication. This is their second major award this year: in March the team received a High Sheriff of Surrey Award.

The HELP team is a group of young people who have experienced the difficulties of homelessness first hand. Visiting schools, youth clubs, Scout and Guide troops, they give a powerful presentation highlighting the causes, difficulties and dangers of being homeless which, coming from their own experience, brings home the reality of the situation in a way that no ordinary lecture could. Over the past year the team has given 26 presentations and reached over 1,700 people.

Sponsored by Nationwide Building Society and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Business in the Community, and Councils for Voluntary Organisations across the UK, the Nationwide Awards for Voluntary Endeavour are designed to recognise individuals and groups who have made an outstanding contribution to their local community.

An excited HELP team - Steve Allen, Nicky Highgate, Emma Dalton, Ricky Barsley and Amy Donaldson - accompanied by Step by Step staff Ivan Norris and Vicky Ferguson - recently attended a reception at the Holiday Inn, Southampton to receive the award - a commemorative plaque and a £100 voucher - from Graham Milner, Area Director (Hampshire) from Nationwide. The team had a great day, and enjoyed meeting the winners of the other categories. They are now hoping to be chosen to enter the national finals later in the year.

Ivan Norris, the HELP project worker, noted that some 20 young people had been a part of the HELP Team during the past year, and all had gained a great deal from preparing and delivering their presentations. ‘The response from our audiences is invariably enthusiastic,' he said. 'The presentations create a powerful and thought-provoking impression and leave a challenge for the audience.'

©2007 Step by Step Partnership Ltd   :   Reg. Charity No. 900308    :   Company No. 2431825