Back in August 2020, Cllr Denise Bickley, chair of the town council’s environment committee and chair of the Sidmouth Plastic Warriors, approached the VGS to suggest the creation of the ‘Sustainable Sidmouth Awards’.
The VGS chair Peter Murphy contacted the Transition Town network – the VGS being part of this international organisation devoted to transitioning to a sustainable and resilient society: https://transitionnetwork.org/
The network is offering grants under its “Transition: Bounce Forward Seedfunding” programme – and the VGS managed to secure a grant to create a project to recognise the role volunteer groups play in the community: https://transition-bounceforward.org/seedfunding/
The Transition Town network has in turn received its funding from the National Lottery Community Fund: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/
An inspiration for the Sustainable Sidmouth Awards has been the Balham and Tooting Community Heroes awards: http://batca.org/communityheroes-2020/
And the VGS is grateful to Transition Town Tooting for the huge amount of help and guidance: http://transitiontowntooting.blogspot.com/