At the Regional meeting on Saturday 4th July the Club was chosen as the recipient of the Barbara Dixon Award.
Members were delighted and passed their thanks to Marian Wade, PAC Officer, who had been instrumental in delivering the County Lines Project, in Crewe, from conception to completion.
The Barbara Dixon Award is the result of a process to identify the best project currently in progress in the SI Cheshire, North Wales and the Wirral Region.
The aim is to recognise, showcase and share good practice by Soroptimist Groups.
The successful project has the potential to be put forward at UK SIGBI national conference.
The Project is:
Networking Support for vulnerable key stage 2 children
A County Lines Project to facilitate a multi-agency approach to prevent keystage 2 school children being entrapped into County Lines gangs.
The aim is to bring Authorities, charities and support organisations together to this common goal.
As a local Soroptimist club we have for many years undertaken projects to raise awareness of Modern Day Slavery in Crewe and Nantwich. From 2023 our attention was drawn to the fact that children, especially boys, were being groomed to become runners from the age of eleven.
Talking with local stakeholders it was felt that a meeting of Local Authorities and voluntary organisations about this issue would be useful and allow all those attending to network and support each other to protect these children.