Guerrilla gardeners, troubled teens, and blind footballers are just some of the people in the running for a 2006 CSV Make a Difference Day Award, which will be presented at a star-studded ceremony in London (Thursday 1st February 2007).

They are all nominated for activities they organised for last year’s CSV Make a Difference Day, the UK’s biggest single day of volunteering. They will all be attending a glittering event in London on Thursday 1st February 2007 to find out if they have won. The awards will be presented by celebrities and government figures, including Pete Waterman, Charlie Dimmock and Esther Rantzen. The event will be compered by Channel 4 News journalist, Jon Snow.

Some of the nominated activities include:

Tackling racism in Birmingham

A group of Asian and Afro-Caribbean teenagers are nominated for their work to improve race relations between the groups. The teenagers are from the Lozells area of Birmingham, which suffered disturbances in 2005. In a bid to ease racial tension the young people decided to make over each others youth centres, improving facilities, including IT provision. The groups enlisted the help of staff from Barclays and the CSV Action Desk at BBC WM to help them with the task. The group are nominated in the Best Bridge Building Activity category.

Blind football at Spurs and Arsenal

Spurs and Arsenal held a mini tournament for blind and visually impaired children at White Hart Lane. Volunteer coaches, many of whom have visual impairments and other disabilities themselves, worked hard, training and motivating children in the run up to the game. Many of the children do not have the confidence to play football in mainstream clubs so this league, which wouldn’t be possible without the work of the volunteers, gives them the opportunity to really enjoy sport. The group are nominated in the Most Heart Warming category.

Guerrilla Action

You may not be aware but there is a growing army of green-fingered activists fighting filth in public spaces with flowers and forks. Known as Guerilla Gardeners, the cells work under cover of darkness, digging, planting and watering, turning wasteland into community gardens. For CSV Make a Difference Day 2006 they chose to fight a new area of filth in New Cross, London. It was a large brick planter full of weeds, chicken bones and litter. They recruited about 15 people, including passers by, to give up 3 hours of their evening to clean it up and replace top soil before planting about £200 worth of new plants. The group is nominated in Most Ground Breaking Activity category.

The fight against one of the world’s biggest killers - Mosquitoes

The lives of orphans in a remote village plagued by malaria were transformed thanks to the help of volunteers from Barclays Uganda. The village is heavily infested with mosquitoes and around ten new cases of malaria are reported at the orphanage every day. The volunteers gave out mosquito nets and taught the children how to treat and use them. Since the event the local health clinic has already reported a reduction of malaria cases from the orphanage. Additional advice was given on dental hygiene which they hoped would save the orphans having to have so many painful tooth extractions. The group are nominated in the Best International Activity category.

‘Troubled teens’ turn their lives around

A group of young people identified as being ‘at risk’ are nominated for turning their lives around and channelling their energy into making positive changes in their communities. The young people are from the Positive Activities for Young People Programme and were the driving force behind a range of volunteering activities for CSV Make a Difference Day, including revitalising a community garden, organising a games session for younger people, organising Eid celebrations, and running a community car wash. The group are nominated in the Best Youth Category, which is sponsored by BSkyB.

Befriending prisoners in Zimbabwe

Volunteers from Barclays in Zimbabwe decided to donate ‘skills’ to inmates at a local prison to enable them to restart their lives upon release. Knitting, bricklaying and candle making were just some of the skills taught to the prisoners to ready them for the outside world. By giving just one day of their time the volunteers hoped their support would help the inmates well into the future by teaching them skills which would provide them with an income. As well as helping to boost the esteem of the inmates the volunteers also found the experience hugely rewarding and insightful. The group are nominated in the Best Skill Sharing Activity category.

New life breathed into historic cinema

A group of volunteers from Dorchester worked to save a historic cinema from ruin. Built in 1926 the Electric Palace cinema had been a centre point of the community until it fell into disrepair and was closed in 1999. Volunteers from across the community came together to prepare the building for the main restoration works by cleaning dusting and polishing. The Electric Palace is fondly spoken about by the community who wish to see it open again for groups including pantomime players, operas and for young people to make and show films. The group are nominated in the Best National Partner category.

CSV Make a Difference Day, which is supported by Barclays Community Investment Programme, is all about giving time instead of money to improve communities and the lives of others. Around 120,000 people from all walks of life took action.
To find out more about CSV Make a Difference Day go to www.csv.org.uk/difference and for other year round volunteering opportunities visit www.csv.org.uk .

ENDS

Further press information: Jason Tanner or Esther Freeman, CSV Make a Difference Day Press Office on 020 7812 0035/38 or email: efreeman@csv.org.uk  Out of office hours: 07981 591150 / 07941 433598
Latest press releases: www.csv.org.uk/press
 

Notes for Editors

1. CSV Make a Difference Day will take place on Saturday 27th October in 2007.

2. CSV (Community Service Volunteers) creates opportunities for people to take an active part in the life of their communities through volunteering, training and community action. Last year 227,000 people gave 5 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trains 12,705 people of all ages.

3. Barclays PLC actively encourages employee involvement and provides direct support through its employee community programmes. These include paid time off in work time for volunteering, grants for group volunteering activities, matched fundraising and matched payroll giving.

4. In 2005, more than 26,000 Barclays employees around the world took advantage of the support available to them for their work in the community - to the benefit of more than 7,500 charities and community groups.

5. Last year, more than 10,000 Barclays employees took part in Make A Difference Day activities around the world. This year, international volunteering is up by 63% to 8,200 people, in 24 countries outside the UK. Colleagues in Thailand, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Portugal are taking part for the first time.

6. Barclays is taking its community investment responsibilities seriously - investing £39.1 million in 2005.  The organisation focuses on the areas where it can use its knowledge and expertise to make the biggest difference to key social issues. In the UK, this includes programmes about money education, debt advice, financial inclusion and getting people into work. Barclays also strives to strengthen the local communities in which they operate, and are investing £30 million over three years in grassroots sport through Barclays Spaces for Sports.

7. For further information see social responsibility at http://www.barclays.com. Media enquiries contact: Jon Logie, Barclays PLC on 0207 116 6040.