Outstanding volunteer wins High Sheriff Award

Last weekend, one of Youth Adventure Trust’s fantastic volunteers, Sophie, was honoured with a High Sheriff Award by the county’s out-going High Sheriff of Wiltshire, David Scott, for her outstanding contribution to Youth Adventure Trust.

Sophie started volunteering with Youth Adventure Trust in 2017 and was an immediate help. She worked hard to build positive relationships with a few young people in her group who were particularly hard to engage. She had a very calm approach around them and took the time to find out about them and their interests, using this to develop trusting and important relationships for the young people.

Sophie committed to coming to every part of the programme with this group and followed them through their journey with Youth Adventure Trust. This was incredibly helpful to us and the young people; the young people were grateful for the consistency in having Sophie attend each part of their programme, and it was clear that this helped them get the most out of the programme. She has been great at building relationships with any young person she meets and is very much liked by the young people.

She is always looking for ways to help us, and gets as involved as possible. Sophie has given an incredible amount of time and energy to the Youth Adventure Trust. Over this last year, Sophie herself has demonstrated great resilience and really challenged herself by stepping up as a group leader, something that she would not naturally have done, as well as becoming a trusted mentor for a young person who finished the programme last summer.

One of our Programme Managers, Kerrie, said, “I have been incredibly grateful to have Sophie as a volunteer with us and have enjoyed seeing her go through the Youth Adventure Trust journey too. Sophie has pushed herself outside her comfort zone on many occasions and stepped up as a group leader for us. She has been extremely committed to coming along to the programme as much as she can and we are extremely grateful for her calm, friendly nature.”

We were thrilled that our nomination for a High Sheriff Award was accepted and Sophie joins a select group of 6 volunteers from across Wiltshire who have been recognised for their achievements this past year.

A huge well done to Sophie!