NW Inspiring Women 2009 Award Winners

  NORTH WEST REGION’S 
   INSPIRING WOMEN 


AWARD WINNERS

 Left to Right : Lucy Danger from Emerge, social entrepreneur winner; Dr Ali Melling from UCLAN, public sector winner; Gee Walker of Anthony Walker Foundation, community winner; Rowena Burns from Bruntwood, business winner

The prestigious Inspiring Women Awards honour remarkable women

The 2009 Awards were announced at a lunch on Friday 15th May at The Midland Hotel in Manchester, compered by Trevor Hunt, Radio Manchester presenter, with the Awards presented by celebrity chef David Gale, executive chef at the Hilton Manchester, who had his own inspiring story to tell.

There are truly inspiring women in the North West, many of whom go unrecognised and who do not realise how important a role model they are for others.  It’s not often you get to hear in person the stories behind such achievements, but this is what guests were treated to at a sell-out lunch in Manchester.

The 17th Inspiring Women Awards once again proved that they are a unique way of celebrating the achievements of special women in our region, nominated by the public for going that extra mile.

Nominations were sought from the public for four women who had excelled in the North West from different walks of life – public sector, social entrepreneur (new for 2009), business and community – women whom they felt were special and had made a difference to their lives and those of others.  After judging, three finalists within each category were invited to attend the lunch and explain why they felt they had been nominated.  There were some heart-rending moments.

Founder and Award organiser, Jacqueline Hughes-Lundy, joint managing director of Inspiring Connections, says “for the past 16 years I have been reading the stories about the most amazing women imaginable and think each year that these achievements can’t be matched...but they are, and in greater numbers.  I hope that by recognising these women through the Inspiring Women Awards, we play some small part in encouraging others.”

 Reds rugby players graced the stage for the charity appeal for The British Red Cross which raised £3,000

    
What an amazing event and the winners have been named: 

PUBLIC SECTOR

From a disadvantage background and with learning difficulties herself, Dr Alethea Melling set out on a life-long mission to empower young people who are disadvantaged by fractured education and circumstances outside their control – to give youngsters a chance.  Currently Ali manages the largest university based volunteering and community leadership programme in the UK (University of Central Lancashire).  For over 25 years she has been passionate about engaging, empowering and enabling young people to achieve positive change within their communities through volunteering and community action.  Locally, nationally and internationally, she targets hard-to-reach groups of young people and creates peer-led programmes, addressing polarisation, exclusion and inequality.
 
SOCIAL ENTREPENEUR 

Lucy Danger epitomizes a social entrepreneur – a visionary, risk-taker and creator of jobs, benefiting a variety of groups, and making a profit!  She has pioneered the issue of waste recycling in Manchester since 1997.  She began by knocking on doors…and has driven her company ‘emerge’ to become one of the area’s leading environmental and longest running social enterprises concerned with sustainable resource and waste management.  Lucy is passionate about conserving resources, improving the environment, and making our local communities sustainable.  She is the driving force behind its success, far-reaching in her goals: ‘emerge’ provides recycling and reuse services to businesses, schools and homes, as well as winning local government contracts.  She established ‘emerge’ as an open membership organisation, encouraging people to join in order to increase accountability to the local community.

BUSINESS 

There cannot be many women who have done more for the city they live and work in.  Rowena Burns is a role model for women in business, achieving success in male dominated sectors and applying the highest principles.  She uses her intellect, integrity and passion to deal with hard business decisions, inspiring those who work with her and respected as a formidable adversary.  For Manchester City Council she was a central influence in most of the recent major transport and infrastructure projects.  At Manchester Airport her inspirational leadership and business skills came to the fore in her business development role.  She joined Bruntwood Ltd as Chief Operating Office in 2008 and has already made a major impact with her planning and organisation capacity.

COMMUNITY
After the horrific murder of her son in 2005 in Huyton Merseyside, Gee Walker bore no hatred only forgiveness, advocating peace, tolerance and racial harmony. She channelled her personal tragedy into setting up the Anthony Walker Foundation (AWF) to eliminate racial discrimination within the community and create cultural harmony and awareness in young people. She believes that better community relations can be built through education, music, art and sport. To celebrate Anthony’s life, Gee has created a school programme, set up a sports festival, established a law scholarship and a youth bursary, and gives an annual Citizenship Award. She is the most amazing role model whilst working as a learning support teacher, she continues to spread the message of tolerance, by talking in schools and speaking with officials from unions, government and churches.

From a disadvantage background and with learning difficulties herself, set out on a life-long mission to empower young people who are disadvantaged by fractured education and circumstances outside their control – to give youngsters a chance.  Currently Ali manages the largest university based volunteering and community leadership programme in the UK (University of Central Lancashire).  For over 25 years she has been passionate about engaging, empowering and enabling young people to achieve positive change within their communities through volunteering and community action.  Locally, nationally and internationally, she targets hard-to-reach groups of young people and creates peer-led programmes, addressing polarisation, exclusion and inequality.