Labour leader Ed Miliband has praised the work of The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) saying our volunteers' work benefited both themselves and the wider community, whilst visiting TCV volunteer teams on 24 April 2014.
Mr Miliband was speaking as he met some of our volunteers at St Catherine's House (part of Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust) who were working on 2 sites in the grounds, clearing paths and planting trees. Mr Miliband was accompanied by Julie Hopes, TCV's CEO, Mr Richard Desmond, founder of the Health Lottery which has funded some of TCV's work in this region and Mr Andy Clarke, CEO of Asda.
Mr Miliband said: " I think this is a brilliant project.
"It's engaging volunteers, people from across the community. An incredibly worthwhile activity, making a difference here to the mental health trust and to the grounds.
"So it's got a double benefit – it's engaging people from a whole range of backgrounds who are volunteering, which is good for them, and it's good for the community as well.
"So I think everybody involved in this project deserves many congratulations."
Asked about the Health Lottery, he said: " I think it's important to see society lotteries, like the Health Lottery, make these kind of contributions."
And he said: "I think there's a wider lesson here about health which is that the National Health Service has an incredibly important role, obviously, in improving the health of the nation but there's also other preventative work that can be done to actually improve the health outcomes of the country. And it's projects like this that can make a difference."
