Sova Shortlisted for Prestigious Charity Award

Sova is delighted to have been shortlisted for recognition in the Civil Society Media's 15th Annual Charity Awards.  Sova is just one of three organisations competing for the Advice, Support and Advocacy category in an annual event held to “identify, recognise and reward those organisations doing exceptional work in all areas of charitable activity”.

Applications will be judged against 10 ‘Hallmarks of Excellence’ by an expert panel of Third Sector veterans including Charities Aid Foundation’s Chief Executive John Low CBE and Chief Executive of Mind Paul Farmer.  A winner is chosen in each of ten categories and there is an additional award for the overall winner from across all categories.

Sova Chief Operating Officer Sophie Wilson and Sova National Quality and Participation Manager Chris Black will attend the award ceremony in London on 12th June.

The glittering gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel will be hosted by Comedian Stephen Frost.
Sophie explained many of Sova's projects provide client-focused mentoring to adults and young people by recruiting and training volunteer mentors from the local community to work with participants.  "Sova's commitment to providing excellent, passionate, skilled mentors is at the heart of many of our projects across England and Wales. Our aim is to reduce offending by enabling people to re-engage and achieve within mainstream society," she said.

"Making the shortlist for this award is great recognition of the valuable work we are doing," she added.
Sova will this month feature in the Charity Finance magazine alongside other shortlisted finalists.
 
Recognition of Sova's use of mentors in the criminal justice system comes hot on the heels of the release of the report "Meaningful Mentoring", which discusses the importance of mentoring relationships in the resettlement of offenders into the community.

The report, created by Jonathan Aitken for the Centre for Social Justice,  also emphasises the need for high quality mentors and mentoring organisations as well as the value of personal, human mentoring relationships. It stresses that “mentoring is not a box-ticking exercise. It is a human engagement of trust, encouragement, guidance and hope.”