Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has won the prestigious ePolitix.com Charity Champion Award 2005 for Children & Youth. Mr Brown landed the honour on Thursday, the second time in three years, in recognition of his work both in and outside parliament for children in the UK and the third world.

These prestigious awards honour the hard work done by Parliamentarians on behalf of voluntary causes and campaigns across a number of categories. To be eligible for an award MPs and Peers have to be nominated by a charity for their good work during the year.

Other winners include Lord Coe who scooped the Education & Sport Award in recognition of landing London the 2012 Olympic Games; DTI Minister, Rt Hon Alun Michael who won the Culture & Heritage Award; Lib Dem President, Simon Hughes who won the Environment Award; Health Select Committee Chairman, Dr Ian Gibson who secured the Health Award amazingly for the third year running; Rt Hon Lord Carter and Rt Hon Lord Morris of Manchester who share the Lifetime Achievement Award; and most effective campaigning charity Cancer Research UK.

The Chancellor was nominated by Chance UK who's Chief Executive, Gracia McGrath said: "We were delighted to nominate the Chancellor for this award because of his commitment to the rights and needs of children across the UK and the third world and for his commitment for the children on our programme in particular.

Also, for us, more than any speech he has given or any policy he has made the one thing that shows his genuine commitment to children is the natural way he responds to them. We train mentors (and parents) how to engage children, to match their language and build trust: Gordon Brown needed no such training."

 Rt Hon Gordon Brown said: "It is a great honour to have had my name put forward by children's charity Chance UK . I am also delighted and proud to have been supported by my Parliamentary Colleagues, the valuable work of whom is recognised by these awards." 

So it was that on the evening of Thursday 1 December, a small group of Chance UK representatives, headed by Chief Executive Gracia McGrath , made their way to the grand surroundings of the Institute of Civil Engineers ' Great Hall in Westminster .

There, under vast, glittering chandeliers, and surrounded by portraits of famous inventors, mentor Dominic Campbell and child Cory Brown collected the award from Esther Rantzen on behalf of the Chancellor. Neither of them appeared intimidated by the 300-strong crowd, Dominic reading out Gordon Brown's statement without a pause, and Cory remembering all his lines, as well as managing to deal with a microphone designed for adults.

After the presentation was finished, we could all relax and enjoy the rest of the ceremony - as well as the food and drink. But it's not over yet. In January, we will be attending another ceremony so that Cory and Dominic can hand the award over to Gordon Brown himself.  

Paul Adeleke, Head of Communications at ePolitix.com added that since the launch of the Awards in 2003 the response has been overwhelming. "We have been absolutely delighted by the level of response from charities to these awards," he said. "When these awards were first conceived it was our hope that we could shine a spotlight on the good work done by members of parliament on behalf of voluntary causes and organisations. At a time of increased public cynicism towards government, politicians and politics, we wanted to present the positive and constructive side of politics."

Chance UK, London based Children's charity, has been chosen as one of the winners of this year's prestigious Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, giving recognition to the unsung heroes in our communities that play an essential role in our daily lives.

All winners have been nominated by members of the public who have either benefited from their work, or seen the positive effect on their community. The Award is only given to those groups where volunteers are judged to have regularly devoted their time to providing an outstanding level of help to other people.

Chance UK was chosen as the official charity for the launch of Gods Behaving Badly (Random House), the debut novel by Marie Phillips.

Marie has already raised over Pound1,200 for Chance UK, and has also decided to donate the royalties from all copies of the book sold at the launch. She told the 120 guests that she would never have got to this point without the support of the fantastic people in her life, and wanted to use the opportunity to help children who were less fortunate.

Two copies of the book were signed by the author and will be used as prizes for a future fundraising event, along with two exclusive Gods Behaving Badly shoulder bags!

The story of Gods Behaving Badly: Being immortal isn't all it's cracked up to be. Life's hard for a Greek god in the 21st century: nobody believes in you any more, even your own family doesn't respect you, and you're stuck in a delapidated hovel in north London with too many siblings and not enough hot water. But for Artemis (goddess of hunting, professional dog walker), Aphrodite (goddess of beauty, telephone sex operator) and Apollo (god of the sun, TV psychic) there's no way out...Until a meek cleaner and her would-be boyfriend come into their lives, and turn the world literally upside down.

Gods Behaving Badly is that rare thing, a charming, funny, utterly original first novel that satisfies the head and the heart.

Waterstones rated Phillips' first novel as their Book of the month.

Chance UK would like to say a huge thanks for the money Marie has raised so far for the charity.

The first two projects developed in partnership with NCH, the children’s charity, are now open for business in Liverpool and Crawley.  Chance UK and NCH are working together to provide the Chance UK mentoring programme to more children and families across the UK by working together to establish mentoring programmes alongside existing NCH services.

The aim of Crawley Family Centre is to provide a varied service, enabling a positive change for families with children under 12 years, living in the Crawley area. This includes a referred service for families experiencing parenting difficulties, parenting assessments, self esteem groups, drop-ins, English language classes and play schemes.

“Hi, I’m Mark Honeyman.  I joined NCH - Crawley Family Centre in July 2007. My background is in residential care with young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties – early intervention with children whilst in the family environment is essential if we are to help children and young people deal with their personal problems and issues.

“This new post is an exciting opportunity to use my skills and expertise with supporting children, families and communities. I aim to empower all Crawley volunteers to best use their time so that they may have a positive impact and bring about lasting changes to the young people in our community.”

To find out more or to volunteer with the NCH Crawley Chance UK mentoring programme call Mark on 01293 511 400, e-mail at Mark.Honeyman@nch.org.uk or follow this link: http://www.nch.org.uk/getinvolved/index.php?i=376&v=69

Mark Honeyman

NCH Liverpool Family Support Service (formerly the Walton Family Centre) provides a range of services to families in the area including parenting support and youth mentoring.

“My name is Lisa Corcoran and I am the Volunteer Mentor Co-ordinator for Chance UK and NCH in Liverpool. I have been a Project Worker with NCH’s Family Support and Youth Mentoring Services for almost three years and I have seen the excellent results that can be achieved through one to one work with vulnerable children.

“When this opportunity arose to become involved with the Chance UK Mentoring Project I jumped at the chance! I feel the partnership of two highly respected organisations will undoubtedly have a positive impact upon the lives of our local children. The response has already been very encouraging, so we are now all looking forward to meeting and training our volunteers in the very near future!”

                                                                                         Lisa Corcoran

To find out more or to volunteer with the NCH Liverpool Chance UK mentoring programme call Lisa on 0151 523 8719, e-mail at lisa.corcoran@nch.org.uk or follow this link: http://www.nch.org.uk/getinvolved/index.php?i=376&v=74

For information on all our NCH/Chance UK national Programmes including Crawley and Derry please visit our volunteer FAQ page.

NCH, the children’s charity and Chance UK have developed a partnership to offer mentoring programmes in several areas of the UK.  These programmes will help children who are in need of additional support with behavioural problems they are facing.

"...all charities should consider seriously and imaginatively whether there are ways in which they could do more and better for their users by working together."

Charity Commission, Collaborative Working and Mergers (RS4) 2003

As a small community based organisation Chance UK delivers an innovative and unique mentoring programme to children in Islington and Hackney.  “We are delighted to be able to offer our mentoring programme to more children, families and communities across the UK,” says Jo Hobbs, National Development Manager at Chance UK.  “Having a small infrastructure, mainly focused towards the delivery of our programme in London, we had been unable to consider expanding our services without working in partnership with others.  To be working with NCH, which has such a good reputation for delivering wide ranging, quality children’s services, is a fantastic opportunity for us.”

The Chance UK child mentoring programme has achieved Approved Provider Standard from the national Mentoring and Befriending Foundation and has also won awards for volunteer support, alcohol prevention among primary school children and social reform.  By working with Chance UK, NCH can deliver a tried and tested, quality assured programme. “NCH is very excited about this partnership.  As one of the UK’s leading children’s charities we are totally committed to supporting the diversity and development of the sector and it is great to be working alongside an organisation like Chance UK to develop their successful work,” says Hugh Thornbery, Director of Children’s Services at NCH. “Chance UK are proving to be a great organisation to work with.  They have evidenced how effective they are in turning children’s lives around; they are now demonstrating their capacity to work in partnership with us to meet need in different parts of the UK. ”

"...all charities should consider seriously and imaginatively whether there are ways in which they could do more and better for their users by working together."

Charity Commission, Collaborative Working and Mergers (RS4) 2003

Campbell Robb, Director General of the Office of the Third Sector, launched the partnership at a recent event, stating how pleased he was to see organisations in the Third Sector working together, “It is good to see that Chance UK and NCH have come together to take this inspiring mentoring scheme to other parts of the country. It is encouraging to see charities come together for the benefit of children and young people.”

 Both Chance UK and NCH believe that this partnership brings the best of both organisations together to better support vulnerable children.  In the first phase of the partnership mentoring programmes will be established in Crawley, Liverpool, Derry and across Inverness and the Highlands.

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP hosting Chance UK's Christmas Party at Downing Street

The highlight of Barings Asset Management's Sports and and Social Calendar was celebrated on the evening of 25th January when Guests of honour Gracia McGrath and Chance UK staff received a Pound30,000 cheque from the fundraising efforts of Barings employee Claire West and her colleagues in 2006.

Gracia McGrath talking at the Barings Asset Management event and collecting a bouquet of flowers from Dave Matthews

Claire got on her running shoes in July of  last year and did the 5.6-km JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge to raise money for Chance UK. She also did a sponsored cycle ride more recently and has been a great advocate to promote the work we do with primary aged children within a corporate setting.

We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to Claire and her colleagues at Barings Assest Management for all the hard work they have put in over the year from all the staff at Chance UK