Spurs and Arsenal are celebrating today after winning at last night’s star studded CSV Make a Difference Day Awards, hosted by CSV President Lord Levy, for their work to bring football to visually impaired children. They join projects from across the UK, and beyond, being recognised for their work. (Friday 2nd February 2007).

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. They won in the Best Feel-good category.

The activity was held as part of CSV Make a Difference Day 2006, the UK’s single biggest day of volunteering. It was just one of 4000 activities which took place last year, the best of which were honoured at the CSV Make a Difference Day Awards. The awards were presented by top names, including Pete Waterman, Charlie Dimmock, and Esther Rantzen. The event was jointly compered by Channel 4 News journalist, Jon Snow and CSV President, Lord Levy.

James Issac, from the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation said “The project has really benefited from the quality and hard work of our SPURS Project volunteers through our partnership with Haringey Mencap and the support and funding from the Football Foundation. We have seen each individual volunteer grow in self confidence and self belief and we are extremely proud of this fact".  

Enzo Segameglio is the father of 14 year old Fabio who plays for the Tottenham team. Enzo says: “They want to do everything mainstream but sometimes when they play with kids who don’t have any vision trouble they lose confidence and feel out of their depth. The great thing about this football is that it is competitive and they are trained properly by the volunteer. For them it’s a real honour to represent their club, but most importantly it gives them the confidence they need.”

Other award winners include:

Best bridge building – Lozells Recreation Group and the Young Disciples

Afro-Caribbean and Asian teenagers from the Lozells area of Birmingham, which suffered disturbances in 2005, attempted to ease racial tension by making over each others youth centres. The groups enlisted the help of staff from Barclays and the CSV Action Desk at BBC WM.  

Best international activity – Barclays Uganda

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.   

Best skill-sharing – Barclays 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.  

Best youth activity - Peterborough Youth Service

A group of young people identified as being ‘at risk’ won the award for Best Youth Activity for channelling their energy into making positive changes in their communities instead of crime. The young people from the Positive Activities for Young People Programme 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.  

Best Barclays activity – Barclays Coventry

Responding to the increasing number of requests for help with financial education, volunteers from Barclays visited primary schools across the region to teach the children about money management. The children learnt the basics of managing their pocket money including budgeting and saving up to buy things. It was a great opportunity for the staff to use their business and professional skills and around 1024 children were helped in total.  

Best National Partner – Volunteer Centre Dorchester

A group of volunteers from Dorchester were honoured for their work 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 show films.  

Most groundbreaking activity – Greater Govan Environment Group

Volunteers in Glasgow came up with an innovative new way to help to keep the streets free of dog mess. Instead of threats of fines the Greater Govan Environment Trust organised a dog show as a way of engaging dog owners and inform them about responsible pet ownership. A programme was planned with a range of different classes and prizes, which were obtained from local businesses. Although the emphasis was on fun, the serious message behind the day was ‘they poop, you scoop’! 

Best school activity - Wensleydale Middle School

Activities organised by pupils and staff from Wensleydale Middle School helped a wide range of people in their local community. Their activities included helping to improve a garden at the Briardale centre, which gives support to all of the community, cleaning the beach at Blyth and organising a tea dance for local elderly residents.   

Best CSV Activity – CSV Action Desk in Gloucester

The CSV Action Desk in Gloucester hit the road in The Big Red Bus to recruit volunteers from across the region. Eight events were organised over six days, complete with a specially composed CSV Make a Difference Day song, which was performed in 30 different ways by 30 different groups. 

Best employee team activity - BAA Gatwick

BAA Gatwick worked with the Sussex Wildlife Trust to transform the garden at Littlefair Home. Maintenance included planting small trees round the open fence, making a willow fence, laying patio stones for easy access and many more. 

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 .   

Further press information and images: Paul Donohoe, Esther Freeman & Jason Tanner, CSV Press Office on 020 7812 0037/38/ 07941 433598 or email: jtanner@csv.org.uk  Latest press releases: www.csv.org.uk/press  

Notes for Editors  

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

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. Each year 227,000 people give 5 million hours of their time as volunteers through CSV. CSV trains 12,705 people of all ages. 

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.  

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.  

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.  

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. 

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