Weston Charity Award for Your Voice Counts

Your Voice Counts have been recognised as a 2022 Weston Charity Awards winner.

The award means we will have access to a team of business experts and funding that will help us to develop our services and continue supporting vulnerable people across the region at what is a particularly challenging time.

As part of the Award, we will receive ten months of strategic consultancy from a team of business experts thanks to pro bono charity Pilotlight, along with a core grant of £6,500 from the Garfield Weston Foundation.

We were chosen from over 100 applicants, all of whom are frontline charities delivering youth, welfare and community services, so we are incredibly grateful to be successful and looking forward to starting work with Pilotlight soon.

David Woolley, Chief Executive of Your Voice Counts, said:

“We have ambitious plans to grow and develop our charity and the services we offer people. We work with some of the most vulnerable people in the north-east so this Weston Charity Award will be invaluable for us as we move forward with our aims.

“Our fantastic team supports people on a daily basis, helping at times of crisis, supporting people to build resilience and ensuring that some of the most isolated and marginalised people in society have a voice. We are determined to use our learning and experience to develop our offer and influence others. This Award and the support from Pilotlight will help us to drive forward the strategic aims we’ve set ourselves.

"Listening to and empowering people with lived experience of our services is key to our approach. We’re proud to create opportunities for people with learning disabilities, autism and mental ill health at every level of our organisation and this Award will help us to continue to do this in a meaningful and sustainable way.”

Philippa Charles, Director of the Garfield Weston Foundation said:

“The Weston Charity Awards were created in 2014, and have since helped 126 charities across Wales, the North and the Midlands to be effective and to grow their services for people in need. As the cost of living crisis hits families and communities, we see a critical role for small charities in key regions who are supporting vulnerable people in a range of ways. These Awards for nineteen charities are a tribute to their determination to improve lives in the toughest of circumstances.”

Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of Pilotlight, the charity which will connect us with a team of coaches drawn from a range of businesses and other organisations said:

“An old saying is that the poor pay more. So, while the rising cost of living is a crisis for many people, it is a potential catastrophe for those who are most vulnerable. Your Voice Counts has been selected as a Weston Charity Award recipient on the strength of its ambitions and the openness of the leadership team to external perspectives. Working with business experts, the Weston Charity Awards will strengthen Your Voice Counts to support people who are most at need in our society.”

For more information about the Weston Charity Awards, visit www.pilotlight.org.uk/weston-charity-awards.