Tag: Award

CREATE SHORTLISTED FOR YOUNG CARERS AWARD IN 20TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR

Young carers change matters

CREATE SHORTLISTED FOR YOUNG CARERS AWARD IN 20TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR

We’re delighted to have been shortlisted for the prestigious Children & Young People Now “Young Carers” Award.

The Young Carers Award is for the initiative that has done the most to support children, young people or young adults up to 25 who care for a family member or friend with an illness, disability, mental health problem or addiction. This includes support to meet carers’ educational, health, social and emotional needs; helping carers who have previously been unidentified by services; and working with families to reduce inappropriate levels of caring.

Create has worked with young carers since 2007, using the creative arts to enable these amazing children and young people to build skills and relationships, enhance confidence and wellbeing, and reduce isolation. Over the last few years, the need for respite for young carers has become much greater. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 58% of young carers increased their caring time by at least 10 hours a week. Following the pandemic, the cost of living crisis has disproportionately affected young carers, with 56% saying their families are ‘always’ or ‘usually’ affected by the crisis.

Young carers change matters
Young carers create change:matters artwork

We’re delighted that our work with young carers has been shortlisted for this award, including our vital change:matters programme. change:matters educates and upskills young carers across the UK about money and family finances, demystifying these topics by demonstrating key financial concepts through different creative artforms. The programme provides young and young adult carers with the space to understand and better navigate their finances and has been particularly crucial over the last year, given the current financial climate. A young carer who took part in our change:matters programme said: “The workshops have helped me learn the value of money. When you’re growing up, you don’t realise how much or how little money you have, or how it works in the real world.”

Ensuring our participants have a voice is at the heart of Create’s work. In March 2023, we partnered with Carers Trust for the third year to ensure that young carers’ voices were at the heart of Young Carers Action Day. We ran creative arts projects with young carers across the four nations and celebrated with an online showcase that highlighted their artwork on the theme of “Making Time for Young Carers”.

inspired:arts Scotland visual art banners
Young carers with their campaign banners created on YCAD 2023 visual arts project in Scotland

Following our visual art project with young carers from Lambeth being featured on Channel 4’s hit show, Grayson’s Art Club, their artwork was selected to feature in the exhibition at Midlands Art Centre, propelling the voices and talents of young carers to the nation! Seeing their monumental artwork displayed in the exhibition alongside work by so many other artists including Grayson and Philippa Perry themselves made the young carers feel rightly proud.

Artwork by young carers from Lambeth on display at Grayson's Art Club: The Exhibition at MAC Birmingham, November 2022
Artwork by young carers from Lambeth on display at Grayson’s Art Club: The Exhibition at MAC Birmingham

These are just a few highlights from our work with young carers in the last year. Being shortlisted for this award to coincide with our important 20-year milestone is wonderful recognition of the commitment, passion, determination and drive of everyone who is involved in Create: our staff, our professional artists, our Trustees, our volunteers, our funding and community partners and – above all else – our young carers. The incredible children and adults who we work with continue to inspire and motivate me every day.

The Children & Young People Now Award Ceremony takes place on Thursday 23 November 2023 – we’ll let you know how we get on!

Nicky Goulder, Founding Chief Executive

Create chief executive wins Charity Times award for rising CEO star

nicky goulder wins 2014 charity times award
nicky goulder wins 2014 charity times award

CREATE’S CHIEF EXECUTIVE IS CHARITY TIMES’S HIGHLY COMMENDED RISING CEO STAR

nicky goulder wins 2014 charity times award

In October 2014, our Chief Executive Nicky Goulder was recognised with the prestigious Highly Commended award in the Charity Times Rising CEO Star category.

After co-founding Create in 2003, she was appointed to the new position of Chief Executive in December 2012. Since then, our income has increased by 53%, enabling more than 3,000 disdvantaged and vulnerable children and adults to take part in sustained, life-changing programmes rated successful by 98% of community partners.

The citation read:

“Nicky has led Create to its most successful year to date, directly as a result of her passion and drive to make society fairer, more caring and more inclusive. Her commitment to disadvantaged and vulnerable people has helped transform the lives of more than 27,000 participants.”

In nominating Nicky for the award, our Chairman Eddie Donaldson wrote:

“I believe that Nicky should be recognised as Charity Times Rising CEO Star because of her passion and dedication to transforming the lives of society’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable people. As Chairman, I have witnessed first-hand her drive to make Create a centre of excellence. Never complacent, she leads her team to deliver the best possible outcomes for Create’s participants and community partners. When we appointed Nicky as CEO, I knew she would bring her vast experience to the table to meet our expectations, drive the charity, deliver new and innovative programmes in the community and increase Create’s income and visibility through new initiatives. As I suspected, she has done exactly this, meeting and exceeding expectations with grace and flair.

“Our Trustees, staff, community partners and funders often comment on Nicky’s dedication, professionalism, and integrity to effect positive change. Her vision and determination to make society a better place permeate all her actions, making her an outstanding CEO. Her commitment to disadvantaged and vulnerable people has had a profound and lasting effect on her team and the lives of Create’s 27,478 participants to date, who in turn go out to change their communities. Her ambitious plans for the next three years will continue to impact the lives of individuals and communities into the future.”

In commenting on the award, Nicky said:

“I have the privilege of leading an incredible, dedicated team of staff and artists and, thanks to the transformational grant that we received from The Queen’s Trust last year, we are on target to double the reach of our work by 2016. This award feels like wonderful recognition for all we are achieving as a team to help transform the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable children and adults through our carefully tailored creative arts programmes. I would like to thank our Chairman for nominating me, the judges for acknowledging our achievements and Lloyds Bank Foundation and The Rank Foundation for so generously supporting of my post.”

Charity Times Rising CEO Star award recognises “a chief executive who has demonstrated dedication, professionalism and integrity throughout their short career, and who has produced an identifiably profound effect on the sector through their work and management and shows great potential going forward”.