CSJ Awards 2024

The CSJ Awards is an annual event to showcase, celebrate, and reward the very best grassroots charities and social enterprises from local communities throughout the UK.

These organisations have developed effective and innovative ways of addressing entrenched social issues, and work with some of the hardest to reach people in the UK. The CSJ Awards exist to ensure that those working to tackle poverty around the country are heard by decision makers in Westminster. Previous winners have helped to tackle modern slavery, rehabilitate ex-offenders, improve educational outcomes in deprived areas, and bring isolated older people back into the community.

The impact of winning a CSJ Award is long-lasting and helps these organisations to grow and widen the reach of their inspirational work. Previous winners have been profiled on prime-time television, had their services rolled out in every school across the country, and secured over half a million pounds in additional funding as a result of the exposure that the CSJ Awards gave them. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and philanthropists, each winner will receive a cash prize of £20,000 and their work showcased in front of an influential audience of politicians, philanthropists, journalists, celebrities, and policy makers. The platform we provide has been transformational for previous winners.

Please let us know if you feel you can help our Award winners. You can also help to raise the profile of their work by tweeting about the Awards using #CSJAwards.

The Winners

One-Eighty

New Beginnings Foundation

The Boathouse Youth

Clean Slate Solutions

How have the Award winners been chosen?

Every year, the CSJ team combs the country to identify the most outstanding, innovative, and effective organisations who fight poverty on the frontline. We look for charities that help the hardest to reach, inspire us with their impact, and have discovered ways of scaling their work beyond their own neighbourhood. On average, the CSJ team visit two Alliance charities everyday.

Over the last year the CSJ has supported 734 small charities right across the UK via our Foundation’s regional offices. This support has seen us link them into policy, introduce them to philanthropists, and help them on daily issues that affect them. Through this process, we’ve got to know them closely and entered them into the CSJ Awards.

The CSJ Foundation team conducted a process of application, which meant desk analysis, visits and much arguing – enabling us to whittle the very best down to 12. The job of our independent, esteemed team of judges, with a wealth of experience across a wide range of sectors, was to come to select the winners.

What do we award?

Every year, the CSJ team combs the country to identify the most outstanding, innovative, and effective organisations who fight poverty on the frontline. We look for charities that help the hardest to reach, inspire us with their impact, and have discovered ways of scaling their work beyond their own neighbourhood. A team of judges, with a wealth of experience across a wide range of sectors, come together to select the winners.

One-Eighty

one-eighty.org.uk

What they do

One-Eighty is a mental health and education-focused charity based in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Its mission is to help vulnerable children and young people (aged 4-18) improve their mental health and re-engage with their education, preventing exclusion from school and addressing complex mental health needs through evidence-based interventions and early intervention group activities.

Impact

Provided crucial support to over 2,000 children and adolescents who were at risk of exclusion from school.
85% receiving support have shown improved mental health outcomes and have successfully reintegrated into education.

Why they won a CSJ Award

The judges were very impressed with One-Eighty’s programme for individual intervention which is an 8-10-week intensive, psychologically focused one-to-one session for children with complex needs that are preventing school attendance. These sessions provide personalised support to address the specific challenges children are facing. Equally impressive is One-Eighty’s preventative mental health programs, which involve early intervention mental health group projects delivered in primary and secondary educational settings. The charity has a clear vision for the future and their evidence-based approach has lots of potential for growth and national rollout. With an externally validated Social Return on Investment study, their social value results speak for themselves – every £1 invested into One Eighty produces over £11 invested into the community.

Contact

Susie Besant: susie.besant@one-eighty.org.uk
Website: one-eighty.org.uk
One-Eighty, Unit 20, Kings Meadow, Ferry Hinksey Road, Oxford, OX2 0DP

Watch the One-Eighty Trailer

New Beginnings Foundation

nbfoundation.co.uk

What they do

The mission of New Beginnings is to keep children who are in the child protection system safe from harm by building meaningful relationships based on trust, respect, and honesty, with the goal of supporting parents to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma. They specialise in working with parents whose children are subject to the child protection process due to concerns of abuse and neglect, providing intensive support and advocating for their well-being.

Impact

Over 200 parents have benefited from their intensive 24-week program, which represents a 70% completion rate.
60% of the families report positive changes and improved well-being.
50% report a reduction in the sense of isolation and stigma from the families.
60% improvement in their parenting skills and their ability to provide a safe and nurturing environment for their children.

Why they won a CSJ Award

New Beginnings use innovative methods to help families. They focus on the parents of families in the care system, rather than just the children. They are highly regarded in their field and have developed bespoke services which often attract referrals from professional agencies who have grown to rely on their services – which bodes well for their plans to expand. This model could be replicated across other local councils and save a large number of children from entering the child protection system. The judges were impressed with their innovative approach and the passion and drive of the charity’s leadership team.

Contact

Dr Jadwiga Leigh
Website: nbfoundation.co.uk
Hillgate House, 429-31 Middle Hillgate, Stockport, SK1 3AY

Watch the New Beginnings Foundation Trailer

The Boathouse Youth

thebhy.co.uk

What they do

The mission of The Boathouse Youth is to ensure that thousands of young people across Blackpool and the Fylde Coast can participate in effective youth provision, delivered by experienced youth work professionals, in an accessible space close to their homes – at no cost. They aim to support young people in becoming the best version of themselves through increasing their personal capabilities, aspirations, and relationships with others.

Impact

The academic performance of BHY members notably improves, with students demonstrating a 30% increase in grades and engagement.
Behavioural incidents have decreased by 40%, fostering a more positive and inclusive environment.
The overall well-being and mental health of the young individuals involved have shown a 20% improvement.
Engaged 500 young people in its programs, with 70% of them reporting increased aspirations.

Why they won a CSJ Award

This charity genuinely puts young people at the front and centre of everything they do. The young people are involved in meetings with funders; they engage in conversations with commissioners; they participate in management and governance meetings; they are even on payroll as members of the youth leadership team! Boathouse offers studying opportunities for apprenticeship programmes, which is a brilliant way of engaging children in further educational opportunities. Boathouse’s ambition is focused completely on delivering more for their community and ensuring that the darker spots of youth provision in Blackpool and surrounding areas are filled with quality youth work.

Contact

Contact: Laurance Hancock
Website: thebhy.co.uk
Grange Park Youth Centre, Horsebridge Road, Blackpool, FY3 7EA

The Boathouse Youth

Clean Slate Solutions

cleanslatesolutions.org.uk

What they do

Clean Slate Solutions aim to create hope and aspirations for the future by facilitating long-term, well-paid, sustainable careers for people with past convictions. Through strategic partnerships with employers and tailored mentoring, the charity advocates for an inclusive job market and aims to reduce reoffending rates by fostering financial independence and changed lives.

Impact

Clean Slate prides itself on a 2.8 per cent reoffending rate, against national rates of 39 per cent.
Successfully placed and supported over 200 people into longterm sustainable work.
45 per cent of the employers they work with have changed recruitment policies to accommodate people with past convictions.

Why they won a CSJ Award

Attitude reflects leadership. Nowhere is this more evident than at Clean Slate Solutions. Its founder and CEO, Richard, has experienced what it is like trying to find work opportunities after coming out of prison. This drives the passion and ethos of the entire organisation, which is aiming to serve many ‘left behind’ people in society. Clean Slate Solutions will support every aspect of a person’s journey into meaningful work which not only provides financial stability, it also gives meaning and purpose. This charity helps people who would otherwise find themselves unemployed or unfulfilled. The CSJ Award judges were particularly impressed with the data collected by Clean Slate Solutions which demonstrates the impact they are having.

Contact

Richard Brice
Website: cleanslatesolutions.org.uk
The Trinity Centre, Market Square, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, TS3 6LD