Community group One Voice have announced the finalists for their annual 1V Community Champion Awards.

The One Voice Annual Dinner will celebrate the seventh anniversary of the organisation set up in 2011 and will take place on Friday, 22 February in the Windsor Suite, King George’s Hall.

The Dinner will feature the 1V Community Champion Awards, a keynote speech from Clive Grunshaw, Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner, One Voice presentations and will conclude with a three-course dinner.

The event will be hosted by 15-year-old student and West End Girls (WEGs) member and Witton Park Academy student Ayah Abdulsalam.

There are five awards up for grabs in February – the Woman of the Year, Man of the Year, Institute of the Year and Youth of the Year. The nominees for the said awards have been voted for by the public and are listed above. The Outstanding Achievement Award will be announced on the evening.

The nominees for the Institute of the Year, sponsored by The Wish Centre are the ARC Project, Better Bodies, Community Spirit and Switch.

The highly contested Woman of the Year award finalists, sponsored by hpa Solicitors are Janet Ross, Leanne Procter, Liz Crook and Saida Soge.

Saida Soge said, "I am honoured to be nominated for the 1V Woman of the Year Award. Thank you to those who nominated me. An enormous salute to all of this year's nominees, each of whom have made incredible contributions in the community."

Janet Ross shared how volunteering helped her after she retired. "I am thrilled to have been nominated. It is wonderful to think that people appreciate your volunteering efforts. It's the best thing I have done since I retired. Volunteering reduces isolation and depression in later life and can lead to lots of unexpected opportunities.”

Liz spoke of her delight of being a finalist. "I'm in shock! It's an absolute honour to be nominated."

Leanne said her love of her work makes it feel like it is not a job.

“I am honoured and humbled to be nominated for the One Voice Woman of The Year Award. I feel extremely lucky to be in the position of doing a job which I love and am passionate about. Working with such a variety of communities, faiths, backgrounds and cultures is a joy. I don’t actually go to work as I do what I love." 

The Man of the Year award finalists, sponsored by NHS Blood and Transplant are Abdul Rahman Ali, Phil Boulding, Sam Ali and Tariq Mahmood.

Abdul said, "I appreciate people nominating me for the work I do in the community. It is a great incentive to do further work for the community."

Asian Image:

Phil Boulding

Phil Boulding added, "I feel extremely honoured to have been nominated for One Voice's Man of the Year for Secret Santa."

Tariq shared his thoughts about being a Man of the Year finalist.

“This nomination is down to the hard work that all the volunteers do for the Keep Blackburn Tidy group. We try our very best to look after our community and I think that this has been recognised in this award nomination."

Sam articulated his sentiments about his nomination. “It’s a great honour to be nominated and to be acknowledged by the community for the work we do at SWITCH Youth Community Organisation. We are only 19 months old and still a baby, but we have worked extremely hard to offer support to young people in all communities in Blackburn from all backgrounds, races and religions and we aim to promote community cohesion and inspire the next generation.”

Asian Image:

Aliyah Shah

And finally, the Youth of the year award nominees, sponsored by Blackburn College are Aliyah Shah, Asad Khaliq, Aysha Khan and ten-year-old Nathan Pugh. 

Aliyah said, "I'm really excited to be nominated. It's such a privilege to be here with other amazing nominees." 

Aysha also expressed her thoughts about being a finalist.

"I feel honoured to be nominated for the Youth of the Year award. I'm hoping with this award I can pave the way for the future generation to be able to go for their dreams and not stop until they achieve what they want."

Nathan, who is the youngest finalist this year, said,"I want to thank all the people who nominated me. I am honoured people have acknowledged my hard work which I enjoy doing as I like to make people feel happy where they live."

Abrar Hussain, Chairman of One Voice, said, “We expect it to be another awe-inspiring celebration of community work. The awards are a great way to recognise the time and effort individuals and groups put into helping improve their local areas. 

“The Annual Dinner also gives us an opportunity to showcase some of the work that we have completed and we will be providing the audience a preview of the projects that we will be working on throughout 2019.”