Selsey Community Forum receive King's Award for Voluntary Service

Selsey Community Forum has received the King's Award for Voluntary Service for their 13 years of work. The award is the highest honour a volunteer service can be given and equivalent of an MBE.

The Selsey Community Forum is a partnership of a range of local voluntary organisations. They cooperate with a range of sectors to identify and meet local needs. Over the past ten years, the forum has been involved with partners in starting and sustaining over one hundred new activities and organisations.

The Selsey Community Forum have an array of services to aid and look after every member of their community.Their Selsey Care Shop is a one-stop-shop in the High Street for access to the other services provided the Community Forum.

Selsey Befriending activities service has the goal of getting isolated and lonely members of the community involved and part of the goings-on in the town.They provide a good morning call too. It’s a daily phone call with a friendly volunteer to those living in the Manhood Peninsula who are vulnerable or housebound for any reason.

Selsey carers support aids unpaid carers with key advice opportunities for social contact. The forum is further able to provide counselling, mediation, mentoring and low-level mental health support as well.

There’s a Selsey Buddy Support programme, which sees volunteers throughout the community looking out for their neighbours, Selsey money support to provide debt advice and Money Management courses.

Selsey Dementia Action Alliance aims to make Selsey a truly dementia-friendly community, aiding those living with it. Grow Selsey is an inter-generational, gardening and environmental project with people having the benefit of spending time outdoors.

The Community Information service provides information about Selsey to residents and visitors and maintains a Community Diary. The community forum has a Selsey Employment Service which provides help and advice to local people seeking employment for the first time or later in life.

Finally, their newest service Robins is up and running. Robins will provide a visitor to a person at the EOL to support the emotional needs of a Robins service user.They can read, chat, look at photos, and help with video calls to families far away.

Mike Nichols is the Chairman of The Selsey Forum since it began and spoke about how they found out that they received the award. He said: “It came in on our central email and was an announcement from the Kings Award voluntary service email.

“They let us know what had happened and we were all very pleased and really delighted. We had an interview back in January in contention for an award. We've waited for nine months to find out whether we were successful. It was a real treat to have that and a real sense of appreciation and honour.”

They’ve worked with over 200 volunteers and regularly support over 1500 people in their Selsey community. The amount of support activities, groups and monthly newsletter help to keep the community connected.