Winners 2024 #LoveSouthTyneside Award winners

The annual #LoveSouthTyneside Awards recognise and celebrate civic pride and community spirit across the Borough.

Awards were handed out to winners across ten categories in a glittering awards ceremony, which was held at The Customs House on Thursday 11 July 2024.

Supporting Others

This category celebrates special people who volunteer their time to support other people, particularly in their time of need.

Winner - One For All

Winner, One For All, presented with their award

About the winner - One For All

Based in Laygate, One for All provide a weekly drop-in at Living Waters Church, providing hot meals free of charge to the homeless. One for All also help those suffering from drug and alcohol addiction. They also provide essential items such as toiletries and fresh clothes, as well as connecting people to support. One for All were nominated several times, and the judges were blown away when they heard about the work of the volunteers here in South Shields.

About the sponsor - Banks Group

Environment

This category recognises those who volunteer their time to improve the environment in South Tyneside.

Winner - Friends of Readhead Park

Winner, Friends of Readhead Park, collecting their award

About the winner - Friends of Readhead Park

Since 2019, the park volunteers have made the Park beautiful, recently winning a Green Flag. They’ve created a picnic area and rose gardens as well as environmentally friendly areas with a wildlife pond, hedgehog and insect houses, bird feeding stations and over 30 bird boxes in collaboration with local schools. Their work has made a massive improvement to the environment for the benefit of the local community.

About the sponsor - Pentagon Assurance

Pentagon Assurance is a North East business, with offices in South Shields. The Pentagon team support local businesses in the Engineering, Manufacturing, Energy and Construction Industries. They support the Industry to achieve Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental standards. A great sponsor for our Environment Award.

Above and Beyond

This category celebrates those who bring something extra special to their 'day job' that is recognised and valued by customers or colleagues.

Winner - Elizabeth Sunduzwayo

Winner, Elizabeth Sunduzwayo, collecting their award

About the winner - Elizabeth Sunduzwayo

New Hope was set up in 2016 to promote social inclusion for disabled children from different backgrounds and ethnicities. The judges wanted us to celebrate Elizabeth’s role in creating a place where all children are loved, valued, safeguarded, and treated equally with dignity regardless of their disability. Elizabeth plays a key role in helping them thrive in a safe world free from segregation, marginalisation, deprivation, and social exclusion.

About the sponsor - Key Subject Tuition

Key Subject Tuition are a South Tyneside based business who offer support to those who need additional help with Maths and English. Their lessons are tailored and differentiated to suit individual needs. They help develop students’ confidence and support progress so that their students can achieve above and beyond. It’s great to have them on board to sponsor our Above and Beyond category.

Business Supporting the Community

This category recognises a business, which includes sole traders, social enterprises, community interest companies and SMEs, that play a part in South Tyneside life. This could be through structured programmes such as volunteer days for employees, to ad-hoc activity, including fundraising, donations of equipment or skills – or anything that constitutes corporate social responsibility. This category is for businesses only. Nominations made for registered charities were considered within the other Award categories.

Winner - Siobhan Duggan of Station Boutique

Winner, Siobhan Duggan of Station Boutique, collecting their award

About the winner - Siobhan Duggan

Siobhan has worked tirelessly to set up a business partnership group that has tackled some of the many issues in Hebburn shopping centre, including anti-social behaviour. Siobhan has worked with voluntary groups to brighten the town for the Hebburn Pride event, celebrating equality, inclusivity, diversity and belonging. Siobhan is a Hebburn Lass, passionate about her hometown and wants to invest and make Hebburn a great place to have events in the community where families and visitors can enjoy and invest in the town.

About the sponsor - TEDCO

Inspiring Talent

This category celebrates those who voluntarily share their talent or teach new skills to others, through sport, art, music or culture.

Winner - Joseph Larkin

Winner, Joseph Larkin, collecting their award

About the winner - Joseph Larkin

The judges received several nominations for Joseph of “Believe to Run”, including, “I'm nominating Joseph as he's been doing so much for charity, continuously raising funds by doing some mind-blowing challenges. Last year he ran 150 miles in 3 days all for mental health charities. Now in a couple weeks he's running from South Shields to Paris over 11 days all for mental health charities. He's well known down the sea front for his business called, “believe to run” and is always joining up with other local companies, creating events for the community and keeping everyone active”.

About the sponsor - Superior Recruitment Group

Heart of the Community

This special award celebrates those with big hearts who have laid foundations or led initiatives that have seen community organisations grow and flourish over a number of years.

Winner - Nicola Robertson

Winner, Nicola Robertson, collecting their award

About the winner - Nicola Robertson

Following the loss of her 22-year-old son Tyler to suicide, Nicola established the suicide support group SAFFE - Suicide Affects Family and Friends Everywhere. This group provided a valuable lifeline in the area of Hebburn, and the group now meets weekly. The community connection, understanding and acceptance that comes from the group is incredible. It has literally provided a lifeline for isolated families. Sadly, South Tyneside has high suicide rates. There is a great need in the local community and Nicola has responded to that need with her time, effort, and generosity of spirit. She is literally the heart of this vital support network that has improved the wellbeing of a highly vulnerable group. She is described simply as amazing.

About the sponsor - Newcastle Building Society

Newcastle Building Society has been at the heart of South Tyneside for many years. With a branch located at the Denmark Centre in South Shields, they offer local residents a variety of mortgage and savings products, along with face-to-face financial advice from Newcastle Financial Advisers Limited. It’s great to have this stalwart of the community sponsoring our Heart of the Community.

Team of the Year

This award recognises those teams who work together as a whole to make a difference and make South Tyneside a better place.

Winner - Billy’s Lifeline

Winner, Billy’s Lifeline, collecting their award

About the winner - Billy’s Lifeline

The judges received several nominations, all of which noted the incredible support of the team, including the following very poignant nomination… “Billy’s lifeline has helped my family no end, supporting us with the loss of a young family member to suicide. We cannot thank them enough for their kindness and compassion at this difficult time. They are a (sadly) much needed service and I feel they deserve utmost recognition for this and that is why I’m nominating them in these awards.”

About the sponsor - Total Resources UK

Total Resources UK are a South Tyneside company with exceptional depth of experience in the highways industry. They support customers with site inspections, design, construction and delivery across all aspects of traffic management, road resurfacing and event management. They are very much a company based on Team Work, employing local people into local jobs.

Uniformed Services

This category recognises an individual or a team who plays a part in our uniformed services including armed forces, blue light and rescue, prison and probation, cadets and reservists.

Nominations could include those who volunteer with the services, as well as paid employees, and children and young people who participate in cadet programmes.

Judges were looking for examples of exceptional performance including actions which make a difference to individuals or our community as a whole.

Winner - NAAFI Break

Winner, NAAFI Break, collecting their award

About the winner - NAAFI Break

NAAFI Break are a fantastic organisation which covers the entire armed forces community in South Tyneside. They are all volunteers and do so much work outside of the 4 hours that the drop-ins are on. They are very responsive to queries, and nothing is ever to much for them. They go above and beyond for the community” … and … “As an ex-service person myself, I nominate NAAFI Break who are exceptional. The work and support they provide is truly inspirational. Nothing is too complicated for this group of people. They unite and maintain a strong bond for the ex-service community and their families.

About the sponsor - Kelly's Wharf - Hebburn Riverside

Kelly’s Wharf is a fantastic new landscaped riverside community of high quality modern living and public spaces in Hebburn.

#LoveSouthTyneside Award

This category celebrates passionate people who work tirelessly to create opportunities, events and activities that inspire, promote pride in their area and involve people from all walks of life.

Winner - Friends of Hebburn Cemetery

Winner, Friends of Hebburn Cemetery, collecting their award

About the winner - Friends of Hebburn Cemetery

Friends of Hebburn Cemetery was formed in 2017 after the cemetery was vandalised. They fundraised and had CCTV installed to prevent further vandalism. A tearoom was set up and that is open every day of the year. They have art sessions with Cultural Spring and work on projects for the South Tyneside Festival. The children of Nurserytime, Hebburn go and volunteer and also many teenagers volunteer for their Duke of Edinburgh Award. A beautiful display is put out for Remembrance Sunday, with volunteers working all year towards this, as well as a beautiful Christmas display and memory tree. Free flowers are given out on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas Day. The group operates 365 days a year, never taking a break.

About the sponsor - Equinor

Judges' Special Award

This award is chosen from among all the nominees and presented by The Mayor.

Winner - WHiST

Winner, WHiST, receiving their award from the Mayor of South Tyneside, Cllr Fay Cunningham

Our Judging Panel read 367 nominations and agreed that one of those nominated had something special that just could not be left unnoticed.

They want to bring on stage an organisation who has been going for almost 40 years. This group was set up by local women volunteers who saw a need for support and decided they would plug that gap.

Today, they support over 250 women every week, helping them become more independent, more empowered and confident about making decisions for their own health and the health and wellbeing of their families.

Volunteers are the backbone of their work, which helps women aged over 16 who live in South Tyneside, irrespective of age, class, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability.