Grassroots Communities’ Awards: amplifying community voices
RVA’s Inclusion Manager, Azra Raja, recently received a Community Education Award at the Grassroots Communities’ Awards – congratulations Azra! The Community Education Award recognises:
Individuals dedicated to advancing educational opportunities within the community. Honourees demonstrate exceptional commitment to improving access to learning, fostering education equity, and empowering individuals through knowledge and skill-building.
Azra is leading the Community Wellness Outreach project at RVA, working in partnership with Reading Borough Council and Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust‘s Patient Experience Engagement Team, Meet PEET.
Congratulations to Meet PEET, who also received an award for empowering communities through education for health and wellbeing! Healthwatch Reading and Wokingham and the Community Health Champions were honoured in this category as well.
This is the third year of the Community Awards organised by the Grassroots Communities Network – ACRE, Utulivu and Mojatu Media – with support from Reading Borough Council, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Thames Valley Police.
An inspirational evening on 31 October 2024 embraced the theme of celebrating our changemakers and reclaiming narratives, and in Azra’s words was a testament to ‘working together and the power of community’. Awards were made for:
- Lifetime achievement
- Volunteers
- Bringing communities together
- Positively integrating young people
- Fighting gender-based violence and FGM
- Positively integrating the seniors
- Artistic, wellbeing, and mental health
- Community education – organisations
- Community feeding programme
- Community safety
- Community legal support
- Community digital inclusion
- Communication education – individuals
The organisers said:
Whether you are an artist, educationist, student, activist, historian etc, your voice counts in making the change we seek and deserves great celebration. Your continued confidence and resilience in facilitating difficult but most-needed conversations including mental health, suicide, gender-based violence, drugs and alcohol among others, does not go unnoticed.
Join the Grassroots Community Network
All charities, individuals and organisations are welcome to join the Grassroots Community Network. Register at admin@utulivu.co.uk or info@acre-reading.org. The awards will return in October 2025.