- Society Guardian,
- Wednesday December 13, 2006
What is the connection between welding and wellbeing? One charity that can explain it, is a winner of this year's Guardian Charity Awards.
Motorvations, an Essex-based organisation offers motor mechanic training to excluded teenagers in a supportive environment where the young people are taught about sexual health, fitness and diet.
The other four winning charities also work with children, young people and their families. 1Voice brings together children and young people without speech, the majority of whom use communication technology; Mosac helps families of children who have suffered sexual abuse; KPC Youth, is a community-run youth club in South Wales keeping young people away from drugs and crime; and Nacoa, the National Association of Children of Alcoholics, runs a helpline for the children of parents with alcohol problems.
The awards, announced today, are for small and medium-sized charities. Now in their 14th year, they are intended to recognise excellent, innovative practice that fills a gap in social welfare provision and can be replicated in other fields or other parts of the country.
Sponsored by NatWest and The Royal Bank of Scotland, the awards offer each of the winners a prize of £6,000 and a new PC provided by Smartchange.org, which promotes and facilitates employee giving to charities.
The awards were presented by Dame Suzi Leather, chair of the Charity Commission, at a ceremony at the Tate Modern in London. Paying tribute to the distinctive role of smaller charities, Dame Leather said: "Their creativity, their independence, their tenacity in pursuing their vision and championing their causes is truly impressive."
She urged smaller charities not to feel pressured into playing down their campaigning role. She told the winners: "Please be in no doubt at all that speaking out on the causes you represent is a key part of your charitable activity."
Collecting an award, Hilary Henriques, chief executive of Nacoa, said: "As a small charity it is very difficult to be heard, winning this award puts us on a much bigger stage." Motorvations is putting its prize money towards a new gym, nutrition centre and juice bar. The charity's administrator, Laura Hill, said: "We aim to improve young people's self-esteem, confidence, social skills and behaviour. Watching these children grow in confidence and knowledge keeps us all committed."
This year's judges included Jane Asher, president of the National Autistic Society, Lady Howarth, former chief executive of ChildLine, and Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
