BATIAS Independent Advocacy, a charity based in Grays have been honoured with The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.
BATIAS provides independent advocacy for people with learning disabilities, supporting them to make choices about their life and helping them to learn new skills.
We enable people to become active citizens, promoting positive social inclusion in the local community and developing vulnerable people’s social networks and life opportunities.
BATIAS Independent Advocacy is one of 241 charities, social enterprises, and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. The number of nominations remains high year on year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate The Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Recipients are announced each year on 2nd June, the anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation. Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse. They include volunteer groups from across the UK, including an inclusive tennis club in Lincolnshire; a children’s bereavement charity in London; a support group those living with dementia and their carers in North Yorkshire; a volunteer minibus service in Cumbria; a group supporting young people in Belfast; a community radio station in Inverness and a mountain rescue team in Powys.
Representatives of BATIAS Independent Advocacy will receive the award crystal and certificate from Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, Lord-Lieutenant of Essex later this summer. Furthermore, two volunteers from BATIAS will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May 2022 (depending on restrictions at the time), along with other recipients of this year’s Award
Roy Evans, Chair of Trustees said: “we are delighted and very honoured that BATIAS’S work to support and empower those with learning disabilities has been recognised, and I would like pay tribute to the hard work and commitment of our amazing volunteers.”
Georgina Parkin Chief Officer said “BATIAS are delighted to be honoured with this prestigious award for the fantastic work done by our volunteers. Our volunteers work with many of the most disadvantaged in our community, creating opportunities, changing lives, and improving communities. We value our volunteers immensely and what makes the award extra special is that our volunteers do not seek recognition, their reward is the positive contribution they make to those who they work with”.
More information on the recipients and the Award can be found at https://www.gov.uk/queens-award-for-voluntary-service
Full details on how to nominate are available at https://qavs.culture.gov.uk/
Nominations for the 2022 awards close on 15 September 2021.