ACS

After a record vote and some stiff competition, our congratulations go to Val Newman of Tamar View Community Co-op, Plymouth. Val was presented with her £1000 prize at the ACS Summit Gala Dinner.

Following successful fundraising projects for a local youth football team Val worked with her Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) to set up, fund and establish a non-contact youth boxing club for under privileged youths in the community. This involved raising funds for equipment, training boxing coaches, finding suitable venues and encouraging local youths to take part. The club now runs two evenings per week and has 45 members. In addition, many of the youths in the area came from under privileged backgrounds and had little motivation, support or options to take part in sport or other activities. Despite the store being created as a community service it had serious anti-social behaviour issues with local youths and was a high risk store in terms of theft, criminal damage and abuse against staff.

The project has seen crime and anti-social behaviour statistics in the store reduced by 50% when comparing the six months before the project to the six months afterwards. Store management and staff have formed relationships with the local youths who they previously viewed as an unwelcome menace.

Val has been store manager since the shop opened in November 2005.

On winning the award Val said: “I live and work in a deprived area and instead of fighting against people I’m working with them. The boxing club has made a big difference to the crime rate as the local boys now have something to do and they have even built up a rapport with the police. It has been very rewarding and changed me as a person and I now see their situations from a different perspective. I am delighted to have won the Community Heroes Award, it means a lot to me and will mean a lot to everyone in the Tamar View community.”

ACS Chief Executive, James Lowman said: “All three entries were fantastic examples of how local shops can be a major part of communities. Val’s efforts prove that investing in the local community brings a wealth of benefits to both store and residents. Val is a deserving winner.

“Our thanks go to the other finalists, Richard and Win Morgan of Morgan’s Newsagents & Post Office, Llangadog, and Guy Warner of Warner’s Budgens. All three exceeded the high benchmark set last year. We would also like to thank all those who entered.”

Contacts:

Nina Collins Communications Coordinator
01252 515001

Notes to Editors:

1. ACS (Association of Convenience Stores) is the voice of local shops, representing over 33,000 convenience stores. ACS helps local shops thrive through lobbying, support and networking opportunities.
2. The Community Heroes Award is open to any ACS member running a convenience store. The standard of entries is extremely high, those that go through to become finalists are involved not just in raising money for charity, but also in actively shaping their community and making positive changes that benefit local residents and trade alike, through lobbying local councils on relevant issues to getting involved in events and funding initiatives. We look forward to hearing from more outstanding and innovative retailers for the Community Heroes Award 2010.
3. This year we saw record number of votes both online and by post.