Salford Healthy Communities Jewish team have scooped the top prize of ‘Volunteer Team of the Year’ at the Jewish Volunteering Network Awards held in London on 7th September 2015 sponsored by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation.
The Awards evening celebrated the achievements of volunteers across Britain who have enabled charities and organisations to provide an excellent service to all community members that needed them. The judges were looking for a group that demonstrated good team-work, and worked together to fulfil the aims of the organisation and their specific role.
The team was nominated by Unique Improvements who manage the Salford Healthy Communities project because they felt they are a dedicated, enthusiastic and highly committed team of fourteen local people who make a difference in their community.
Although the focus is on improving earlier presentation of cancers and heart health, they have worked with a large number of local services, groups and businesses to make wider improvements to their communities.
Salford has a large and diverse Jewish community. The strength of the team is their ability to engage with people in ways that make health change and awareness raising far more likely because they have connections, networks, relationships and local knowledge that services often do not.
The Salford Healthy Communities Jewish team start by understanding their communities, they plan different ways of raising awareness of cancer and the importance of early detection and of identifying people at risk of cardiovascular disease.
The work has been recognised at a national level by Cancer Research (UK) and NHS IQ, which is responsible for identifying and sharing best practice across the UK and which published details of the teams work as a national case study on NHS websites. The team has also received praise from the Mayor of Salford and the Chief Rabbi.
Adrian Smith, Assistant Director for Unique Improvements said “we are all extremely thrilled and proud of the team, the work they do is outstanding and ahead of its time, they are a credit to us, to their community but most of all to Salford”.
Co-Chair Jackie Harrison, Rabbi Arnold Saunders and team members Norman Druce and Tania Nelson travelled to London and represented the team at the Award ceremony.
Receiving the award in honour and memory of the late Gerald Goldberg, a former member of Salford Healthy Communities, Co-Chair Jackie acknowledged he was a driving force behind the team and would be greatly missed by all.
The Team were the only volunteers to receive an award from outside London.
If you would like more information on the work Salford Healthy Communities do or would like to volunteer to improve the health within your community call 0161 736 9207.
