National charity Shaw Trusts first STAR Awards

A PROFOUNDLY deaf employment expert who has carved out a successful career helping others, and a visually impaired production worker who is celebrating 20 years in the same job are among those who have been honoured in top national achievement awards.

Tesco, Wiltshire County Council and Associated Dental Products have also been lauded at national charity Shaw Trustís first STAR Awards, which were presented by acclaimed musician Evelyn Glennie at a glittering London ceremony.

I still feel shocked and extremely proud to have won. It was the experience of a lifetime, said Middlesborough lady Helen Durnion, who became profoundly deaf after contracting meningitis when she was 16.

To be chatting away to two icons of mine, Sir Jack Ashley and Evelyn Glennie life doesnít get any better than that, she added.

Shaw Trust Member of Staff award winner Helen, who joined as a volunteer two years ago, now has a full time role as a Development Officer providing support for other service users and delivers disability awareness training around the UK.

Too often people with disabilities can face barrier after barrier, I know I did before I joined the Trust, but the main thing is to never give in, added Helen, whose life has been changed by a cochlear implant.
Actually hearing the speech made about me at the awards ceremony was so moving it will stick in my mind for years to come.

Visually impaired Ann Stratford and her Swindon employers celebrated a special anniversary in style when they both scooped top achievement awards.

Just weeks from the date Ann Stratford would mark 20 years with Swindon-based Associated Dental Products, they were both invited to London to receive STAR Awards for winning Shaw Trust Service User and Small Business Employer respectively.

I couldnít believe it when I heard Iíd been nominated, and when they told me Iíd won, I very nearly burst into tears, said production worker Ann, who is registered blind after being born with a congenital eye disease which meant she had to have one eye removed and left her with restricted vision in the other.

Family business Associated Dental Products, which employs 45 and has operated from a former dairy and jam factory near Swindon for the past 75 years, was one of the first employers to work with Shaw Trust, the countryís largest provider of employment services for disabled people.
They are a super supportive company and definitely support Ann to the max. Thereís no such thing as a íperfectí company to support a person with disabilities, but this one is as close as Iíve ever come, praised Annís Shaw Trust Development Officer Maggie Wallace.

The Trust helped Ann, 53, to get her prized job after she spent two and a half years searching for work. Shaw Trust has helped me tremendously, and do such an important job in a world when itís always tricky to get the right job, but doubly so when you have a disability, she said.
The dental products industry has changed enormously since Ann first got her job 20 years ago, but nothing fazes her. I wonít give up, admitted Ann, who lives independently in her own flat. I just keep trying until I can do it.

Sheís an excellent employee, and as things have changed sheís taken it all in her stride, added Associated Dental Productsí Production Manager Stuart Cottrell.
Weíre delighted with her, and she must be happy with us to still be here after 20 years.

Large Business Employer winner Tescoís award is in recognition of a pioneering new deal in which Shaw Trust has been named as one of its preferred providers of disabled workers. The move will mean new opportunities for people desperate to get into employment.

Under a recently signed agreement the Trust will match clients to hundreds of job vacancies throughout Tesco during the coming years.

We are very pleased to have won the award and to be recognised for all the hard work that has gone into getting this partnership off the ground, said Tesco Resource Manager Kieran Mander.

One of the key things about Shaw Trust is their ability to understand what goes on in our stores and the fact they are keen to help support our managers and take into account the kind of pressures they are under. They really go the extra mile.

The Trust is hoping that other big companies will follow Tescoís lead by using expert help to fuel their employment diversity programmes, opening doors for 3.68 million people of working age without employment due to poor health or disability, compared to 800,000 jobless non-disabled people.
Wiltshire County Council was named Best Partner Organisation in the prestigious STAR Awards, in recognition of its valuable work in setting up a unique partnership scheme.

The county-wide Workable Wiltshire Advice and Guidance Service, managed by Shaw Trust and involving up to 100 other agencies, will help hundreds of disabled job-seekers get back into work.

The project is the most recent development in the relationship between Shaw Trust and Wiltshire County Council, which began when the Trust was first established in the county 22 years ago.

This ground-breaking service will guide disabled people and carers to access the best provision and track individualsí progress.

It is a major development. Over the next three years we anticipate that than 1500 disabled people will be helped towards or into employment and Shaw Trust is playing a key role in this exciting new service, revealed Graham White, Employment Strategy Manager for Wiltshire County Council.
It is early days yet, but the award recognises the hard work we have already put into laying the foundations for this one-stop service.

Shaw Trust Regional Director Angela Rice believes Workable Wiltshire, which is being funded from the European Social Fund, could be the blueprint for other such projects around the country.

Shaw Trust is a big national player with broad holistic provision and is well placed to spearhead a project like this. Itís the kind of thing we should be doing to help cut through the confusing maze of provision currently on offer, she said.

Shaw Trust Managing Director Ian Charlesworth welcomed the launch of the new awards: We believe they will provide valuable recognition of the contribution made by employees, employers and organisations who work in partnership with us to help people on their way to employment.

We would like to congratulate our winners this year and look forward to receiving many more such worthy nominations for next yearís awards.

The awards presenter Evelyn Glennie, a patron of Shaw Trust, said she was delighted to be part of the event. The Trustís work is hugely important and I was so pleased to be launching this new award scheme and presenting the first awards, she said.

I believe in the aims of Shaw Trust and the sort of difference they make to peopleís lives. We should all have a chance of employment in the same way. We all have to help each other because we are truly all disabled in one way or another.

As a musician my whole aim is to make a difference in life and thatís what I look for in the charities I support.