TCV’s Hero Awards are our annual celebration of TCV volunteers and community groups.
We love to use this opportunity to showcase what volunteers can achieve: for their own health and well-being or learning and skills, and for their wider community and the environment.
Join us in watching the award winners tell their stories and see their fantastic achievements across the UK.
2024 Winners
Diversity Champions of the Year
Hollybush Conservation Centre | TCV Leeds
This new award for 2024 is for a staff group who have engaged a diverse group of volunteers and actively promotes Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The team at TCV Hollybush demonstrated in their nomination a huge variety of ways they have created a welcoming and diverse community hub. They have a Gender Inclusion approach, are Mental Health Aware and ensure there are Reasonable Adjustments in place for neurodivergent staff and volunteers. As a result, staff and volunteers are comfortable to be themselves within TCV.
I Dig Trees Group of the Year
Wild Wisdom Community Farm | TCV I Dig Trees
This group is a fantastic example of taking action to achieve their mission and involve the local community in this. Their example is exactly what our programme, I Dig Trees, was created for.
After signing up to I Dig Trees, Wild Wisdom Community Farm planted 950 trees in one weekend! They created an impressive 150m hedge, a woodland and an oak circle as the centrepiece. The group clearly understand the importance of diversity in trees and the importance of this for the land and the wildlife who make it their home.
TCV Community Network Group of the Year
Earlston Paths Group | TCV Community Network
Based in the Scottish Borders, this impactful group received this award for their efforts in creating paths for the local community to enjoy and to have a more active lifestyle. Through their hard work, Earlston Paths Group have been able to maintain the local network of footpaths, creating access to nature for local people to go for walks, improving their health and social connections.
TCV Volunteer of the Year
Evan Pidgeon, Brodsworth Green Gym | TCV South Yorkshire
Evan has been a regular volunteer with the TCV South Yorkshire team since August 2023. He joined TCV via a one year internship from Harrison Sixth Form College in Doncaster, a specialist post-16 education provider, and has grown significantly in confidence and skills. Evan now volunteers with TCV a couple of days a week and has become an integral part of the TCV team. He has learnt a wide range of conservation skills including hedge laying, woodland management and tree planting, as well as building and installing benches and other features across a number of the TCV South Yorkshire Team’s Land Trust sites in the area.
Celebrate with us
TCV Hero Award winners are celebrated locally by teams across the UK and on TCV’s national social media channels (X | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn). Individual videos showcase the achievements of our winners, which we hope will inspire more people to join in, feel good with local volunteering opportunities.
All the video case studies are available on TCV’s YouTube channel along with previous years winners and more videos Watch them all here!
Thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for helping to connect people and green spaces and for supporting this year’s TCV Heroes Awards in Great Britain.
All volunteers are heroes
At The Conservation Volunteers, we thank each person who comes out, rain or shine, to their local green space to help improve or maintain it.
We’re grateful for those who support others in their group, perhaps with practical tasks, to teach someone something new, or to just sit with a cup of tea and talk with each other to alleviate their anxiety.
Our volunteers feel connected to their community and want to see local people benefit from their conservation efforts. They care for the environment and know that their volunteering hours spent ultimately will benefit us all.
Want to join in?
Next time, we’ll celebrate another group of volunteers and employees for their hard work and achievements. How can you get involved?
