The CSJ Awards 2021
About the CSJ Awards
The CSJ Awards exist to ensure that the voices of those working to tackle poverty around the country are heard by decision-makers in Westminster. Previous winners have helped to tackle modern slavery, rehabilitate ex-offenders, improve educational outcomes in deprived areas, and bring isolated older people back into the community.
The impact of winning a CSJ Award is long-lasting and helps these organisations to grow and widen the reach of their inspirational work. Award winners have been profiled on primetime television, have had their services rolled out in every school across the country, and have secured over half a million pounds in additional funding as a result of the exposure that the CSJ Awards gave them.
How have the Award winners been chosen?
Each year, the entire CSJ team dedicate themselves to scouring the country to identify the most outstanding, innovative, and effective organisations who fight poverty on the frontline. We look for organisations who help the hardest to reach, who inspire us with their profound impact, and who have discovered ways of scaling their work beyond their own neighbourhood.
This year, the CSJ received 127 applications for the CSJ Awards. The CSJ team selected 15 finalists for an external panel of judges to select the winners from.
What do we award?
Thanks to the generosity of corporate supporters and philanthropic organisations, four Award winners will receive £10,000. In addition, we are dedicated to helping our Award winners raise their profile and benefit from a broad range of support.
We encourage all of you who are reading this to help us achieve our objective by getting in contact with our award winners if you feel you can help them. You can also help by raising the profile of their work by tweeting about the Awards using #CSJAwards2021.
To find out more about the CSJ Awards, click here to read this year’s Digital Awards Programme.
CSJ Award winner: Oasis Community Centre
What they do:
Oasis Community Centre is a beautiful and vibrant 2-acre garden, hidden in the centre of the Kilton estate, Worksop. They operate as the heart of the community through running over 30 projects and activities for all ages, needs and interests in the community. Through their therapeutic interventions, Oasis aim to reduce isolation, to improve health and wellbeing and increase the life opportunities and chances for all people in the area.
Impact:
• Over 2,000 people access Oasis’s services each year. Every programme is led by a team of local volunteers, meaning that Oasis has only 2 full time members of staff.
• One of Oasis’s strengths is its ability to respond and adapt to the needs of the community. Throughout Covid-19, they delivered over 3,000 food and essentials hampers to help people in poverty and financial need.
Why they won a CSJ Award:
This charity represents the very best of localism and the power of community spirit. They deal with some of the most complex issues in their area, identifying where need is most acute and being creative enough to come up with the solutions. Oasis has developed itself intentionally to be responsive to the needs of local people and to fully support everyone who comes through their door, with no thresholds or cut-offs.
Oasis would like to share their model with other community centres around the country, to demonstrate how a small charity with a big dream can make a difference to the world around them.
Watch James Cracknell OBE present the CSJ Award to the Oasis Community Centre.
Watch the film that we have made about Oasis’ work.
CSJ Award winner: The Snowdrop Project
What they do:
The Snowdrop Project was set up in 2012 to provide long-term support to survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery. Snowdrop was founded and built on the needs of survivors who consistently cited the absence of long-term support from the state.
Impact:
• 163 adults and 77 children accessed Snowdrop’s services in 2019.
• Of the 55 people who accessed Snowdrop’s casework service, 53% are now in education or employment, and 59% are living in permanent accommodation. This is particularly impressive when compared to other survivors of modern slavery who don’t receive the same long-term care and support.
Why they won a CSJ Award:
Snowdrop won an award because they have real ambition for the lives of the people they work with. For Snowdrop, this means that people must have continuity of support for as long as it is needed. This kind of support is not currently available to all victims of trafficking in the UK.
Snowdrop would like to teach others about the benefits of long-term support to prevent the postcode lottery of care that victims of trafficking currently receive. Winning this award will provide them with the opportunity to meet with policy makers and politicians who can drive forward the change that is desperately needed.
Watch Charlie Webster present the CSJ Award to The Snowdrop Project.
Watch the film we have made about The Snowdrop Project’s work.
CSJ Award winner: MCR Pathways
What they do:
MCR Pathways is a mentoring and talent development programme which supports young people in or on the edges of the care system in Scotland. Working within the school system, they seek to eliminate the education and life chances gap that exists between care-experienced young people and their peers.
Impact:
• MCR Pathways support 3,000 young people in or on the edges of the care system across 12 local authorities in Scotland.
• Of this cohort, 82% of mentored pupils left school for college, university or employment, compared with just 60% non-mentored peers.
Why they won a CSJ Award:
MCR Pathways shows that with the right support, pupils from care backgrounds can overcome instability and be empowered to reach their potential. Their model (which hands the programme over to the local authority at the end of five years) offers a viable, scalable and replicable model from which to achieve this.
As ownership passes from MCR to local authority hands, the programme becomes embedded in the system and part of business as usual. This is a rarity in the charity sector, and shows MCR’s desire for systemic change.
Watch Prue Leith CBE present the CSJ Award to MCR Pathways.
Watch the film we have made about MCR Pathways’ work.
CSJ Award winner: One25
What they do:
One25’s mission is to support women who engage in street sex work and all vulnerable women, to help them move from crisis and trauma towards independence in the community. They work in partnership with over 70 local agencies to get the right help at the right time for each woman they support. Almost every woman supported by One25 has experienced domestic or sexual violence, and most battle with addiction and homelessness.
Impact:
• In 2020 One25 supported 142 women through their casework programme.
• Of this cohort, 43 women escaped street sex work and 39 were prevented from entering street sex work.
Why they won a CSJ Award:
One25 are meeting the needs of the most marginalised women in the city of Bristol. It is clear that the service user’s voice is at the heart of everything they do which is very impressive. Their partnership work is outstanding and has meant that they can offer a coordinated response with healthcare services and the police.
One25 clearly demonstrate that with the right help, the most vulnerable and marginalised women can take control, address their deep-rooted trauma and live happier, healthier lives. Winning a CSJ award will help One25 to develop their partnerships across the city of Bristol and will help to generate public support for the women they work with.
Watch Sky Presenter, Sarah-Jane Mee present the CSJ Award to One25.
Watch the film we made about One25’s work.
The CSJ Awards 2022
Every year CSJ seeks out those small Charities and Social Enterprises who are proving themselves effective at preventing and tackling poverty in Britain. We will be starting the process to find next year’s winners very soon.
This is a great opportunity to engage with the CSJ – all those who apply have the opportunity to link in with the CSJ Alliance and have the prospect to help shape policy research and engage with projects and opportunities.
2022 Application Process:
Initial application – a short form requiring basic details about your organisation, with an opportunity to present a brief overview of your work and the individuals or community you work with.
Secondary application – a fuller form to be completed by shortlisted organisations.
Interview and visit – CSJ team members will visit finalists, allowing us to see you in action, meet staff and beneficiaries and gain a fuller understanding of your work.
Judging panel – Detailed information on finalists will be presented to an external judging panel made up of former winners, philanthropists, MPs, sector experts and media representatives.
Winners – Each category winner will receive £10,000. Their work will be showcased in front of hundreds of leading figures from across the country as well as being profiled through social and traditional media outlets.
Previous award winners have been profiled on primetime television, had their services endorsed by Government and have secured additional funding as a result of the exposure that the CSJ Awards gave them.
Look out for the launch of the 2022 CSJ Awards application forms at the end of June 2021.
Follow @CSJthinktank on twitter or email CSJAwards@centreforsocialjustice.org.uk to request an email alert.