Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

We are very proud to announce that Sight Concern Bedfordshire have been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.We have a small team of paid staff currently based in Luton and Bedford and rely heavily upon a dedicated team of over one hundred and fifty volunteers to deliver our services.

There is no requirement to be registered as sight impaired or to meet any other eligibility criteria for our assistance. We run over 20 different services including an award winning Low Vision Service in Bedford and Luton that has been running since 2001. Each year we reach out and have contact with over 3,000 visually impaired people in Bedfordshire and Luton.

Joanna Clark and Mark Chapman from Sight Concern Bedfordshire attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace on 19th May where they met the Queen and other winners of this year’s award.

Sight Concern Bedfordshire is one of 193 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. The number of awards given to groups this year is slightly higher than last year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to tackle community challenges.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to local volunteer groups across the UK to recognise outstanding work in their communities. The awards were created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and winners are announced each year on 2 June – the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.  

Award winners this year range from a War Memorial Community Trust, providing social facilities for the benefit of the community in Clwyd, Wales, to a club enhancing the community by developing individuals through athletics, in Ayrshire and Arran, Scotland.

Sight Concern Bedfordshire will receive the award from the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire later this summer.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service Committee Chair, former broadcast journalist Sir Martyn Lewis said:

“I warmly congratulate all of the inspirational voluntary groups who have been rewarded for their community work with a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. The judging panel for this year’s awards were struck by the quality and breadth of all the successful groups.

The thousands of volunteers who give up spare time to help others in their community and to help solve problems demonstrate the very best of democracy in action.”

Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, said:

“I would like to congratulate all groups who received this year’s Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, in recognition of their fantastic achievements. The huge amount of work and commitment these organisations put into their local communities is surpassed only by the passion and motivation of the individuals who volunteer. I hope these groups continue to inspire others to get involved and make a positive impact so that we can continue to build a more compassionate society.”

Nick Gibson the Chief Executive Officer of Sight Concern Bedfordshire said:

‘We are very honoured and proud to receive the Queens Award for Voluntary Services, as a local independent charity supporting some of the most vulnerable people within our community we rely on our volunteers in all aspects of the work we do. At this time more people than ever are in need of our support and the more volunteers we have, the more vulnerable people with sight loss we can reach within our community’.