The winners of the first Buckinghamshire Women in Charity Awards were announced today by local charity Community Impact Bucks during an online award ceremony marking International Women’s Day (8th March). Hannah Asquith, our CEO, won the Trailblazer in the Charity Sector award!
Established to raise awareness of the many inspirational initiatives led by and involving women in the county, the Women in Charity Awards recognised outstanding work and effort in four categories: Outstanding Leadership, Trailblazer, Outstanding Volunteer and Young Charity Woman of the Year.
The Trailblazer in the Charity Sector award was for an individual who had stepped up and personally achieved or contributed to huge impact and results, through enterprising, innovative and ground-breaking initiatives.
Our CEO, Hannah, was over the moon! “I am so proud to work for Youth Concern. This award recognises the whole team at Youth Concern and the efforts my paid and unpaid colleagues have made to reach vulnerable 13-25 year olds when our charity was most needed.
Awards like this remind us all how collaborative and supportive the charity sector is, and how so many people give their time and expertise to help those in need. It was humbling to hear individuals’ and organisations’ achievements over the last 12 months, the most challenging year; from adversity comes strength.”
The judges commented that Hannah had “demonstrated a real pioneering spirit and great courage to drive innovation in her first year as CEO of Youth Concern”. Joining in March 2020, she faced two challenges; how to do things differently in order to deliver vital person-centric service in the face of COVID restrictions and, as a brand new CEO, how to establish the effective working relationships needed to take stakeholders with her on that journey.
“The breadth and depth of experience and commitment highlighted by the nominations across the categories is truly inspirational,” commented Cllr Mimi Harker OBE, Chair of Community Impact Bucks and Member of Buckinghamshire Council. “Speaking on behalf of all the judges, the process of selecting winners from so many amazing stories of women who support our Buckinghamshire communities was challenging but also incredibly rewarding.”
Read about Hannah’s, and the other award winners’ achievements here.
