More Celebration of Achievement awards

9 January 2008

Over the holiday period, St Christopher’s staff and service users enjoyed a further five celebration of achievement events: in Milton Keynes, the Isle of Man, Limegrove, Northwest London and Southeast London.

These followed on from the success of the children’s services celebration that took place earlier in December, and build up to the major organisation-wide event to be announced later in 2008.

This is the first year that St Christopher’s has staged these events separately, due mainly to the growing size and geographical spread of the organisation. Those in the Isle of Man and Milton Keynes were the first of their kind outside London.

The awards pay tribute to service users who have overcome great challenges in their lives to become the people they are today. There are three main categories of award:

 - Achieving potential – for those who have made the difficult step of accepting that they want to change their lives, and with the help of their key workers have started to take steps to transform their attitude and improve their way of living.

 - Rising to the challenge – for those who have made significant changes and are well on the way to achieving the life they want.

 - Fresh start – for those who have made the changes and are now living lives that they enjoy and feel happy with. Most Fresh Start nominees have gained employment or have progressed onto college courses.

As well as recognising the hard work and tremendous achievements of St Christopher's service users, each individual event had its own particular character. The entertainment in Southeast London, for example, included an open-mic talent show, the live music at Limegrove was provided by a talented busker from Covent Garden, and the awards in Milton Keynes were presented by MK Dons footballer Drew Broughton.