Have you ever looked at someone who volunteers in your community and said “That person deserves a medal”? Do you consistently see people in your town or village giving their time to the sick, elderly or less fortunate? Are you one of them? If so, why not tune into our webchat and find out how you can get them and yourself recognised as Community Champion or Heritage Hero?

The Nationwide Community and Heritage Awards 2008, which seek to recognise those who volunteer and give their time in the community, is welcoming entries and nominations from today until the 28th of April. Although national fame and glory are undoubtedly a major draw, there’s actually a whole lot more on offer. In stage one alone 216 regional winners will each receive an attractive plaque, along with £50 dining out vouchers for individuals or £100 for groups. 72 winners will be recognised in a similar fashion in stage two and by stage three winners will be acknowledged with gifts to the value of £500, together with a £2,500 donation to the charity or cause of their choice and a trophy. There will be three overall winners from both the Community Champions and Heritage Heroes categories.

As you can see there are lots of awards up for grabs giving people from your region a really good chance of getting recognised for the work they do. To give you some more information and to offer you some top tips on filling in your application we’ve got Stephen Boyce, The Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF’s) deputy director of operations and Michelle Leighton, Community & Environmental Affairs Manager at Nationwide Building Society coming into the studio. You’ll be able to ask any questions you have about the scheme and hear about the benefits previous winners have enjoyed after being recognized in this way.

Stephen Boyce, HLF’s deputy director of operations and Michelle Leighton, Community & Environmental Affairs Manager joins us live online on Monday 25th February at 6pm to discuss The Nationwide Community and Heritage Awards 2008

H: Murray Norton, host
S: Stephen Boyce, HLF's Deputy Directory of Operations
M: Michelle Leighton, Community & Environmental Affairs Manager, Nationwide

H: Hello and welcome to the Good Causes Show, I'm Murray Norton. Now I'm sure you know people in your community that give up all of their time to be out there come rain, come shine to make sure the environment is so much better for those around them. I'm sure you also know people who make life so much easier and better for those less fortunate than themselves. They do this by their charity work, by their volunteering. Now if you know someone like that, maybe you'd like to give them a little pat on the back. Maybe you'd like to give them a little bit more, a reward for being one of the good guys. Well if you do you're with the right show. Stay with us because I'm delighted to say that joining us here in the studio we've got the deputy director of operations for the Heritage Lottery Fund, and that's Stephen Boyce, Stephen thanks very much for joining us

S: Thank you

H: We've also got the community and environmental affairs manager – long title – for the Nationwide Building Society and that's Michelle Leighton, thanks for joining us as well. We're looking for champions of the community Michelle but we're also looking for heritage heroes Stephen so what exactly are you looking for in a heritage hero?

S: Well they're the people who are really contributing right across the board to the heritage projects that are going on outside, out in the environment. And it includes things like village museums and historic buildings, wildlife projects, archaeological projects, all those kind of things. None of them could exist without the support of volunteers. The Heritage Lottery Fund has put in awards to probably about 29,000 projects across the country over the last sort of 10 or 12 years. They all depend very much on the impact of volunteers

H: I know you've both got great examples of people that have been successful in – if you like - getting a thank you back in the past. You've come across some great stories as well haven't you?

M: Yes, an example – last year's winners was the full rescue team in Londonderry in Northern Ireland, they set up – unfortunately they had a big problem with suicides and they set up their own charity and they raised lots of money, they got the boat, a centre and a patrol car, and they've got volunteers that go out all weathers and search the river and the locating area to look for people that are at risk of suicide, and unfortunately they have times when they've had to pull people out that have drowned, so that's a thankless task which they did need some recognition for

H: Well I'm glad you've mentioned that one, we will indeed be able to show you some video footage of that shortly on the show. Thank you very much indeed for the questions we've already had here, we've had plenty of good questions in so far and we'll be coming to those in a couple of minutes time. Again with the Heritage side of it as well, I know that there have been previous winners in the south west with this before, so just explain – you know the criteria for this because people will be thinking hang on, I know someone I could put in for this. So what will the judges be looking for?

S: I think they'll be looking for people who have done something a bit original, a bit special in the community. May have been campaigning, it may be actually caring for something that might – that is neglected really in the community. An example we had in the south west which was one of our winners in the south west heritage heroes was a group of people on a 1920s estate in Bristol that was about to be knocked down

H: Right

S: Now you may say well doesn't sound very significant, the significant thing was that that estate meant a lot of the people who'd lived there, and this group of people got together to capture their memories, and in doing that they really produced something that was of great importance for future generations

H: Yes

S: it's a hidden thing but very important in the quality of life

H: It is almost the nature of this country, this country's almost built on the foundations of volunteers and people that do really good things. I don't – maybe other countries are like this but it really is endemic of this population of this country. Thank heavens we have people like this

S: I think it's true that this country has a special tradition in volunteering, and that's why – one of the reasons why we think it's really important to raise the stakes a bit and make sure that everybody is aware of just what people contribute in their spare time

H: So it's awareness, the publicity's going to be terrific for the people that are doing this work, that's part of it but there is also reward for the charities they work for and indeed for themselves as well and nothing that people should be ashamed of. Michelle, what is up for grabs?

M: Well everybody that's nominated will receive a certificate because we feel it's really important to acknowledge the work that everybody does, and there'll be regional judging in 12 different regions around the whole of the UK, those that are selected to come to a regional presentation will win some dining out vouchers, on that same day national finalists will be announced and there'll be gifts of up to 250 for the individuals themselves, plus £500 for the charity or group of their choice. If they're lucky then to come to a gala awards dinner in November, later on the year, then they've got a chance of – in their category – winning up to £2500 for their charity or choice, so we know that these groups definitely need these funds so badly and it's a great way of helping both, the actual individuals and groups themselves get recognised for the work they do, but the charities and groups also get some PR recognition for what they do as well, and some funds which are badly needed in some places unfortunately

H: Ok we'll come to how people can enter in just a few minutes time so keep with us for that. Before all of that though we have had some questions in, and one I think you have almost answered in what you've just said there – Darren Jaye whose sent a question in, thank you very much Darren – he wants to know “is this open for just individuals or just organisations?” It's a bit of both isn't it?

M: Yes it is indeed, there's obviously as we've talked about there's community champions and heritage heroes, and under each heading there's 3 award categories, and that's young people, individuals and groups. So absolutely everybody and anybody can be nominated.

H: And there will be people watching this who know so many people, and it's up to them to really you know get on board and get the nominations in. now there's a closing date for nominations which is?

S: April 28th

H: Right

S: Yes. And we're really asking people to sit down and think who do you know in your local community whose making a real contribution, as you say we all know somebody whose putting themselves out for other people and these are the people we want to recognise

H: And in terms of being able to get hold of these leaflets, I mean they're – the form itself, that's what it looks like, it's just there, it's as simple as that and we've got one of these forms, we've got plenty of these forms here, but where else would people get them Michelle?

M: They can get them from their local branch of Nationwide Building Society or their regional office of their heritage lottery fund, also on our website, you can go to nationwide.co.uk or hlf.org.uk or you can telephone us as well on 01793 655 139

H: Gosh there's an awful lot of information there, if you missed any of that then don't worry you'll find right at the bottom of the, right at the bottom of your screen if you scroll down from there, that information will be there and available to you so you can watch the show and then have a look for the information afterwards if you need it. Now earlier on, Michelle, you were talking about Foyle Search and Rescue and what a fantastic and worthy winner they were indeed, and indeed we've had some footage of the work that they've been doing. Let's just have a look at how they won the award, how they built up to winning that award, the work they do, and let's first of all hear from Paddy who can describe some of the situations –

Video Footage

“We lost a friend in the river, and as a result Foyle Search and Rescue was formed, because there was nobody there to actually prevent people entering the river, and even body recovery. So there was a group of us set aside to set up Foyle Search and Rescue. So when we first started we had literally nothing, we had 10p in our pocket where we had to run and get the nearest phone to phone either the police or the emergency services to get a person an ambulance. So people started talking to business people, various other people who started giving us money. First thing we bought was radios, we bought - people gave us equipment like coats and stuff like that. Then we had enough money together and then we actually then started to purchase a boat. People – one of the local businessmen had an office building that he wasn't using so he loaned that to us, which was Queen Street. And then we were there for a while and then we moved to the society gave us premises just down the river from where we are today. And there from there we moved to this purposely built building, which we received funding for – but it's been a long, hard struggle to get to where we are today.”

“All volunteers meet here round about 9.30. We get kitted up to go out on duty and the plan is we'll be available to be on duty from 10.00 at night. One volunteer upstairs in the comms room doing radio checks – two guys in the jeep which patrol between both bridges in the city and if we're lucky then we would have a third team of three which is what we call a show patrol that work the vulnerable areas of the rockway.”

“So since 14 years we're now going and that figure stands we've stopped 1059 persons from taking their life. We've had the sad duty of recovering 50 bodies and returning them to their families, their loved ones and we've also had 110 people rescued alive from the river. So when you consider 25-30 lives per year lost, the average that we've got that down to although one death's actually too many in our eyes, we know that we'll never completely stop it, but it's an average of 3 bodies per year which is a hell of an impact it's had on this community. In other words there's 1059 people walking around this city today who otherwise would have been dead.”

H: That's Foyle's Search and Rescue, worthy winners of last year and indeed if you know anybody, however big or however small that is doing great community work, is doing great voluntary work, heritage community then you know the sort of thing we're looking for so please do get involved with these awards. We've got a question just come in from Jenny that came in a little bit earlier on. “Can you offer any tips for filling in the application form?” quite important really isn't it?

M: Yes it is, it is really important because this is what we will see as, what people say about the groups that they're nominating. This is a nomination form, it's very straightforward, it gives you all the questions that you need. All I can say is write it very clearly and give as much information as you possibly can

S: I think the one thing I'd add Murray is try and find out what's really special about your individual or your group, because what we're looking for is the thing that stands out and makes a big difference.

H: Cut to the chase, get to the important bit

S: That's it

H: That's it. These are regional aren't they so people in different areas will get a chance to win regionally before it goes nationally?

S: That's right, all 9 English regions plus Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, each has their own regional event and then they come together in November at a big awards ceremony in London in November

H: It's a terrific idea and I know there's an awful lot of people will be taking up this because I think we all, as we said earlier, we all know someone involved in all of this. In terms of the application forms again, I know you gave us the information earlier on but please between the two of you, give us the information again, where can we get these application forms from or where else can we find how to enter?

S: You can get information from your local or regional Heritage Lottery Fund office, or from our website at hlf.org.uk

H: Ok

M: Or from Nationwide Building Society branches or on our website nationwide.co.uk or you can even telephone us as well on 01793 655 139

H: Michelle, Stephen thank you very much indeed for giving us the wealth of your knowledge on this. Good luck with searching through all the applicants you're going to get, I know it's going to be a tough old decision

M: Yes

H: And indeed good luck to anyone who is either being nominated or in fact you are the person doing the nominating, so if you're someone out there who needs to nominate someone, do get on with it, do get involved in it and the very best of luck to all of you. Thanks very much indeed for joining us and we'll see you again next time

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