Mandy Young (Development Director, Adrenaline Alley) and Julie Cardwell (Regeneration and Community Officer, Corby Borough Council) attended the event, and took the opportunity to share their experiences and learning with over 70 delegates from Local Authorities, public sector bodies and community organisations from across the East Midlands. Later in the day, keynote speaker Rachel Newton (Head of Policy & Research, from community champions Urban Forum) presented the pair with their award plaque and the big cheque.
Adrenaline Alley aims to provide a safe and secure environment for young people in Northamptonshire to participate in urban activities. It hopes to be recognised as a leading provider of urban sports in the UK and the staff team have created a range of partnerships in order to help it become a sustainable social enterprise. The Alley has a long-term vision to ensure that the facility becomes even more successful in the future and young people and the community are keen to work to help this vision become a reality.
Adrenaline Alley’s key successes include: securing enough Capital and Revenue funding to open and operate an indoor urban sports centre in Corby; building strong and lasting relationships with a range of partners including Corby Borough Council, North Northants Development Company and Corus; helping a large number of young people to gain recognised qualifications as a result of attending Adrenaline Alley, and; winning a range of awards locally and nationally for the recognition of the work that it has done for young people and urban sports
The Community Engagement & Cultural Change awards programme was run earlier this year, and the three project partners (the East Midlands Empowerment Partnership (EMEP), the East Midlands Neighbourhood Resource Centre (EMNRC) and the East Midlands Improvement & Efficiency Partnership (EM IEP)) invited public sector bodies to nominate outstanding community organisations with whom they were working to receive an award for their work.
The awards focussed on recognising and rewarding outstanding community organisations who are making positive changes in East Midlands communities, and who have inspired their Local Authority or other public sector partner towards making a cultural change within their working practices, in order to create a successful and mutually beneficial partnership.
From the numerous applications received, the judging panel selected Adrenaline Alley and 9 other inspiring partnerships to win the Community Engagement & Cultural Change Awards, with each public sector nominator receiving an award plaque and their community partner winning a cheque for £3,000 to help them continue and develop their good work.
For more information on the Community Engagement & Cultural Change Awards, visit www.emep.org.uk