Winners 2021
Jersey Charity Awards 2021 – Winners
The applications for the Jersey Charity awards were all of a very high standard and this shortlist was calculated by a rigorous selection process, by the JCA organising committee.
Aspects such as turnover, numbers of staff and volunteers enabled the JCA committee to categorise organisations into small, medium and large, to ensure a level playing field for all entrants.
The judges then consider all the shortlisted entrants, following a detailed scoring protocol, judging each aspect of the applications against various set criteria, linked to the application form, so that they remain open and objective in their approach.
It is always taken into consideration that the work covers the period since the last award, two years ago and can be for a specific project, in recognition of achievements or work undertaken in this period.
Finally, when the judges meet, if there are any conflicts, these are declared at the start of the meeting and that judge is excluded from that discussion. There are always lively discussions as scores are shared at this stage, and entrants in each category are compared and rated against the criteria.
SMALL Category shortlist
- Jersey Biodiversity Centre
- Jersey Marine Conservation
- Jersey Sea Cadets
- Maufant Youth Project
Introduction
This was a difficult category to judge, as the work that’s been undertaken by these small not for profit organisations is quite extraordinary. From the seabed surveys undertaken by Jersey Marine Conservation and the way charities have adapted to Covid 19, such as the creation of online workshops by Jersey Biodiversity Trust, is truly outstanding.
During the Covid19 lockdown period, the Maufant Youth Project, like many other such groups had to close but they certainly didn’t just rest; having identified several families in need they continued to provide vital support in practical ways - and even though young people couldn’t attend large gatherings, it was great to read of the work Jackie De Almeida did, in taking the service out to youth group members.
All entrants in this category have clearly got a good handle on financial aspects which was fantastic to see, especially Jersey Sea Cadets who did an amazing job of moving premises and even coming in below their predicted expenditure by sourcing donations of equipment and furniture.
It was also good to see all entrants embracing new technology, such as Jersey Biodiversity, who delivered workshops via Zoom, and Jersey Marine Conservation who created downloadable activities in support of schools home learning.
WINNERS
Winner - Jersey Sea Cadets
Jersey Sea Cadets promote the development of young people in achieving their physical, intellectual and social potential as individuals and as responsible citizens.
As we would expect from a junior service-led organisation, their activities demonstrated some great leadership and well-executed planning with the move from Fort Regent to Rouge Boullion. We loved the collaborative approach to the move, which involved several key partners who have all benefitted from the new facility.
By no means resting on their laurels, they then embarked on a staff and cadet recruitment campaign, primarily to increase the adult volunteer group and eventually grow cadet numbers. These efforts resulted in 12 new Adult volunteers and almost doubling of cadet numbers resulting in 103 young people following their syllabus and gaining valuable experiences.
2nd place - Jersey Marine Conservation Society
Jersey Marine Conservation work with their biodiversity mapping and work to increase and manage sites plays a significant role in maintaining a healthy marine environment.
We applaud the community outreach work they have undertaken with a wide range of different groups, and schools, including working with the Mermaids swimming group and Women’s Institute to perform cleanups of isolated coves and reefs.
During the pandemic, their Butterfield Marine Watch team contributed to home learning opportunities by creating online resources and as COVID restrictions eased they provided Bioblitz activities in the inter-tidal area. Great to see well-deserved recognition for the marine stats and data they have collected by the British Biodiversity Awards.
3rd place - Jersey Biodiversity Centre
JBC has done a really great job of raising awareness of their work, which has seen a significant increase in the number of people submitting records to their database, with over 16000 submitted in 2020, ensuring better species representation on the island. This, combined with their redesigning of workshops, to enable an online audience, enable JBC to cover subjects such as bumblebees, pollinators, spider families and pond life, to name just a few.
It’s good to see them reaching out and diversifying which has clearly reached a more diverse range of islanders and an international audience.
We are looking forward to seeing this small organisation grow and we hope to see more of their proactive work to strengthen our connection with nature, improve understanding and knowledge of local wildlife and help islanders contribute to the protection of our natural world through participation in biological recording.
MEDIUM Category shortlist
- Caring Cooks of Jersey
- Community Savings Ltd
- Jersey Child Care Trust
- Silkworth Lodge (t/a) Families in Recovery Trust
- St John Ambulance
Introduction
Families in Recovery Trust (Silkworth Lodge) identified a clear need in the provision of their service, launching a residential rehabilitation facility for 13 to 18-year-olds, which we applaud and look forward to seeing them develop this much-needed service.
It was also great to read how Community savings have been working hard to diversify their income stream, so they are less reliant on grant funding, which was a key objective in their business plan. They not only secured a three-year sponsorship agreement with Santander International as well as other grantmakers, they also undertook a full review of services, in parallel with an extensive review of all member accounts, to achieve cost and operational efficiencies. This, along with a successful rebrand, including a new website, marketing materials and improved social media engagement, really does deserve a round of applause to Brian Curtis, Richard Dorey and all the team and, of course, their band of dedicated volunteers.
WINNERS
Winner - Jersey Child Care Trust
This was a really well-written application and great to see an organisation that explained how it had leapfrogged COVID by redefining itself, conducting a complete, well informed, and collaborative overhaul that resulted in a doubling of their income and an increase in their beneficiaries.
Jersey Child Care Trust has built some really good relationships during this process and has demonstrated additional learning outside of the project. We loved how they had adopted an Outcomes-Based Accountability approach, so they know the difference they have made with an unfaltering focus on the needs of children and families living in more disadvantaged circumstances.
With the effects of the pandemic further exacerbating inequalities, the JCCT really is now in the best position to help many more children. Fiona Vacher, her team, board and volunteers, including Penny Byrne who donated proceeds from the sale of her book, really do deserve a great big pat on the back for their hard work, well done!
2nd place - Caring Cooks of Jersey
Caring Cooks, like so many other charities, responded really quickly to Covid 19, redefining their service, within just one week, to those most in need, who were more likely to experience the greatest negative impact of Covid 19.
Taking into account an awareness of the struggles from across the Island, regardless of demographic, a swift decision was therefore taken to redeploy resources from normal activities curtailed by lockdown, and scale up the Weekly Meal Service to create a temporary new arm of the organisation, Caring Cooks in the Community. This meant that instead of providing meals for struggling families on a Saturday only - they were now cooking for Island wide recipients from Monday to Saturday from all demographics. This quick dynamic response is a clear testament to a strong galvanised team.
We applaud the work of all the team who made this happen, including Melissa Nobrega, the former CEO, who showed incredible leadership, working long hours and arranging meetings with anyone who she thought could help. She secured the funds to make the project happen and skilfully carried out negotiations with both Government and the schools.
3rd place - St John Ambulance
Every person on the island has benefitted from the amazing volunteer effort of the St John Ambulance team of staff and volunteers, throughout the pandemic.
During the pandemic it was their fleet of ambulances and support vehicles, trained volunteers and HQ building that was made available to the SoJ and they performed several roles supporting the island in the fight against COVID-19.
Their volunteers staffed frontline ambulances, drove nurses to addresses to perform swab testing, provided PPE training to the hospital staff so that their own trainers could be used on other training and performed antibody testing on key workers enabling them to continue working.
Since December volunteers have helped with the vaccination programme at Fort Regent and driving vaccinators to homes when people cannot travel. St John also manages the post-vaccination area where members of the public sit to be observed for acute anaphylaxis and provides first aid at the venue. Volunteer members at the vaccination centre are operating 7 days per week and have undertaken more than 700 hours so far.
To finance this the charity reduced unnecessary costs, continued to deliver essential workplace first aid training and increased its fundraising efforts, enabling the charity to be financially buoyant.
It is the volunteers we really need to applaud for what has been achieved through their Management’s well-planned and executed reaction to a very real need, well done indeed.
LARGE Category shortlist
- Autism Jersey
- Durrell
- Jersey Employment Trust
- Jersey Heritage Trust
- Les Amis
Introduction
When the pandemic hit, Les Amis really worked hard to put their clients’ safety first, repurposing facilities, services and staff roles to better serve its residents and the wider, more vulnerable community. Those with learning disabilities were classified as amongst the most vulnerable during the Covid pandemic, being 4 times more likely to die from the virus, and it was immediately recognised that all residents needed to go into an immediate lockdown for their safety, under very strict measures.
We were also impressed how Shaun Findlay (MD) changed staff policies, so no one lost out or was financially worse off.
Autism Jersey also really impressed the judges with their very well thought through and strategic project to develop high quality, efficient, effective financial data management. This has enabled the Charity to understand its current financial position, capacity for growth, and quickly identify problems, including Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Accounts for the month / Year to day, also separating operational and fund-raising costs, and total budget variance, demonstrating some really good governance and professionalism.
All charities on the island have responded amazingly well to the challenges of dealing with a global pandemic and the words that JET used – it's not a case of if, but how, really resonated with the judges and summed up the spirit of the charity sector in Jersey.
WINNERS
Winner - Durrell
Go Wild Gorillas was organised in partnership with Wild in Art in celebration of Jersey Zoo's 60th anniversary and were the Channel Islands' largest public art trail ever, which saw 40 brightly coloured, artist imagined, life-size gorilla sculptures, placed across Jersey in 2019.
Go Wild Gorillas led islanders and visitors on a trail of discovery, combining art and conservation to raise funds to build a new gorilla house at Jersey Zoo, whilst also encouraging more people to get outdoors and connect with nature.
The Island embraced the trail, with extensive community engagement, media coverage and new supporter relationships. Schools and charitable groups participated via the creative learning programme.
This initiative really gripped the imagination of islanders and visitors alike, it was a great community initiative, with the trail ending with an auction, which raised £1,146,500 and a £2.6 million donation, enabling the building of a new gorilla house.
2nd place - Jersey Heritage Trust
The Jersey Heritage strategy to increase awareness and users of the online catalogue, really does epitomise the qualities of an excellent Jersey charity, doing what it does best and embracing modern technology.
Both locally and globally during the pandemic they made more content available online, engaging with traditional audiences through an enhanced digital experience,
They had a very clear idea of costs, including staff time, who were taken from their regular customer-facing roles and dedicated to digitisation.
46,177 new catalogue entries and over 100,000 digitised images were made available online during 2020. This included over 40,000 digitised images of Bailiff's Occupation and Liberation files, which supported the What's Your Street's Story? (WYSS) series.
Staff worked incredibly hard from home, and remained motivated through the challenges of home working, the inevitable distractions and schooling.
3rd Place - Jersey Employment Trust
JET helps people with a disability or long-term health condition secure work by providing a comprehensive employment placement service, vocational training and long-term support. Acorn Enterprises provides training and support to enable people to gain skills and build confidence before going into the workplace.
The staff of JET really demonstrated outstanding leadership in response to COVID 19 overcoming many challenges and putting the safety of staff, volunteers and customers first.
Employment Coordinators worked outside their usual remit, maintaining regular contact with all their clients, many of whom were quite isolated. This included connecting them to services that could help them at home, for example, food parcels or IT support. Staff gave tips on keeping safe and well, physically and mentally. They liaised with social security on behalf of clients to assist with income support and ensure people were able to receive money or food.
JET staff were also contacted directly and regularly by HR and line managers. This was an unprecedented time when many individuals had serious concerns which needed to be addressed. The guidance and direction given by the management team really was exemplary.
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO CHARITY
This award is given to an individual from a charity who has given an ‘outstanding contribution’ to the community they support. So many were worthy of this award this year, having dealt with and adapted to the awful situation we all found ourselves in over the last 18 months. But one stood out head and shoulders…
To say this person went over and above during the pandemic is an understatement. Like so many during this time, she found new ways to help the community, and in fact, the entire application of this charity for an award is solely based on how she went about helping the young people in her area. Identifying particular families that needed help, she arranged for workers to visit them, to ensure the young people and the families were supported with their wellbeing and mental health, arranging meetings with them in the open air, providing food from the local food bank to those that needed it, and when the club was open, she would pick them up in the minibus and get them safely home – the one-woman dynamo that is Jackie de Almeida, of Maufant Youth Club!
Special 50th anniversary commendation award
The awards organising committee was tasked with finding a worthy recipient of a special 50th anniversary award. It could be for an example of collaboration, or caring for our environment in light of the climate emergency. This charity works tirelessly in the area of the environment, and how our actions are causing damage. They also demonstrated a fantastic example of collaboration in working with other groups, including school children, who will be taking the work of caring for our environment forward. The worthy winner of this special award, who you have already heard about earlier, is Jersey Marine Conservation. Congratulations!