If you attended the awards in person at The Village Hotel, a big thank you for supporting the awards. We appreciate all the feedback we’ve received following your attendance, and we’re delighted to hear that the event was enjoyable with some amazing stories, speakers and networking.
And of course, congratulations to all finalists! To make it as a finalist is a huge achievement and you should be proud of this and your entries, as we received just under 200 entries!
So let’s dive into who the winners were and why they were awarded:
Workplace Wellbeing Award
CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd
All of the finalists demonstrated brilliant efforts being made to support their employees at every stage of their careers. CMC Partnership Consultancy stood out as a business that truly lived and breathed excellent values of wellbeing in the workplace.
Best Mental Health Support Service
African Community Centre
The ACC (African Community Centre ) for the REACH ME for adults and REACH for children and young people – mental health projects. Their mental health projects support the lives of individuals, asylum seekers and refugees from BME and Ethnic Minority backgrounds. Their work literally broke down barriers, helped vulnerable members of the community both young and old navigate their way through the pandemic supporting people with mental health issues and reduced isolation and vulnerability at a time when all of us were kept apart from one another.
Inspiring Individual
Clint Attard, Shared Lives Carer for Mental Health Crisis
The award is given to Clint Attard because of his selfless dedication to helping others, others often experiencing acute mental health needs, often needing a safe place, often needing respite from the world and access to kindness, consideration, and care. Not only does he provide care in his own home, but he also provides care in a professional and employed capacity. Clint is described as ‘responsive, open, flexible and having warmth’, these are all values which resonate with Mind. He is known for supporting people in their ‘darkest hours’, at times of ‘greatest need’, and at times whereby suicide seems the only way out, he works in partnership with acute admission wards at St Cadac’s Hospital and provide life-changing support through the Shared Lives Carer Programme.
Outstanding Impact in Education
Kelly Munroe, Really Pro Ltd
Kelly’s and Really Pro Ltd.’s dedication to challenging the stigma and breaking down the barriers of discussing mental health in schools was the reason why the judges chose her as our winner. They demonstrated results and showed a real passion not only for supporting mental ill-health but for young people too.
Inspirational Charitable
Meddwl.org
Working within a real niche, where there’s a significant lack of provision, the judges chose this small, dedicated, volunteer-based organisation as this year’s winner.
Inspiring Young Person Award
Mohammad Nahar from The African Community Centre
Aged 16 Mohammad came to the UK as an unaccompanied asylum-seeker, seeing sights most of us will never imagine, Mohammad has displayed incredible bravery and determination to face these challenges and deal with trauma whilst reaching out to help others with their Mental Health, Volunteering to inspire others and helping asylum seekers and young people throughout the pandemic feel part of a local family at the African Community Centre.
Chloe Withers from Teakind
Despite years of struggling with her own Mental Health and losing a job over the pandemic, Chloe was determined to stay focused and raise awareness to support others with Mental Health and Wellbeing, so much so that Chloe launched Teakind sharing her own experiences about mental illness through blog posts, creating activity sheets and a range mental health resources downloadable from her website, with the goal of making these resources as inclusive as possible, representing people in both English and Welsh. A truly inspirational and remarkable feat whilst continuing a personal journey of recovery from mental illness herself.
Best Wellbeing Product
Cynon Valley Organic Adventures
Cynon Valley Organic Adventures ticked all of the judging boxes for its simplicity, its community inclusivity, its sustainability and how it created employment.
Best Mental Health Support during the Pandemic
Cornelli Primary School
Cornelli Primary School were awarded as winner because of their dedication and support to both the young people they teach, but also the parents who were struggling during the pandemic. They recognised that they needed to go above and beyond in order to ensure that their most vulnerable young people were not left without the care and support of their school.
The staff team carried out initiatives which included; making contact with pupils and families on a daily to weekly basis depending on need; supporting parents to ensure they were able to access and download everything needed to access online materials; putting together paper resources and delivering them to those who needed them; arranging regular meetings with parents as well as young people to ensure extra support could be targeted when required; becoming a Lunch Hub for the Community & Local Schools, providing food bags to families who needed them; and set up an initiative call “While We Can’t Hug”, which involved children writing letter of hope and kindness and delivering them to lonely people in the local community.
Best Education Product or Service
Sweet Education Ltd
This organisation has made huge strides and has proven to have had a positive impact on student’s mental health and wellbeing. Sweet Education Ltd supports young people to understand their emotional needs and life skills. They help prepare young people for life as a young adult and the testimonials from students and staff speak volumes about the difference it has made to lives. They’ve had an impact on emotional and social wellbeing, sexual health, personal identity and growth, and environmental and financial awareness. And to top it off…over 20,000 pupils have been supported!
As mentioned, we received an overwhelming number of amazing entries, some of which we have recognised as silver and bronze award winners. Congratulations! You can see more details of all winners, including our silver and bronze winners, here.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Wales Awards could not have happened without our sponsors:
Workplace Wellbeing Award – Effective HRM
Best Mental Health Support Service – Together Platforms
Inspiring Individual Award – Mind Cymru
Outstanding Impact in Education – Kinbee
Inspirational Charitable Organisation – Social Business Wales
Inspiring Young Person – Really Pro
Best Wellbeing Product or Service – Practice Solutions
Best Mental Health Support During the Pandemic – MHFA Wales
Best Education Product or Service – Investors in families
Thank you all for your contribution!
We would love to see you all again next year, so please consider applying for our 2023 awards! Applications for next year will be open 1st April 2023 and you’ll be able to put your applications forward through email. We would also love to hear your category suggestions, which we’re accepting via email foundation@ajuda.org.uk