Volunteers' Week 2024
This year we celebrated Volunteers’ Week between 3 to 7 June in honour of all the residents who give up their time to work with us and their communities.
To recognise and celebrate resident volunteers, we created five categories and awarded residents for their commitment and contribution to say thank you for the amazing work they’ve done.
All winners received a £25 love2shop voucher with runners up receiving a £10 love2shop gift voucher.
Here’s what our winners had to say:
Our ‘Top Contributor – number of hours spent’ award goes to Louise Batchelor
Louise Batchelor (left) receiving her award
South East resident Louise Batchelor gave 50.25 hours of her time to us, over the last year. She spent this time on various opportunities and training sessions we offer to residents.
Louise is always interested in getting involved and increasing her understanding of L&Q and how she can improve our services.
“I got involved because I wanted to get a better understanding and learn and see how I can help.”
We asked Louise how she felt about being a winner and she said: “Wow...it means a lot.”
Our ‘Top Contributor – participation in opportunities’ award goes to Veronika Jagrikova
Veronika Jagrikova with her award
Bermondsey resident Veronika Jagrikova, was involved with more than 20 opportunities with us this year. She has lots to contribute and asks challenging, but great questions to make sure we consider the wider impact on all residents.
She was also a nominee for the Good Neighbour Award - for being extremely helpful around her estate and a problem solver. Veronika is known for being a great and supportive resident and for always taking part in estate inspections.
Veronika said:“Thank you. It is great to be recognised. I get to talk about my personal experience as a shared owner. I like the fact that L&Q gives us the opportunity to have a say in how the service should be delivered. I get to meet residents who rent and see how L&Q deliver services to support them. It helps to see the organisation through a different lense.”
Our ‘Partner of the year - going above and beyond’ award goes to Angela
North West Regional Resident Committee member, Angela, was one of three residents shortlisted for the best partnership working.
This award was selected by the Resident Involvement and Accountability team and was up against other involved resident members.
Angela expresses our people and passion values.
When she attends our training sessions, she interacts and networks with other residents and shares her personal experiences, both positive and negative, and always shares her knowledge with others when appropriate.
When she’s unable to join a session, she’ll email her feedback hoping this will benefit all residents.
Angela said:“I feel really touched to receive this award, as I have been involved for a long time and it’s nice to get recognised. If you don’t get involved in these opportunities, you can’t make a difference. Thank you L&Q.’’
Our runner-up for the ‘Partner of the year - going above and beyond’ award goes to North West Regional Resident Committee member, Wilf Stevenson
Wilf Stevenson (middle) receiving his award
Wilf Stevenson is a builder by profession and has lived in Old Trafford for 35 years.
He became the chair of the North West Regional Residents Committee when the position became available.
Wilf is the runner-up for continuously sharing his personal lived experiences as an L&Q resident.
He’s taken ownership of arranging meetings with the Partners on his own when he hasn’t been able to attend the Chairs Briefing sessions.
He also volunteered to meet Resident Services Board member Raj, in Trafford, discussing the history of Trafford along with some of the main points the North West Resident Residents Committee is focusing on.
Wilf said he feels: “Very proud for receiving the runner-up award out of our 600-plus involved resident members. Getting involved in our opportunities and training sessions is important because of “living in a high-rise block and the issues with cladding.”
To Wilf, getting involved means he can “strengthen communication between residents and the organisation. The information shared and terminology used needed to be more understandable for residents and to help relay that information to others.”
Wilf comes from a large family and was raised in social housing in Old Trafford. His biggest hope is that more people get involved - especially the younger residents.
Our ‘Most Supportive of the Year – helping new volunteers settle in’ award goes to Neighbourhood Champion, Paul Moore
Paul Moore with his award
Born in Australia and living in Stepney for 25 years, Paul Moore won the ‘Most Supportive of the Year’ award for being a great asset to our ‘buddying’ scheme – a scheme we offer to newly formed Tenant Resident Associations (TRA), to new Neighbourhood Champions and new committee members.
Paul retired from Alfred Dunhill last year and is fully committed to his role as a TRA member and as a Neighbourhood Champion.
He said: “When I finished work, I needed something, and the last year has been great. Doing the work I used to do and incorporating it into the Neighbourhood Champion role was good for me.”
He supported other involved residents with setting up a TRA, sharing his struggles and best practices.
He’s been an excellent example of partnership working with other volunteers, by helping them feel welcome and settling into their new roles.
We asked Paul how he felt about winning the award and he said: “Oh my goodness...it’s so lovely to hear...you read so many stories...and now it’s me.”
Paul worked closely with his local Neighbourhood Housing Lead and prioritised the maintenance of his estate.
He organised neighbourhood get-togethers, community fun days and organised a group of volunteers to look after their beautiful garden. Overall, we believe it strengthened their relationship.
Our ‘Good Neighbour – caring for your community’ award goes to Annick Robson
Living in Richmond for over 42 years, Annick Robson won the ‘Good Neighbours’ award – an award nominated by Neighbourhood Housing Leads (NHL).
Annick has around 400 residents on her estate, and at one point or another, her neighbours have gone to her for housing-related help and advice, or as her NHL put it, for “their own private affairs and health issues.” She’s passionate about gardening and the look of her estate - she spends her own money planting flowers of all sorts.
Very recently Annick helped a homeless person who was identified as having mental health problems and was living in a van. She worked with us, the local authority and various mental health organisations to help him get a home. He is now getting better and has a lovely home on our estate.
Annick keeps herself up to date about housing matters. She remains a dedicated and trustworthy volunteer.
Annick’s NHL, Judy Waine, said: “She has worked tirelessly for many many years with us".
Our runner up for ‘Good Neighbour – caring for your community’ award goes to Michael Strassen and Margaret Watson
Michael Strassen
Michael Strassen with his award
Michael Strassen from Wandsworth Plain transformed three front gardens and planted over 200 daffodils and bluebells. With the seasons changing, his wildflower meadow can be seen, but hopefully next year it will be a lot more visible.
Michael is the founder of his Gardening Club and is working with L&Q colleagues and his local Councillor, Davies, to plan the year ahead. His ambition is to work with Morgan Sindall Group to make this happen.
The foundation of his Garden Club is to reduce Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and Mental Health (MH) by adopting half a front of concrete garden space.
His NHL said: “If we didn’t have Michael, there wouldn’t be any Gardening Club.”
Margaret Watson
Nominated by NHL Ian Henderson, South West resident Margaret Watson supported a neighbour showing signs of isolation, poor health and financial difficulties.
Margaret was helping the resident with weekly shopping saying: “It’s the least I can do.” She also helped with organising the residents’ household paperwork.
Tenancy Fraud Officer Paul Gibson said: “Margaret’s compassion shown towards her fellow neighbour should not be overlooked. She had a positive impact on our work and we feel her efforts should be recognised.”
Resident volunteers get to choose the activities and projects which they find interesting and helpful to their personal development.
Find out how residents can get involved as a resident volunteer