Wrexham Award for Excellence/ Kite-Marking Scheme

What is the Wrexham Award for Excellence?

The Wrexham Award for Excellence is a kite-mark award scheme developed by AVOW on behalf of the Wrexham Children and Young People’s Framework Partnership.

The Framework Partnership brings together a range of partners from a variety of different agencies all of which are united in their determination to improve outcomes for young people (For more information on the Wrexham Children and Young People’s Framework Partnership please go see ‘The Voluntary Organisations Section’).

Many organisations and providers already look for ways to include service users in the decision-making and shaping of the provision they offer. The award scheme will highlight and complement this by supporting organisations in assessing how they actively encourage and involve young people in the design, delivery and evaluation of the service.

The Wrexham Award for Excellence will provide a means by which support services can have the quality of their work recognised, celebrated and awarded and will make Wrexham shine in terms of the quality of Youth Service being delivered to young people.

Why do we need it?

The purpose of the award scheme is to:

· Recognise and celebrate good practice.

· Encourage organisations to review, reflect and develop their existing practice.

· Raise the quality of services for young people in Wrexham County Borough.

The award scheme will enable young people, other organisations - both statutory and voluntary - and also potential funders to recognise your organisation as one committed to young people, continuous improvement and partnership. It will provide an independent assessment of the quality of your services and will demonstrate to everyone that you provide a well-managed service for young people.

What's happened so far?

To date, nine organisations involved in the initial pilot stage of stage of the scheme have successfully completed the handbook and so have achieved the Wrexham Award for Excellence: ; Atlas-Wrexham District Explorer Scout Unit, Berwyn Air Cadets, Bitesize Youth Theatre, Caia Park Partnership Youth Team, Dynamic- Centre for Children and Young People with Disabilities, Erddig Youth Club, Homestart, Inspire Youth Work in Hospital Project and Llay Youth Club.

In February 2010, the first Wrexham Award for Excellence Celebration Event was held to acknowledge and award these organisations and to launch the roll out of the scheme to other youth services and the wider networks. The event was attended by young people, staff, volunteers and trustees from a variety of organisations and groups around Wrexham County Borough. The awards were presented to each of the groups by the Deputy Mayor of Wrexham- Councillor Jim Kelly, WCBC Chief Prevention and Inclusion Officer- Claire Field and Chief Officer of AVOW- John Gallanders. Photographs from the Celebration Event can be viewed by following the link's at the bottom of this page.

The Wrexham Award for Excellence is soon to be rolled out further to other organisations within Wrexham County Borough. If you would like to be involved with this please see below...

How do I get involved?

The Wrexham Award for Excellence is aimed at organisations providing a Youth Support Service, for young people aged 11-25 years. Organisations can apply regardless of size, capacity, resources or whether they are statutory or voluntary.

From the moment an organisation expresses an interest in applying, to the moment they are accredited with the Wrexham Award for Excellence, they will receive as much or as little support and guidance as they feel necessary.

If you would like more information or to apply for the Wrexham Award for Excellence please contact:

Jenny Jones

Children and Young People’s Research Officer

AVOW

21 Egerton Street

Wrexham

LL11 1ND

01978 350123 or jenny.jones@avow.org