Tell Me More about the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service
Last week we published a vlog on our website which featured the fabulous Paul Lomas, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Syston & District Volunteer Centre who won a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service not that long ago.
Paul came into the Badass Bistro to share the story with us. You can watch his vlog here: https://theawardspeople.co.uk/rach-welcomes-paul-lomas-to-the-badass-bistro/
… But what else can we tell you about the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service? Well full details can be found here: https://qavs.culture.gov.uk/ but if you prefer the lowdown from The Awards People here goes!
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to local volunteer groups across the UK and recognises the outstanding work done in their own communities. It was created as recently as 2002 to celebrate the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation and is, in effect, the MBE for volunteer groups.
What is a Volunteer Group?
For the purpose of these awards a ‘Volunteer Group’ is defined as any group doing volunteer work that provides a social, economic or environmental service to the local community. All such groups are strongly encouraged to enter and each group is assessed on the benefit it brings to the local community and its standing within that community.
A full list of the eligibility requirements can be found here:
https://qavs.culture.gov.uk/guidance-notes
Please note that there are slight variations to certain criteria depending on whether your group is based in England and Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland. The above link does give further details.
To nominate a group you must have a good knowledge of the group’s work but not be a volunteer, employee, trustee or anyone involved with the running of the group. This is to ensure that nominations are independent.
Nominations are accepted from the 1st April until mid-September (this changes annually and dates can be found on their website). Awards are published on the 2nd June, the anniversary of Her Majesty’s coronation, and award recipients are notified in confidence beforehand.
You can register here: https://qavs.culture.gov.uk/users/sign_up and once the awards are ready to receive nominations you will be notified by email. Please note that all nominations must be completed online as the awards do not accept paper forms.
Good luck and if we can be of any further help, you know where we are!
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