Locality Awards Shortlist for Locality Awards '24 announced

The Power of Community Award

• Bassetlaw Action centre: Based in Nottinghamshire, they involve as many local people as possible through surveys, meetings and groups. They provide community transport, befriending and wellbeing support, as well as their promoting independence service which helped 500 people last year and reduced hospital admissions by a third.
• Shantona Women and Family Services: Shantona raise awareness and build resilience so that women and their families in Leeds can tackle issues like emotional abuse, financial control, forced marriage, and gender inequality. They campaign to improve services and by listening to women and their families they are able to transform lives.
• The People's Empowerment Alliance for Custom House better know as PEACH, is a pioneering community membership organisation in East London. PEACH is run by its members; we build our collective power and take action to win big change in our community. We’ve achieved life-changing wins, including 60% rent reductions for 250 temporary housing tenants., a £300k rent arrears amnesty and over £1 million investment in a refurbishment scheme. Now, more and more people in our community live in safe, healthy, accessible homes. We are investing in our community: our young people have designed and built a community garden, and we set up a workers coop - local jobs for local people - and a community land trust.
• Toynbee Hall: 140 years old this year, the first Settlement continues to support and empower disadvantaged communities in East London. They’re nominated in 2024 for their People’s History of Petticoat Lane project, where hundreds created and attended events like a radical history tour and a traditional Bengali festival.

Transforming Lives Award

• The Sewing Rooms: Based in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, they run creative group activities to improve wellbeing and life chances, and they upcycle and recycle textiles to divert them from landfill. They designed a laundry bag made from reused bed linen for use in hotels, and have now made over 30,000 laundry bags for Marriot, Sheraton and many other hotels.
• Happy Days help people who are homeless or in crisis with wraparound support. It provides food and shelter alongside person-centred social care, which tackles the many causes of disadvantage to make lasting change.
• Shantona Women and Family Services: Shantona raise awareness and build resilience so that women and their families in Leeds can tackle issues like emotional abuse, financial control, forced marriage, and gender inequality. They campaign to improve services and by listening to women and their families they are able to transform lives.

Building Inclusive Communities Award

• Creative Sustainability: They co-design their activities with different groups like young people with learning disabilities and refugees, bringing them together to get support, take action on climate, and build their skills and confidence.
• Deeplish Community Centre support people facing barriers due to age, health, culture, race, language and disability. Alongside community gardening, health activities and climate action, their money management service has seen huge demand. It’s given local people confidence and reduced poverty and deprivation.
• Saheli Hub: Saheli Hub run services to tackle health inequalities among ethnically diverse women in Balsall Heath in Birmingham. For example their Try-athlon which helps people do something outside their comfort zone.
• Upper Norwood Library Trust: A Community-led library hub that empowers residents to come together and develop skills through literacy, lifelong learning, wellbeing and the arts. They support people with mental ill health, health conditions, low-income families, young people, people seeking sanctuary and isolated older people.

Enterprising Organisation Award

• Whitley Bay Big Local have converted a three-storey building into a sustainable community eco hub with an affordable shop, young parent support and repair cafes. In the last year, they have gone from being reliant on grants to bringing in £14,000 per month from trading, allowing them to do even more to support local people.
• The Sewing Rooms: Based in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, they run creative group activities to improve wellbeing and life chances, and they upcycle and recycle textiles to divert them from landfill. They designed a laundry bag made from reused bed linen for use in hotels, and have now made over 30,000 laundry bags for Marriot, Sheraton and many other hotels.
• Hyde Park Source: Based in Leeds, they improve health and wellbeing through improving the environment, including activities like community gardens and outdoor education. Ten years ago they were 100% grant funded, now around 50% of their income is generated through invoiced work - mainly through their social enterprise designing and building outdoor timber products, but also through research projects with local universities, where they are paid as 'experts through experience' in community led research projects.

Keep it Local Award

• Bradford District and Craven Health and Care Partnership: For 7 years they have run 13 ‘Community Partnerships’ between VCSE organisations, the NHS and local authorities. They use delegated budgets to jointly commission local services in response to local need, like their Family Crisis Support which has helped hundreds of families manage their debt during the cost of living crisis.
• Oxfordshire County Council: They have embedded 111 community groups in their work through long term support and funding. From rewilding and repair cafes to health and wellbeing, they support groups to follow their passions. As a result community groups have hosted nearly 30,000 events and engaged 370,000 people over the last 5 years.
• West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board: They promote co-production with the VCSE sector, subsidiarity, and joint pathways between the NHS and community groups. They are providing £1.1m of funding to sustain the VCSE sector and build its capacity as part of their efforts to incorporate the keep it local principles across their strategy and procurement.