Team Up Celebration Event

On Tuesday 16 May, London's Team Up volunteering programme celebrated a successful year of partnership with community organisations, and received accolades from HEE Chair Sir Keith Pearson and Chair of the HEE LaSE region, Dame Christine Beasley.

Volunteers and partner organisations met to review the year’s achievements and recognise the teams that had made the greatest contributions to sustainable health legacies and engagement with staff and service users. The award for the overall best project went to Yarrow, which works with people with learning disabilities and acquired brain injury. The volunteers produced a training course to improve communication between healthcare professionals and people with learning disabilities. The judging panel noted the team’s imaginative engagement with multi-professional staff and service users, and the strong legacy they left. The project team learnt from the experience, with one participant stating “I honestly believe this project has changed the lives of the service users and ourselves forever.”

Other award winners were:

• Look Ahead who won the sustainable legacy award for their project ‘Food, Movement and Mood, a tool to help customers develop knowledge and skills around healthier lifestyle choices’;
• KEEN London, whose project ‘Tool to measure outcomes for KEEN London athletes’, won the award for best health impact on service users and families; and
• Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers whose project ‘Sexual Health Workshops for Young Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ won the award for best engagement of staff and service users.

Team Up is Health Education England’s London-wide volunteering programme, partnering trainee healthcare professionals with community organisations. Together they deliver sustainable health and wellbeing projects for disadvantaged communities.