2025, a year to remember!
Last Friday we celebrated some of the young people that have made 2025 a year to remember, as we held our annual awards ceremony at our Dagenham premises.
Each year, we select a group of young people to receive a Jack Petchey Award and this year was no different. The Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme recognises outstanding young people aged 11-25 across London and Essex. Award winners are young people who have gone above and beyond to achieve – perhaps when others thought they might fail.
Sadly, there were several winners who were unable to be present last Friday, but they will still receive their awards. One such person was Paulo, who was nominated by his peers at Tuesday Club for his self-taught computer engineering skills. Paulo built his own working computer at home and brought it into the youth group to show the other members, who were so impressed they chose him as their award nominee.
Family commitments prevented Christine from collecting her award. She was nominated by her friends at Girls Group her because she has grown in confidence since she started with us and is now travelling to and from the group independently. They also wanted to recognise her kind, caring nature and because they value her friendship.
Also missing was Mia from our Tuesday Club, who was nominated by her peers for showing bravery and determination when joining the youth group’s travel training on the No. 62 bus in September. She was nervous at first and wanted her mum to accompany her on the bus but eventually summoned the bravery to join the staff and other young people without mum, which was a big step for Mia. The staff were very impressed that the other young people at the group decided to recognise Mia’s personal achievement by nominating her for a Jack Petchey award.
Isaac was selected by his peers at Wednesday Club - our youth group that runs at Royals Youth Centre in Rainham. The other members nominated him because they respect his kind, friendly and supportive nature, which they saw demonstrated every week at club and the staff say he always contributed a lot to the life skills discussions, so we also want to recognise his dedication to the programme and his excellent attendance record at the group as well.
Our next award went to the only female member of our Senior Youth Group from September 2024 to July 2025. But the fact she was outnumbered by the boys did not put her off! Alessa attended virtually every session, working with her peers to make the group a great success. She loved attending and the young men at the group decided she deserved the achievement award because she was such an important member of the group.
Alessa
We also chose an award winner from Saturday Sports Zone, our multi-sports sessions that were funded from September 2024 to July 2025. Emmanuel was nominated by the other members of Saturday Sports Zone because of his attendance record, incredible energy and boundless enthusiasm. He loved the dodgeball and indoor cricket, but his favourite sport is football, and he spent a lot of time on the indoor 5-a-side pitch attempting to score past our volunteer Megan, who donned the goalkeeper gloves at most sessions.
Lucas was nominated by his peers in our current Wednesday Club because his self-confidence has flourished since he started the life and social skills programme in April, and he also did brilliantly when he attended our outdoor activity week at Lambourne End in the summer.
Yohan was chosen by the other young men at Thursday Club because he has grown in confidence so much since he started at the group in April. He was very shy when he started, lacked self-confidence and rarely interacted with the other members at the group. But his confidence has grown, and he is now smiling and joking with his club mates.
Many of you will be aware that every year we run a fundraising campaign called Dare to be Different in the weeks leading up to Autism Acceptance Week, and in February we challenged the young people attending our youth groups to see if they could raise some money for us by getting sponsored to help with jobs at home. Some of the young people did just that, by doing chores, making cups of tea for parents, or reading bedtime stories to their younger sibling.
Harvey
Harvey single-handedly raised over £400 for Sycamore Trust by washing cars for members of his family and his neighbours, and as a result, his peers at Monday Club decided to recognise this incredible effort by nominating him for an achievement award, and we also presented Harvey with our own Sycamore Trust Shining Star award, in recognition of his amazing contribution. You have to try and top that in 2026, Harvey!
Well done to all our award winners, and thanks as always to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their valued support. Thanks also to Sycamore CEO Cheryl Kearney for presenting the awards, Matt Dyde for organising the event and taking the photographs, and our MC for the evening, Steve Dixon.
Main photo: Isaac