Toni Holmes, Caroline West, Ann Maguire, Stuart McDougall and Steve McDonald
South West – Toni Holmes, Bournemouth
Toni is reliable, hard-working and puts clients at ease. She goes out of her way to help others and is a true team player. She covers the Needle Exchange, which can mean that she deals with challenging service users, something she does with a calm manner and makes time to speak to them. Toni completes her tasks with a smile on her face and is a cheerful and inspiring presence at the service. She takes time out of her busy role to help train new members of staff and welcome them to the organisation. Toni deals with clients in an empathetic, professional and warm way. She has been volunteering for 3 years and took a role on the frontline during the pandemic at a variety of locations where she was needed. She has a great knowledge of her client group and is very patient with chaotic and challenging clients. Toni is an inspiration to both old and new service users and staff members with her positive can-do attitude.
North West – Carolyn Lamb – Liverpool North
Carol has been through a great deal in her personal life but has also volunteered with the service for many years, building a great rapport with service users and sharing her experiences. She travels quite a distance to get to the office, but nothing is too much trouble for her and she supports staff with a variety of tasks, always willing to muck in and help with whatever is needed. The personal support she provides shows that she genuinely cares about her colleagues and this is reciprocated back to her by the team. She is a friendly and welcoming person, making service users feel welcomed and listened to and providing a visible face of recovery to encourage them that they can also get there. Throughout lockdown, Carol was a consistent presence for service users, supporting them through online sessions to keep them engaged with the service that is so vital to them.
Scotland – Ann Maguire – Glasgow North West Recovery Hub
Ann has been a volunteer at the Hub for around 6 years and is a well-valued member of the team. She is committed to her role and mainly volunteers in an administrative capacity. She really enjoys being the first point of contact for people coming into the Hub and is always smiling and approachable. Ann puts service users at ease and is efficient at taking phone calls and messages for staff, and at taking referrals and making sure the system is accurately up to date. She also completes all mandatory training for her role so that her knowledge is as up to date as possible. Ann is reliable, motivated and committed to her role, making her a huge asset to the service. She is very reliable, helpful and consistent, working to a high standard as an integral part of the team.
South East – Stuart McDougall – ARC-Milton Keynes
Stuart is one of the best volunteers that the service has ever had and they say that they would be lost without him. He is also well liked by service users due to his approach to supporting groups and the knowledge that he brings. Stuart volunteers for the service throughout the week and receives nothing but praise from all who work with him and the service users that he comes into contact with. He works tirelessly to support the service and is reliable and dedicated. Stuart is a thoughtful and friendly volunteer. He is a friendly, thoughtful volunteer who gives up a great deal of his time to support the service and service users, who have nothing but positive things to say about him.
North East – Steve McDonald– Redcar and Cleveland
Steve, as a veteran and peer support mentor, has dedicated his own time following his own recovery to set up veteran specific pathways for the service. He has supported multiple veteran service users and ran the national online veterans MAP group for over a year. Alongside this, Steve supports other groups, attends networking meetings and works on the Naloxone programme, as well as working on reception. A few weeks ago, Steve secured a staff position with WAWY and it was felt that he should be recognised for his volunteering efforts leading up to his employment.