News: National FE award win for our community outreach efforts!

Good for ME Good for FE (GFMGFFE) was launched in 2021 with the aim of generating 1m in social value. The total has now reached a whopping 4.2m social value, involving over 140 colleges and has achieved £268,000 through fundraising.

This is GFMGFFE’s first annual awards ceremony, an event which celebrates the remarkable achievements of our FE community and recognises the contributions from both staff and students who go the extra mile to support their communities and beyond. 

We joined hundreds of FE institutions from across the UK to submit our award entries, which were then shortlisted by a panel of expert judges, including FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave, David Hughes from the AoC, Dame Sally Dicketts, Lesley Davies from the Chartered Institute for Education, and Danny Donovan from NSPCC.

The Social Impact category was awarded to us for an incredible student social action project, led by Personal Development Tutor Deborah Ball, who with the support of a group of Hair and Beauty students, helped to increase awareness around knife crime, raising more than £1,500 to purchase six portable anti-bleed kits. These important pieces of kit are now situated at each of our sites and could potentially save lives.

Award judges said the students demonstrated ​“fantastic leadership, community engagement and responsive citizenship”.

College Volunteer of the Year recognises our college-wide efforts and impact on the community. We were in the top 20 colleges for volunteering hours in 2022/23 (GFMGFFE data submissions), demonstrating our intent to deliver impactful social change. Through our activities, we have:

• Raised £8,692 (£4,258 from students and £4,434 from staff)
• Delivered over 2,050 staff volunteering hours and 40 student social impact projects (above and beyond timetabled hours)
• Delivered financial donations to 27 local charities
• Collated and distributed hundreds of food items, clothes and books to those most in need