Alumnus wins at the 2013 Charity Awards
As Chief Executive of the Jewish Lads' & Girls' Brigade (JLGB), alumnus Neil Martin was delighted when they won the Children and Youth category at the prestigious annual Charity Awards.
The award was for the JLGB's work helping to remove barriers to young people of faith becoming involved in the government's national volunteering scheme 'National Citizen Service' (NCS). The initiative brought together 90 young people from seven different faiths and cultural backgrounds, with impressive results. Before the programme less than 25% of participants said they had more than ten friends of different faiths, but afterwards 92% said they had well over ten friends of different faiths.
Neil was thrilled with the award win, saying: 'We are honoured that the JLGB has won the 2013 Charity Awards for our interfaith NCS project. We hope this will help to highlight and create greater understanding for the need of targeted services to ensure young people of faith and cultural backgrounds can access everyday activity that many take for granted. Almost two years in the making, our dream to create a multi/interfaith National Citizen Service provision became a reality!'
Neil achieved both his BSc(Hons) in Software Systems for the Arts and Media and his MA in Digital Practice at the University, graduating in 2001 and 2002 respectively. He also worked at Herts for two years as a lecturer teaching on the SSAM course, as well as other digital media, image, music and sound courses, and has been Chief Executive of the JLGB since 2005.
Neil credits his degrees with providing him with the ideas and tools to help him turn the JLGB into a modern organisation. 'The JLGB was founded in 1895, so when I arrived it had been running for 110 years. The courses, theories and practice I studied at university gave me the knowledge and skills to help turn it into a modern, thriving, digital, and now award-winning, organisation.'
As well as his work with the JLGB, Neil is also involved in further charitable causes as a trustee of the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services and Chair of both Yom HaShoah UK and the Interfaith Youth Trust.