Today, November 14th, 2024, Sustainable Newport has been awarded a King’s Award for Voluntary Service. This award is the equivalent of an MBE, awarded for life, and the highest award given to volunteer groups across the UK.
“Your community spirit combined with your academically supported advice makes the group a real asset to the town of Newport and wider surrounding areas. You have led the way for other sustainable groups in Shropshire, offering so much support to other groups” Anna Turner, His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Shropshire.
Sustainable Newport was founded 15 years ago in 2009 as Newport 21. The group ran a selection of successful schemes throughout its history, including monthly Green Drinks (with speakers for information sharing), provided input into the town plan and had regular pass-it-on events. They also helped to install bat and bird boxes around the community.
In 2018, the group hit a low in terms of participation, with several key members moving away from Newport and others having to step down. The then mayor of Newport and the founder of All /about Newport were aware of causes people in the community wanted to take forward and facilitated an introduction.
The combined group agreed to rebrand to Sustainable Newport (in line with the latest United Nations global goals) and, in 2019, started the successful Surfers Against Sewerage Plastic Free Communities campaign, which reinvigorated the volunteers and led to a wider county wide collaboration with other groups as Shropshire Against Pointless Plastic.
The plastic-free work became challenging in a post-Covid world, and the group decided to focus on 3 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aligning all current work around them while continuing to share best practices and strong messaging with other surrounding community groups.
Susanne Bearblock, Vice-Chair said “I’m delighted to be part of a volunteer organisation that contributes not just locally, but also globally, to supporting a sustainable future. Sustainable Newport volunteers are passionate about getting involved in activities and campaigns that use our diverse skill sets and areas of interest. Being able to use our collective voice to draw attention to opportunities for sustainable behaviour change, to cut through the noise and focus on actions that are academically and scientifically supported, is very rewarding.”
The award is for the collective effort in supporting the sustainability of our town, and the way we collaborate and amplify the causes we get behind to expand the ripples of impact.
Simone Whitfield, Chair, said, “As the world watches COP29, I’m grateful for the efforts and range of ideas each of our volunteers bring at grassroots level- whether that’s for a single event or a series of activities we all care and share actions we can take”.
We actively welcome new members to the Sustainable Newport team and volunteers for our events. If you’re interested in joining please complete this form Contact us
Related Posts
