Northumbria Students’ Union reap national reward

Northumbria Students’ Union at Northumbria University, Newcastle have received national recognition for their student-led environmental volunteering programme, Eco NSU.

The programme was crowned winner of the Environmental Category at the highly prestigious National Council for Voluntary Youth Services , Young Partners Awards held in London on Saturday.

The NCVYS Young Partners Award (YPA) celebrates voluntary and community organisations that show an outstanding commitment to youth participation and involving young people in all aspects of their decision-making processes.

Eco NSU’s fully student-led model and active range of diverse environmental projects scooped the award amongst stiff competition, being shortlisted alongside two national charities People & Planet and the UK Youth Climate Coalition.

Eco NSU volunteers organise and take part environmental projects they are passion about, including helping out in local sustainable farms, organising recycled ‘vintage’ fashion shows, and local Garden Makeovers.

Students are encouraged to start their own bespoke projects or volunteer on existing eco projects, with the volunteer student-run Eco NSU leadership committee providing support, funding and training in partnership with a dedicated member of staff.

Sarah Price, NSU Vice-President of Activities and Development, heads Eco NSU’s leadership committee. She said: “I feel very privileged to lead such an amazing project, and to get national recognition is just amazing. The award ceremony was a great way to celebrate the students’ hard work, and really made them recognise the significance of their volunteering on a national level.”

One current project, called Living Off the Land, promotes local produce and supports eco organisations in the North East such as Rising Sun Farm in Wallsend. Beach Clean is another on-going project which sees students go out in all weathers to clean our regions beaches and protect marine life. More projects include an upcoming Food Coop and Student Allotment providing students and the community access to healthy, ethical wholefoods.

Sponsored by BIG Lottery and Participation Works, the NCVYS Young Partners Award is a celebration of young people and adults working together to make decisions.

NSU President Natalie-Dawn Hodgson said: “Huge congratulations to our Eco NSU volunteers on winning this award, it is great to see our volunteers have been nationally recognised for all their hard work.”

Date posted: October 24, 2013