We’re so honoured and excited to have won two awards at Kent Volunteering Awards 2021 in recognition of the life-changing work our volunteers put into our mission. We had a truly wonderful evening alongside inspiring people doing inspiring work in our community.
“Thank you KM Charity Team for recognising the commitment and hard work of our fantastic volunteers, in honouring SATEDA as a winner of the Kent Voluntary Sector Awards. A special mention goes to Mary, who won an individual Kent Volunteer of the Year Champions award for her contribution to the groups and youth sections! We’re extremely grateful to all our volunteers for their time and dedication to SATEDA.” – Tracy, Volunteer Coordinator at SATEDA.
Our volunteer team really stepped up when they creatively found ways for women to volunteer and launched new projects and initiatives to enable fundraising and reduce isolation. They continued to work as well as meeting their own caring responsibilities and home schooling, taking time to look out for each other and the rest of the organisation with online activities including bingo and coffee mornings. The project which stood out to judges was our amazing Project Hope, which recognises the isolation of women in prison during the lockdown and shows understanding that many women in prisons have lived experiences of domestic abuse. The initiative started a letter writing campaign led by volunteers, which has now seen almost 2000 letters sent to vulnerable and isolated women, to give them hope and enable them to speak freely.
Speech from Mary’s award presentation:
“The next winner is Mary T! Domestic abuse and violence against women is not new but over recent years it has certainly seemed to feature much more in the media. The likes of Me Too campaigns have helped and it has certainly shone more of a light on something that wasn’t really talked about. But as I said, it isn’t new, it’s always been there and regardless of the media coverage organisations like SATEDA and volunteers like Mary have been a life line to so many.
Mary’s been a volunteer with SATEDA for over 3 years and in that time, proved herself indispensable in support groups and more recently in the youth programme. She is welcoming and always puts the clients at ease with a friendly word, a cup of tea and a smile.
She is reliable, enthusiastic, and despite being extremely busy with her local community allotment programme and helping in a local charity shop, she still finds time to volunteer for SATEDA. The Power 2 change sessions that she helps with are invaluable to women who attend the support groups. She helps the women to empower themselves and raise their safe esteem. She helps them understand about boundaries, works with them to build on their confidence and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to sign-posting to additional support. Within the youth team she has been delivering the Healing Together programme to children who have lived with domestic abuse. She teaches resilience, coping mechanisms and a language to talk about how they’re feeling, which in turn helps them to heal. The essential service that SATEDA gives, could not run without dedicated volunteers like Mary. Thank you Mary, well done!”