A charity that supports and trains young people to resolve conflicts among their peers involved in gangs and violence has been crowned overall winner of the Charity Awards 2009.
Leap Confronting Conflict received the top honour from Angela Smith, the newly-installed charities minister, and John Low, chief executive of joint overall sponsor Charities Aid Foundation, at a glittering black-tie gala dinner in London last night.
The charity received rapturous applause from almost 800 of the charity world’s most senior figures.
Since 1991, Leap Confronting Conflict (pictured) has assisted hundreds of young volunteers around the UK to mentor fellow youngsters in their communities through its PeerLink project.
The project began when Leap noticed a small number of young people were involved in conflict resolution in pockets across the country, but found they were largely isolated and that the work was poorly supported locally.
In 2000 the charity created the Young Mediators Network, which quickly grew to 300 members and led to the development of the larger PeerLink project.
The project tries to be youth-led as much as possible and delivers ongoing support and training to young volunteers in schools and communities. Now there is a network of over 1,300 young people dedicated to preventing or reducing conflict in the lives of their peers.
A steering group of around 30 to 40 young people across three regions meet regularly to review the project and plan events around the country. In 2008 they gave over 4,000 hours of voluntary time, including the delivery and planning of national events such as conferences, residential events and the PeerLink awards, a recognition of the mentors.
PeerLink also provides learning resources to schools and youth centres. Over the last few years the charity has attracted recognition or support from Ofsted, New Philanthropy Capital, Investors in People, Impetus Trust and the Big Lottery Fund. In 2008 it submitted a new three-year plan to the Department for Children, Schools and Families to replicate and roll out its most successful projects, and was awarded Pathfinder status and £3.3m to do so.
Accepting the award for winning the children and youth category, Leap’s chief executive, Jennifer Rogers, said: "We are incredibly proud to accept this on behalf of the thousands of young people who are preventing conflict in communities every day throughout the UK. This is for them."
When the charity won the overall award, its chair Patrick Dunne said: "If you all knew what these young people have done, you would have tremendous confidence in the future."
• For more about the 2009 winners, click here
