Winners of the 2018 Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service announced

A record 250 voluntary groups from across the UK will today receive a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for their work in their communities. Among them are the volunteers from the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick and two Edinburgh organisations: Ageing Well volunteers (above) and LINKnet Mentoring, who provide advice and guidance to BME people.

The unique UK national honour was created by Her Majesty to mark the Golden Jubilee in 2002 and to recognise the outstanding contributions made to local communities by groups of volunteers. The list is announced on the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.

Tracey Crouch, Minister for Sport and Civil Society, said: “Everyone who has received this award should be incredibly proud. Their service, commitment and care has a profoundly positive impact on communities throughout the country and I am delighted they have been recognised with this prestigious award.

“The record number of recipients this year is testament to the strength of the voluntary sector and I am sure this trend will continue into the future. If you know any organisations that deserve to be recognised, make your voice heard and nominate them for next year.”

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service Independent Committee Chair, former broadcast journalist Sir Martyn Lewis said: “This year’s record number of Queen’s Award awardees are a powerful testimony to the remarkable achievements and innovative ideas which characterise volunteering in the UK.

“They prove that, more than ever, volunteers beavering away at grassroots level are the active lifeblood of our communities, identifying all kinds of problems and issues and tackling them with enthusiasm, talent and a high degree of success.

“The recipients of the Queen’s Award are at the very top of a formidable volunteering movement in the UK involving millions of our citizens, and going from strength to strength.”

Any volunteer-led group made of two or more people can be nominated for the award. Visit the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service website for more details. Nominations for the 2019 awards close on 14 September 2018.

See the full list of winners here