The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service

Walter Rader OBE, the NI Representative of the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service and Club member spoke to the Club meeting Monday 12 January 2014 about the unique UK national honour which was created over a decade ago by Her Majesty to mark the Golden Jubilee in 2002 and which recognises the outstanding contributions made to local communities by groups of volunteers. It is the highest award given to local volunteering groups across the UK and has an equivalent status for voluntary groups as the MBE has for individuals.

In recent years there have been several Awardees from Northern Ireland but he would like more!

Groups are nominated by members of the public with an online form. NI Winners from 2010-14 are shown in the table left. Any voluntary group can be nominated if:

• they have 2 or more volunteers
• are doing work that provides a social, economic or environmental service to the local community for the Award
• have been operating at a high standard for at least 3 years
• are UK based and provide specific benefit to the local area and
• more than half the team are volunteers and more than half the team are reside in the UK

Volunteer groups should fall into the activity category examples shown in the table right.

The logo he explained is cleverly made up of little people. Winners receive a signed Certificate and Glass Trophy together with a lapel badge for each volunteer.

He introduced one of the 2013 winners, Raymond Lavery, from the Belfast Inner East Youth Project who explained that, from their new HQ in Templemore Ave. School, they provide opportunities to young people by sending them to Europe, the UK and the Republic including to the French Battlefields and one to Burnley Football Club, who has been sold on for £3m! They also facilitate cross-community contact and networking between young people in around the interface areas of inner East Belfast and individuals and organisations which are involved in interface issues throughout the city. Their next project will be for youth from the Newtownards Road and Short Strand getting together to study the "Shared Sacrifice" and history in the 1st World War. He stressed that they wanted to introduce careers in schools at a much earlier age so that appropriate subjects could be chosen in good time.

Walter also highlighted another winning group "Radio Cracker" a community Charity Radio in Ballymena which broadcasts only from 27 November – 23 December and raises money for world charities. Last Christmas they raised £59,000 for Kids4school in Tanzania, Second Sight in India, Mission Africa 4 in Bassa, Tearfund in Nepal, The Smiles Foundation in Nepal and the E3 Initiative in Lesotho.