celebrating the work of tsl kirklees community champions
a familiar face + a familiar place = great results!
Community Champions from 15 main delivery partners and 50+ smaller groups from across Kirklees were recently invited to a celebration event at Brian Jackson House in Huddersfield to thank them for all their hard work over the last couple of years.
The 91 Champions, who are aged between 18 and 65+, speak 19 different languages and represent lots of different communities, are trained to raise awareness of important health and welfare messages and help tackle health inequalities. They meet and chat to people anywhere and everywhere from supermarkets, to community centres, places of workship, schools, parks and activity clubs, encouraging and empowering them to make informed choices about things like cancer screening, vaccinations, stopping smoking, and help them understand their risk factors and how to manage long-term conditions, such as diabetes, asthma and cardio-vascular disease.
Project Lead, Steffi Rogers organised the event which included a buffet lunch from Full Circle Community Cafe, games and activities, and presentation of certificates to both organisations and individual Community Champions. She said: ‘All of our Champions are thoroughly lovely people, who are great at talking and have a real desire to help people and make a change. They’re trusted, compassionate, approachable with an amazing range of skills and lived experience, and it’s really important that we make sure they know just how special they are.’