On Friday 28th September, we welcomed volunteers, supporters, funders, fellow professionals and staff to celebrate together the past year of working with young people and families, to thank our volunteers and supporters for their dedicated work, and to share what we plan to achieve in the coming year.
This year we held the event at the beautiful Kia Oval Cricket Ground, with a view of the pitch on a beautiful sunny autumn day. Our Annual Meeting provides the opportunity to update those who support our work on our key activities and achievements and to hear the inspiring personal stories from those who volunteer and support our work in so many different ways. Anna Khan, our CEO, and Cherry Murdoch, our Chair of Trustees, talked about the past year and our new 3 Year Strategy. This year the theme was putting the needs of children and young people first and showcasing our developing programme of work to support the emotional health and wellbeing of young people.
We were delighted to have Kathy Evans, CEO of Children England, speak about their work to lobby, campaign and fight for children and she thanked young people supported by Welcare who took part in the #ChildFairState consultation to work out what our public services and systems could do to support the needs of children.
A key element of our Annual Meeting is the Volunteer and Supporter Awards. This year certificates were kindly signed and presented by The Rt Reverend Bishop Graham Kings, who stepped in at the 11th hour for Bishop Richard Cheetham, who unfortunately could not attend. Our Volunteer and Supporter Awards ceremony as part of the Annual Meeting is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the hard work and inspiring dedication of our dynamic volunteers and supporters, and the wider teams they represent. All enjoyed having a photograph with The Bishop, and were presented with framed certificates.
Our winners were:
Volunteer Outstanding Achievement Award
Edna Toha, Pauline Griffiths & Jo Silcock
Volunteer Team Award
Inner London Group Assistants (Ayesha Alleyne, Karina Sakhibgareeva, Lisa Broderick & Gail Mallatratt)
Volunteer Impact Award
Beverly Lami, Jane Irvine, Touba Nikandam, Isata Kamara & Karina Sakhibgareeva
The Emily Bennett Outstanding Supporter Award
Maureen Jessiman
Supporter Impact Award
Roberta Clarke
Supporter Team Award
Greenwich Friends Group (Alan Wiltcher, Eileen Wiltcher, Peter Griffiths, Jean Griffiths, Joan Lake, Sue Floyd, Pam Davies, Janet Knox-Hewson, Eric Buhl & Ros Scofield)
Congratulations to all our winners, but also a huge THANK YOU to all our volunteers and supporters – you’re all amazing and we couldn’t do this without any of you!
