Selsey charity gets first King's Award for voluntary service in West Sussex

Beacon Church, Selsey was the venue for the presentation of the Kings Award for Voluntary Service to Selsey Community Forum on Monday.

The venue was packed out with Volunteers, Staff, Partners and representatives from the community of those the Selsey Community Forum supports.

Jo Hughes, Manager of the Care Shop, received the Award on behalf of the volunteers, staff & partners of Selsey Community Forum.

During the ceremony, a presentation was also made to Sue White, who is retiring after 19 years of work supporting carers and those being cared for in the Selsey community. Another presentation was also made to Shelby Pavlou, who joined the staff in September 2021 as a ‘Kickstart’ placement.

Mike Nichols, chair of the Selsey Community Forum said: “The hall was packed with people, we were very grateful that so many people came. The award is very much for the people of Selsey because the Community Forum works in partnership with so many different people in the town, it was lovely to celebrate together.

“The whole thing was conducted in a friendly and dignified manner, which was very appropriate and we really appreciated that. We’re delighted, this was the first occasion they had handed out a King’s Award in West Sussex, so we felt very privileged to be in that position.

“We're always immensely grateful for these sorts of occasions when the work of volunteers can be acknowledged because their can be very routine at times, doing same thing week in and week out very faithfully, with great compassion and skill.

“It’s really an affirmation of what they do and the sort of culture that they have. We're very delighted that this happened. It's been really encouraging for us.”