Rochdale Volunteer of the Year Awards

Rochdale Volunteer of the Year Award winners

The Rochdale Volunteer of the Year Awards celebrate the tireless work undertaken by volunteers across the borough.

Held at Rochdale Cricket Club on Thursday 4 June - organised by CVS Rochdale - the awards were attended by 150 volunteers, their guests and representatives from local organisations.

Four awards:

• High Level (Northern) Trust - Volunteer Involving Organisation
• Rochdale Connections Trust (RCT) Youth Support Project - Group of Volunteers of the Year
• Lynn Smith - Long Service and Commitment to Volunteering
• Fida Hussain - Volunteer of the Year

High Level (Northern) Trust won the Volunteering Organisation of the Year award. The company has been established for over a decade and work with people in recovery from addiction, providing innovative solutions to help people move forward in their recovery. High Level Trust also has a volunteer training programme in place, which has trained over 30 volunteers who are currently in placement.

Rochdale Connections Trust (RCT) Youth Support Project won the Group of Volunteers of the Year award.

The RCT Youth Support Project is a resource which provides young people with a drop-in-centre. Volunteers with the service are dedicated and work hard to help make a difference in young people’s lives.

A spokesperson for RCT said: “RCT receives wonderful feedback from our young people and knowing the mentors support is recognised by achieving the Group of Volunteers Award is a fantastic recognition.”

The Long Service and Commitment to Volunteering award was won by Lynn Smith. Lynn has been volunteering for Girl Guiding for over 47 years. She is also the Division Commissioner for Rochdale West. Her role involves training, managing and supporting volunteers to ensure that they deliver a quality programme of activities to girls and young women aged 5 to 25.

The Volunteer of the Year award was given to Fida Hussain.

Since deciding to dedicate time to serving his local community, Fida has provided inspirational leadership to generations of young people for over a decade. He is dedicated to helping the young people of the borough prepare for life as an adult. He spends lots of time away from his own family planning routes and developing as a D of E assessor and training officer.

A spokesperson for CVS Rochdale said: “CVS Rochdale would like to thank RMBC for their continued funding and everyone who was involved in making the awards evening a huge success, from the people and organisations who nominated their volunteers, the judging panel, Councillor Ian Duckworth and Councillor Shefali Farooq Ahmed and all of the volunteers who turned up on the night to celebrate the value of volunteering.”

The awards were handed out during Volunteers Week, an annual event which runs from 1 June – 7 June and celebrates the contributions that millions of volunteers make across the UK.