Isabella, Kirushan, Olivia, Shamza, And Tom Are Crowned Coronation Champions!

Thousands of people have been nominated for the Coronation Champion Awards, which celebrate the work of extraordinary volunteers from across the UK.

We’re excited to announce that Isabella, Kirushan, Olivia, Shamza, and Tom have all been crowned Coronation Champions for their work on NCS social action projects. Massive congrats!!

Isabella Smith 

Awards category: Crisis and welfare

Isabella was nominated for her work on the Brighton Period Project, which developed out of an NCS social action project. Together with a group of other young people, Isabella researched local social issues and was shocked to find that period poverty is a huge problem in Brighton and Hove. The group got to work spreading awareness about the issue on social media, and one of their first TikTok videos generated over 900,000 views!

@brightonperiodproject DONT LET PERIDOS CRAMP YOUR STYLE! follow for more period jokes and facts.#period #brightonperiodproducts #fyp #periods #periodpoverty ♬ Running Away - VANO 3000 & BADBADNOTGOOD & Samuel T. Herring

During their NCS social action week, Isabella and her group raised over £560 and collected around 800 period products which they donated to homeless charity Off The Fence. Amazing work Isabella!

“I love volunteering through the Brighton Period Project as I am making a direct and important change to my local community. I find it rewarding when speaking openly about periods as many women of older generations feel like this is something they could not do. It feels empowering to advocate for previous generations of women as well as future generations. 

Creating this charity has brought together like-minded individuals with a common goal of combatting period poverty; where we collect and redistribute period products to local homeless services, attend city-wide events run by local councils and campaign for more accessible and sustainable period products for all through our social media.” — Isabella

Kirushan Suthakaran

Awards category: Crisis and welfare

As part of an NCS social action project, Kirushan came together with other young people to raise awareness about homelessness. They created a video exploring the issues and causes of homelessness and raised money for the charity Homeless Link in the process. 

After doing an NCS Skills Booster programme, Kirushan was then able to apply his leadership skills and video production knowledge to a project raising awareness about mental health. The following year, Kirushan got involved with a project to combat loneliness where he and fellow teens bought gifts and chocolates, handing these out with handwritten messages of kindness to people on Valentine’s Day.

And it doesn’t stop there! Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kirushan led a team in collecting clothes from Ilford residents to donate to Ukrainian refugees based in East London. 

“I’m truly honoured to be nominated as a Coronation Champion. I didn’t think much of what I did as it was a team effort, but this really puts it into perspective how important altruism can be.” — Kirushan

Kirushan, you truly deserve the title of Coronation Champion!

Olivia Sheargold

Awards category: Supporting young people and children

Olivia is part of the Hope Collective Youth Management Group, which partners with NCS on a number of projects. Olivia has supported the coordination of various events which created a safe space for young people to come together to share ideas and talk about important issues in their community. 

Olivia also co-wrote the ‘Changing the Conversation' report which outlined the vision of the Hope Collective and their Hope Hack events. Impressive work Olivia! For anyone who’d like to take part in a Hope Hack, they can find out more information here.

"I feel passionate about volunteering and hope to promote positive change by offering my skill set. Through volunteering, I have experienced many unique opportunities and developed new skills. I believe that no organisation can claim to empower young people if young people are not actively engaged in its discussions." — Olivia

Shamza Butt

Awards category: Community
 

When Shamza arrived in the UK from Italy, she couldn’t speak English, was low on confidence, and had to adapt to a new life in Bradford. Fast forward just a couple of years and she’s been involved in numerous NCS social action projects that encourage positive change in her community. 

This has included celebrating key workers with an eye-catching mural, creating a video to help combat sexual harassment on public transport, and using her voice for social good as a member of the NCS Youth Voice Forum and as part of the Peer Action Collective.

“Achieving this honourable award in less than six years of being in the UK fills me with a sense of pride and accomplishment, and I look forward to continuing with all the volunteering work and doing more for my community as I spend more time getting to know my city.” — Shamza

You’re an inspiration to us all Shamza! For anyone who’d like to get involved in an NCS project in their local area, have a read about it here — new opportunities will be launching soon! 

Tom Jackson

Winning category: Crisis and welfare

While doing NCS, Tom created a uniform donation project that ended up helping hundreds of local families in his local area of Gateshead.

Knowing that many families struggle with the cost of buying school uniforms, Tom and a group of other young people set out to create a donation hub so that they could redistribute items to families in need. They created a social media campaign and were blown away by the support, with hundreds of parents dropping off donations. What started as an idea for a week-long donation drive turned into a full summer of volunteering. Tom and his teammates directly helped over 500 local families, but they also set up collection hubs in local schools, and donated surplus items to charity shops.

After catching the volunteering bug, Tom relaunched the project the following summer, and started a similar scheme during the winter collecting coats and warm clothing for homeless people.That’s heart-warming news Tom, and congrats on being crowned Coronation Champion!

"Words cannot describe how joyous and proud I am to have won a Coronation award.  It’s such an honour to be representing NCS and just amazing to see how much of an impact our project had. This project helped hundreds of people and this award wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my team and my community. NCS has played such a huge part of my journey in life and I am so proud of the work we have accomplished." — Tom

The Champions

Isabella, Kirushan, Olivia, Shamza, and Tom were hand-picked by a panel of judges as Coronation Champions along with many others. They’ll each receive a specially designed official Coronation Champions pin and a signed certificate from King Charles III and the Queen Consort. They are also invited to attend one of the official Coronation celebrations, such as the Windsor Castle Coronation Concert or a Coronation Garden Party. 

That does sound like it’ll be pretty amazing, but whether or not you receive recognition for your volunteering and social action projects, the important thing is just to be doing it, to be helping others, making a positive difference, and learning new skills. So if you’ve been involved in a social action project that you’re proud of, let us know here!