Marsh Charitable Trust – Marsh Volunteer Awards with Home-Start

Marsh Volunteer Awards with Home-Start

We run Awards with Home-Start that recognises the work of volunteers from services all over the organisation. Home-Start provides a large range of different services to help families and children across the UK. These Awards recognises the hard work and dedication of volunteers to help support families that may be at a disadvantaged and in need of help across a range of challenges.

From these Awards, a Marsh Volunteer of the Year Award is awarded to one of the individual winners. The categories that the Trust runs with Home-Starts are:

– Marsh Award for Home-Start Digital Volunteer of the Year
– Marsh Award for Home-Start Group Volunteer of the Year
– Marsh Award for Home-Start Visitor Volunteer of the Year
– Marsh Award for Home-Start Supporter Volunteer of the Year
– Marsh Award for Home-Start Trustee Volunteer of the Year
– Marsh Award for Home-Start Corporate Volunteer of the Year

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Scullion Law, Lesley Walmsley, Angela Dart, Patience Sazangwe, Chrissie Morrison, and Mark Feinmann 2025

Corporate Volunteer – Scullion Law, Home-Start Glasgow North and North Lanarkshire

Scullion Law have provided significant support to Home-Start Glasgow North and North Lanarkshire over the past several years. As a consistent monthly donor, the organisation have contributed a total of £2,566 since 2001 through community initiatives and sponsored walks. In addition to raising vital funds, Scullion Law have dedicated their time to enhance the branch’s garden space to create an inviting environment for families as well as contributing to resources including arts and crafts materials, sensory equipment and snacks for children. The firm have also offered pro bono legal advice sessions to Family Coordinators and Volunteers. Through its corporate volunteer efforts, Scullion Law have greatly enhanced the capabilities of Home-Start Glasgow North and North Lanarkshire, and have proved to be an invaluable resource.

Digital Volunteer – Lesley Walmsley, Home-Start Greenwich

Lesley has given her support as a British Sign Language (BSL) volunteer to a deaf mother to ensure that she and her family did not miss out on the vital benefits of Home-Start’s resources. By bridging the communication gap, Lesley ensured that the mother could fully engage, understand, and feel included in the process, which lead to a significant impact and enabled the mother to implement guidance within her family. Lesley’s contribution ensured that this family had access to the same valuable resources and access opportunities as other families and reduced mother sense of exclusion and isolation. Lesley’s work has also enabled staff to provide an essential family support service to deaf parents, allowing them to equally access parenting advice, emotional support, and practical help during difficult times.

Group Volunteer– Angela Dart, Home-Start Cyprus

Angela’s dedication, compassion, and unwavering commitment to her role has made a significant impact on the lives of many families. Angela runs two groups, Gran Pen’s Story-Time and Funky Fridays, which provide engaging and educational activities for children to take part in and create a safe space. Angela also provides in-home support to some of the most challenging families that Home-Start Cyprus works with and approaches each situation with empathy, patience and a genuine desire to help. In addition to her work with families, Angela is always eager to contribute to the wider Home-Start community by regularly attending events and offering her time and sharing her knowledge to support the training of new volunteers. By offering practical and emotional support, Angela helps to create a nurturing environment where families can thrive, often transforming lives in ways that are truly remarkable.

Home-Visitor – Patience Sazangwe, Home-Start Glasgow South

Patience brings laughs, love and encouragement to the family that she supports, and has made an enormous difference to their lives. She has been sensitive and patient as the mother’s mental health was very low, and her stress levels were very high, alongside her struggles with isolation. Patience has helped to increase the mother’s confidence in her parenting and encouraged her to set healthy boundaries with her family. She has been a consistent and kind support to the family through difficult times in their lives and when the mother was at her most scared and vulnerable, Patience was able to listen and reassure, safeguard and support to ensure she got the help she needed. As well as emotional support for the family, Patience has helped them with practical support to ensure a safe environment for her children, both at home and when they are out to help manage their behaviours.

Supporter – Chrissie Morrison, Home-Start Stirling (Scotland)

Chrissie has been supporting families weekly in their own homes for 23 years, and over this time has supported nearly 20 families. Chrissie has helped Home-Start Stirling in a variety of ways, and balances the needs of families around those of her own. She has worked with a number of families with different needs including offering support and advice on speech therapy to aid a child with their delayed speech. She encourages regular routines for children, as well as healthy eating habits to ensure the best for the families she works with. During the COVID pandemic when there were restrictions in place, she was keen to encourage garden visits to offer her families ongoing support through an especially tough time. Chrissie also invites her family and friends to support fundraising events, such as Bingo nights and the St Andrew’s Day Ceilidh. Chrissie draws on her years of experience in a gentle, non-judgemental way which builds up parental confidence, and each family notes how much they value her visits.

Trustee – Mark Feinmann, Home-Start Lorn (Scotland)

Mark has gone above and beyond what was expected of the average Trustee, having taken on a variety of roles to keep the charity afloat, including Treasurer, Interim Scheme Manager, Home-Visiting Volunteer and Development Officer. Mark has played a huge part in the formation of their sister-scheme, Home-Start Lomond, seeing it through from its beginnings to its establishment as a full, independent service. Mark was hands-on in finding funding for not only the Lomond service but the ever-expanding Lorn service, taking the total staff from 2 to 7 full time employees since taking up his role as Chair. He also oversaw the expansion of the service in offering more than 10 family groups per week. Mark has helped to secure funding for a new Home-Start Family Centre which is due to open at the start of 2025 bringing a new, free community space to Oban. The centre will make a huge positive impact on the local population, reducing social isolation and allowing Home-Start to offer more in-depth training and guidance to families and volunteers. Mark is always positive and motivated and helps to inspire those around him with a passion for local community.

Previous Winners

Ellie Meek, Steve Marsden, Gemma Law, Liz Kemp, Amy Sills, and Liz Ewart-James

Corporate Volunteer of the Year

Ellie Meek, Home-Start Glasgow South

Ellie has generously provided free bread and baked breakfast treats to Home-Start Glasgow South’s community club, the Warm Place, twice a week since it opened in October 2022. This has had an incredible impact for the families who access the service, especially in light of the current cost of living crisis. The Warm Place supports local families who are struggling in the current economic climate, providing both practical support and signposting parents and carers to additional support services where necessary. Thanks to Ellie’s contributions, over 60 families have already benefitted from a free breakfast, which they may not have otherwise been able to afford. In addition to the practical benefits, sharing food together has given the families a warm sense of community and a chance to build relationships.

Digital Volunteer of the Year

Steve Marsden, Home-Start Trafford, Salford & Wigan

Steve has been volunteering since January 2020 and supports his local Home-Start with all matters of IT support, guiding them in the move to being paperless and helping to streamline work processes and procedures. The new case management system that he has helped to implement has made their work more efficient and productive, and helped them continue to support their service users remotely throughout the pandemic. Steve helped to create an online family record sheet which volunteers could access in order to continue supporting families through the lockdowns, which could easily be updated so that caseworkers could be kept informed of the situation with each family. Steve works closely with the comms team to ensure that the websites are up to date with relevant information for families, which is a vital tool for families to use to receive the support they need. Nothing is too much trouble for Steve, and he is the service’s go to person for any IT needs.

Group Volunteer of the Year

Gemma Law, Home-Start Suffolk

Gemma started volunteering around 2 years ago, having been inspired to volunteer as a result of her positive experience as a service user. Despite feeling anxious when she started her volunteering journey, Gemma’s confidence has grown significantly and she has pushed herself to try a range of volunteering roles including home-visiting and leading group sessions. She took part in delivering an 8-week course to vulnerable new mothers and their babies and built a trusting bond with the families she supported, helping them to open up and gain in confidence themselves. Gemma is a huge asset to Home-Start in Suffolk and she receives extremely positive feedback from the families she works with. Her willingness to support as much as she is able is evident through her involvement in a number of groups and her appearance in promotional videos to raise awareness of the work of Home-Start.

Home-Visitor Volunteer of the Year

Liz Kemp, Home-Start Warrington

Liz has been volunteering for over 5 years and has made a huge difference to the lives of a number of families in that time. She has helped out at playgroups and pregnancy groups and is always willing to give her time wherever she is needed. Perhaps the most important impact Liz has made is in her time with a family who sadly lost a child at Christmas, making a tremendous difference to them and being an incredible support to them both practically and emotionally. She has been a constant for this family, both being there for emotional support with the parents and also taking the time to interact with their other child so that the parents have time to themselves. The family feel so comfortable around Liz, and she has formed a special bond with them, cuddling the baby so that mum can load the dishwasher or providing a listening ear over a cup of tea. The mum is quoted as saying about Liz, “during the darkest time of my life, she has been a constant ray of light.”

Home-Start Supporter of the Year

Amy Sills & Mircina Bleniou, Home-Start East Sussex

Amy and Mircina have been instrumental in launching a peer support service to support survivors of domestic abuse, navigating their own trauma in order to do so. They have made the transition from being supported by Home-Start to supporting others and have used their lived experience to design the groups, whilst also taking care to ensure they are pursuing best practice. This new and vital service would simply not exist without Amy and Mircina and they have taken on more work than would typically be expected of volunteers to get it up and running. This service will allow Home-Start clients to continue their recovery journey in a safe space with other women who understand what they have been through, in a consistent way. In a short space of time, they have already supported 23 women on a weekly basis, who have all reported how important the service is to them. Amy and Mircina have been described by service users as kind, welcoming and uplifting, providing hugely valuable support.

Trustee of the Year

Liz Ewart-James, Home-Start Stroud & Gloucester

After a chance encounter at the B&B she ran, Liz was inspired by the ethos of Home-Start to establish a scheme in her local area in 1999, where there had not previously been one. Since then, she has served unwaveringly as Chair of Trustees, ensuring the long-term sustainability of her charity and leaving an indelible mark on the families she serves. She regularly organises fundraising events and builds important relationships within the community where she can secure additional opportunities for her charity. When Liz retired in 2016, she used her considerable contacts in the judicial, medical and social work circles to arrange a conference for all child care services in Gloucestershire which was attended by over 130 people. Thanks to her drive and commitment, Home-Start schemes have spread across the whole of Gloucestershire, meaning that hundreds more local families can receive the support that they need. Liz has been a constant presence and inspiration for over 20 years and is endlessly enthusiastic and refreshingly optimistic about the future for families in her local area.

Malcom Stanley, Abdoul Diallo, Ronald May, Angela Gowdy, Susan Conlan and Rob Harwood

Marsh Award for Home-Start Corporate Volunteer of the Year

Malcom Stanley – Home-Start Lambeth

Malcolm made the partnership between Home-Start Lambeth and his company Hymans Robertson possible, and has been the main contact for this partnership for many years. He always advocates for Home-Start and ensures Hymans Robertson’s participation in events and activities that the branch are running. Malcolm plays the role of Santa at the annual Christmas party, supported by Hymans Robertson, which is a great comfort and support to families who may not otherwise be able to celebrate Christmas with their children. He recently organised the redecoration of the Home-Start office by corporate volunteers, ensuring that staff have a comfortable and welcoming place to work. Malcolm is touchingly thoughtful, always checking in on the welfare of staff and families alike and his support is genuine and from the heart.

Marsh Award for Home-Start Digital Volunteer of the Year

Abdoul Diallo – Home-Start Southwark

Abdoul is an asylum-seeker from Guinea who attended Home-Start Southwark’s Volunteer Preparation Course in 2022, where he showed resilience, eagerness to learn and a desire to help others in a similar situation to him. He has been an invaluable help to staff with a whole range of social media activities and has gained a range of digital skills which will prove useful in his career development moving forward. Abdoul is selfless, and has a real determination to give back to his local community. He attends the office every week to create social media posts and updates, produce leaflets and assist staff with administrative support where needed. Abdoul is waiting to be matched with a family so that he can begin his journey as a home visits volunteer, but has chosen to be a proactive digital volunteer throughout this time and has helped to boost the digital presence of Home-Start Southwark.

Marsh Award for Home-Start Group Volunteer of the Year

Ronald May – Home-Start Medway

Ronald joined Home-Start as a volunteer in 2017 after his wife passed away, as a way to give back to the community. He has helped on a variety of projects since then including supporting 7 families as a home visitor, supporting a project with Age UK which creates activities to being the old and younger generations in the community and supporting military families by being a male role model for children who’s fathers are serving in the army. During the pandemic, Ronald was an incredible support to a single dad raising four daughters, keeping in touch with him through regular Zoom calls and providing a reliable source of help whenever they needed it. He gets involved with all manner of activities, from providing emotional support to getting stuck in with messy play with the children. Ronald is an asset to group sessions and is highly valued by both staff and service users.

Marsh Award for Home-Start Home Visitor Volunteer of the Year

Angela Gowdy – Home-Start Garioch (Scotland)

Angela is a very spritely (not far off 92 year old) home visiting volunteer who has been with Home-Start Garioch for almost 27 years, supporting almost 30 families. She has taken on a number of volunteering roles in her time, including a variety of trustee roles and fundraising activities, but home visiting is her passion. She inspires confidence in all she meets whether they be new volunteers, parents or children. Angela quickly recognises the support that families need and fits herself in where she is needed, from taking the baby for a walk to reading a toddler a story. As a former pediatric nurse, she has a wealth of knowledge and many local Health Visitors received training from her in the past and remember her fondly. Angela shows no signs of slowing down her volunteering and is an incredibly valuable asset to the service.

Marsh Award for Home-Start Supporter Volunteer of the Year

Susan Conlan – Home-Start East Lothian

Susan joined as a volunteer in January 2017 and, despite facing her own challenges of surviving breast cancer, brought her bubbly personality to support an isolated family with newborn twins. After taking some time out when her cancer returned, she began to volunteer at Home-Start East Lothian’s allotment space, sharing her love of gardening and her knowledge of growing food to help families make their own fertilisers and bring dying plants back to life. The allotment thrived under Susan’s care and she shared the space openly with families who wanted to get involved. Not only did families learn new skills, they were able to have a safe space to share any concerns and get emotional support from Susan and other volunteers. Despite her cancer returning once again in 2021 and having to keep away from the allotment to keep safe, Susan was always available on the phone for any allotment advice that was needed!

Marsh Award for Home-Start Trustee of the Year

Rob Harwood – Home-Start Trafford, Salford and Wigan

Rob is a longstanding trustee whose guidance and advice over the last 20 years has helped Home-Start Trafford, Salford and Wigan to consistently move forward, developing their service to meet the needs of local people. He has overseen a wealth of growth and development including the merger of Trafford and Salford and the extension of the service into Wigan. He has a strategic vision and can always see areas where the service can be improved to better help local families. Rob has a genuine insight into what it is like to be a Home-Start volunteer working on the ground having started out as a home-visiting volunteer himself. He was one of the first male home-visiting volunteers in the area and was able to provide a unique insight into the struggles of a father, which improved the service he was able to provide. Rob is a trustee who provides an exemplary example of what makes a good trustee. He is astute, visionary and business-savvy, but at the same time he is kind, caring and non-judgemental.