Sabina Shrestha, John Hamer, Martin Taylor and I attended the national ALW award ceremony on Monday in London. It was really great day with some truly inspiring stories about the difference adult learning makes to peoples lives. Sabina accepted the certificate and £1000 learning voucher on behalf of the project. (See below for comments by John).
Matthew McVeagh, Ian Baker, Janet Jones and Vimal Bhatt then represented the project at the regional celebration day on Wednesday in Leicester and had a very enjoyable day with good entertainment, a great compere and some really inspiring award winners. It has been a fantastic week celebrating the difference that adult learning can make in the lives of anyone. (Comments below from Matthew)
Our thanks to the ALW teams involved in both days for making the events so positive for everyone involved.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions of the best use of the £1000 learning voucher to enable as many DAs as possible to benefit please let us know. Many congratulations again to all DAs for their hard work which has made such a difference to the people they have helped and which has led to this award!
For more information see our previous post: http://dainproject.com/2012/05/04/dain-wins-esf-inspiring-learning-project-award/
maryfmoss
28 May 2012
Great photos! Sounds like you enjoyed the celebrations. Have you seen the film on http://www.alw.org.uk/winners-stories/winner-story/2012/digital-activist-inclusion-network-dain? Well done to everyone who represented us.
martin909
21 May 2012
A memorable and enjoyable experience from the informality of the welcome reception on Sunday to the more formal awards at the QE2 Centre on Monday, the staff from NIACE were friendly, helpful and supportive, I really felt the atmosphere of a celebration of achievement was present. I would like to thank Andria, Sabina and John for making the event so enjoyable and sociable.
The stories behind some of the learners experiences was thought provoking, inspiring and emotional, the indefatigable spirit of people who have overcome all sorts of barriers to realize their own potential and prove heir detractors wrong was clear, in response to the question what made you decide to take this challenge, one of the award winner said ” I looked at my situation and said, I’m worth more than this”, another said his boss remarked, he was not going to make anything of himself and should stick to cutting wood, it shows that self belief and expert mentoring and guidance can prove people wrong. It is really worth reading the individual stories on the ALW site http://www.alw.org.uk to get a real feeling of the range background stories and achievements of these individuals and the impact that they have had on their communities.
John has mentioned Ray De Grussa in his post and his incredible tenacity to learn to use the the equipment and software to achieve his goal of music composition and enable him to communicate his passion with others, his acceptance speech left tears in my eyes for its totally sincere and heartfelt message, I cannot think of a better example of the way technology can enhance someones life and bring such positive gain and opportunity to express their creativity.
The aspect that I had not really considered when people embark on projects to help their communities was risk taking, And the particular story that comes to mind was Ann from Woodley, who saw the decline of her local precinct where her family fish and chip shop was sited and instead of accepting the situation decided to reverse the decline, the full story is in the biog. on the site, for me the brave decision to mortgage the family home to finance the project, that willingness to take risk and the faith in the whole ethos of this community venture is itself inspiring.
To sum up an excellent two days with incredible people with great energy and positive attitudes, I also thought that Phillipa Forrester was an excellent MC and had a natural empathy with the participants and did a great job making the awards fun but not frivolous.
My top tip for anyone visiting London in the near future :- Do not leave your Swiss Army Knife in your jacket pocket when visiting tourist attractions, It was confiscated on the London Eye and also at the Natural History Museum!
jo knight
21 May 2012
I loved meeting you all and wish the project every success for the future. Perhaps some of the clients you mentor could be nominated next year – wouldnt that be lovely?
best of luck
Jo Knight
Matthew McVeagh
17 May 2012
I had a great day in Leicester at the regional celebration yesterday. It was well organised in a lovely venue and the organiser Jo went as far as to involve some of her personal friends to be guides for those of us attending who were unfamiliar with the venue and proceedings. We heard some amazing and inspiring stories from the other award winners, the distance some of them have travelled in their lives to achieve the learning they have is incredible. We representatives of DAIN were on first and I think we acquitted ourselves well.
The audience got the sense of what DAIN was about and what we had achieved – and we were careful to make it clear we wanted to continue and that there was still much need for projects like DAIN. I got to meet Vimal – for the first time! – I felt that Carl Chinn was an excellent compere and I have to say the lunch was appreciable. 
Some pictures were taken with my camera which I will try to get uploaded as soon as poss.
Matthew McVeagh
17 May 2012
The £1000? Could we spend it on organising a follow-up digital inclusion group for DAs that want to continue the work?
John Hamer
16 May 2012
It was a special day for me and will live long in the memory showing the benefits that learning can bring to everyone of us. The awards were well chosen with the stories of the Individual winners proving most moving and provided an inspiration to us all to go out and learn to improve our lives.Ray De Grussa and his great efforts to overcome his severe disability and compose music was the highlight and rightly given pride of place. Master of Ceremonies Phillipa Forrester showed great understanding and appreciation of the winners efforts and her knowledgeable and intelligent questions enhanced the presentation of the event and showed her caring nature.
Thank you Andria for giving me the opportuninty to attend the day.Was good to meet Martin Taylor from Buxton DAIN and catch up with Sabina and was pleased that she felt confident enough to tell her story on video as she deseves every credit for her work.
neilpearsons
15 May 2012
Excellent, I look forward to seeing them and laughing at everybody
If we’re not DAs anymore, how can we spend the £1000 on ourselves?
digitalactivist
15 May 2012
I will need to check the eligibility criteria and confirm, but had imagined that this could be used to support any learning activity which supports project aims and DAs past or present to develop or progress regarding aims of project and-or their own employability skills. Any ideas welcome and then once eligibility confirmed if too many proposals to fund we could put it to a vote.
neilpearsons
15 May 2012
I hope you got some photos!
digitalactivist
15 May 2012
Hi Neil
Yes lots of photos, I will add them to blog asap.
cheers
Andria