Ardrossan centre up for top charity award gong

But the Scottish Centre for Personal Safety needs your votes to help secure the prestigious gong.

Run annually by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the Scottish Charity Awards celebrate the best of Scotland’s voluntary sector.

The Scottish Centre for Personal Safety (ScotCPS) has been recognised as a finalist in the ‘Charity of the Year’ category and are encouraging those in North Ayrshire, particularly those in the Three Towns of Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston, to vote for them.

Alan Bell, founder of ScotCPS commented: “We are absolutely delighted to be shortlisted to the final of Scotland’s biggest charity recognition awards - The Scottish Charity Awards.

“Having won the ‘Pioneering Project’ category in 2018 for our confidence-building Personal Safety course for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired, we are overwhelmed to be back in the final - this time for the ‘Charity of the Year’ award recognising our work with female survivors of violence; children and youths; sensory impaired people; LGBT and ethnic minority groups.

“We are truly honoured and hope locals get behind us and vote for us to win the ‘People’s Choice Award’. Let’s show the rest of Scotland how much North Ayrshire supports local charities.”

For ScotCPS, reaching the final of The Scottish Charity Awards comes hot on the heels of beating 64,000 nominees to reach the final of The National Diversity Awards and being awarded the highest accolade, the equivalent of an MBE for volunteer groups, The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

While a judging panel will determine the winners under eight distinct categories, members of the public can have their say by voting for the People’s Choice Award – by visiting scvo.org.uk/vote - before 5pm on Friday 4 September 2020.

The full list of finalists can be found on the SCA website. Due to the impact of coronavirus, this year the awards will run a little differently. Winners will be announced on September 25.