We are thrilled to announce that one of Touchstone’s Black and Minority Ethnic Community Development Workers, Kimberley Saggu, has won a Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust Award. The annual Trust Awards offer staff and members the chance to recognise and celebrate the talented people working and volunteering for the Trust.
Kimberley has worked tirelessly with colleague Laura Hadley from LYPFT’s forensic service to support people to establish effective links with community resources. The vocational project enables service users to think about their future goals and aspirations. The focus is on social inclusion and linking people to their local communities, with Kimberley providing the BME specialism to the service.
Kimberley’s nomination stated that she ‘…has been instrumental in networking with community agencies, employers and education providers in order to provide smooth access for individuals to learning and training opportunities. Already the benefits of this are apparent, with Forensic Service users successfully establishing training / apprenticeship opportunities, voluntary work and recreation…. The vocational project has sought to understand the culture, background and preferences of service users and has sought to ensure that a full pathway of opportunities are planned and developed’.
In giving the award to Kimberley, the Trust stated ‘This is a great achievement, as we had an overwhelming response this year with almost fifty nominations. The Selection Committee (made up of service users, carers, staff and public governors) were only able to put forward three of the nominees to the shortlist and reaching this agreement, I am told, was extremely difficult’.
Kimberley will be presented with her award and will celebrate with other winners at York Racecourse on Tuesday September 24th. Well done Kimberley, we are proud of you!
