Inspired communication

news release

For immediate use: 9 June 2004

Inspired communication

Craig Adams from Lisburn suffered brain damage in a car accident at the age of 14. Seven years later he is one of a team that has picked up the prize as an overall winner in the SCOPE Communication awards.

After the accident, he did re-training at Balmoral with the Cedar Foundation. There he volunteered with three other disabled young people to write and produce a magazine called Branching Out to tell their stories.

He believes the accident had a positive outcome: “The worst day in my life has given me the chance to help family, friends and strangers. However, my outlook on life should have been this way from the start. The world would be a better place if people were prepared to help others instead of being selfish.”

The magazine won first prize in the category for publications by people under the age of 21 and also took the overall award for small organisations.

“It is absolutely brilliant that they have been recognised,” said Marian Bryson, Volunteer Co-ordinator at the Cedar Foundation in Ballymena. “They wanted to inspire other young people with disabilities.”

The other young people involved in Branching Out are Claire McCambley from Bangor, whose parents Derek and Lyn, received the trophy on their behalf. The other two are Jacqueline King from Ballymena and Holly McClean from Newtownards.

The SCOPE Communication Awards are awarded annually to promote good communication in print, audio, visual and electronic formats.

This year the overall winner in the large organisation category was Wheelworks, which also came first in two of the 11 categories for its audio visual materials and My Space project, which gave young members of ethnic minorities an opportunity to express themselves through photography, image and text.

Simon Community also won two categories, for best promotional concept and display advertising. The other winners were:

• Shankill Sure Start, best magazine/newsletter
• Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, best annual report
• NIACAB’s Minimum Wage Campaign for best information leaflet
• Ulster Cancer Foundation’s Smokebusters Teacher Pack, best training materials
• Disability Action’s A-Z guide for people with disabilities, large print/audio
• NUS/USI, best website.

Notes

The enclosed photograph from Pacemaker Press International shows Derek and Lyn McCambley, parents of Claire, receiving the trophy from Julian Simmons UTV on behalf of the four young people involved in Branching Out.

SCOPE is an independent social policy magazine which stimulates discussion of issues like poverty, equality, the environment, health, education and the funding and management of the voluntary and community sector. It is published monthly by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary action.

For further information please contact Paul McGill, editor of SCOPE at NICVA, tel: 028 9087 7777, mobile: 0772 7916 805 or email:paul.mcgill@nicva.org.

NICVA
1 Duncairn Gardens Belfast BT15 2GB.