COMMUNITY groups have celebrated a funding boost thanks to Airbus and the Leader Community Awards.

This year's Airbus and Leader Community Awards had to be changed due to the coronavirus outbreak so no voting took place and sadly no awards ceremony was able to be held.

However it was decided that the £20,000, kindly provided by Airbus from their community fund, was to be divided equally between all ten finalists who have all now received £2,000 each.

Many thanks to all of those who took part

Here are the winners:

Wrexham Clothing Exchange

The first of its kind in Wrexham to help combat climate change and reduce fast fashion.

It has been in operation since 2019 but due to the pandemic, they have been unable to run their monthly events, held at the Wrexham Enterprise Hub on Queen Square.

On receiving the £2,000 prize, Sharon Rogers, founder and chair of Wrexham Clothing Exchange, said: "It will go a long way in fulfilling our desire to run sewing/upcycling sessions for the community, teaching people how to make, sew and mend their clothes.

"This will help people save money, whilst also reducing more landfill - both things which we are passionate about.

"We're super excited and grateful to be awarded this prize and thanks must go to our amazing volunteers who give our customers such a warm welcome and help our venture run so smoothly."

Erlas Victorian Walled Garden

The project which provides specialised training and support for adults with learning disabilities, expressed their delight and gratitude towards Airbus and the Leader for their £2,000 award.

They said: "Throughout this unprecedented pandemic, a number of staff and volunteers have been attending and maintaining the gardens, in socially isolated family groups, so that when our beneficiaries (adults with learning disabilities) return, the gardens will be an a safe and fairly productive state for activities to continue.

"Since the end of May, a number of staff and volunteers have been reaching out to 32 beneficiaries, by phone-calls, via Skype, via a weekly Basic Skills Class (10 people), and by sending out newsletters, word searches, packets of seeds, craft materials and books.

"Our 'Keeping in Touch' project has proved very popular and is the highlight of the week for the 'students', as they have largely remained in isolation due to their vulnerability.

"The prize money will go towards building raised flower beds, so that our beneficiaries can participate in gardening activities when they return."

Ysgol Clywedog

The Wrexham-based secondary school will be using the prize money to undertake an allotment project.

They said: "We have only just got back in but work on the area for the allotment project has been started and is going well.

"We have put in the new path and the raised beds for growing vegetables and when the pupils fully return we will be looking at ways we can safely continue the Tyfu project whilst maintaining bubbles and social distancing."

Neuro Therapy Centre

The centre which supports people with a range of neurological conditions such as MS, Parkinson's Disease, MND, and ME, across North Wales, Cheshire and the Wirral.

It offers regular physiotherapy, fitness programmes and talking services to help people cope and manage their condition.

Before the start of the pandemic, all the services were delivered from their centre in Saltney but as the country entered lockdown, the team were determined not to let the people that relied on them down, so they worked creatively to develop a telephone and online support offer – a Virtual Centre.

With a lot of dedication and commitment this was turned around in a matter of weeks.

Initially, regular telephone calls were made to all their members to keep in touch and help them with any issues they had – whether that was food supplies, concerns about prescriptions or just needing a chat to prevent loneliness.

This was complemented by exercise films on the centre's website and social media.

To date, the centre has made 3,586 telephone support calls to 449 individuals and has 1,272 attendances in its live exercise classes on Zoom.

They said: "We are pleased to say that the £2,000 from Airbus will be contributing to running this service, which will involve peer support provided by trained volunteers recruited from our membership, and will harness their skills and their experience of living with a neurological condition for the benefit of fellow members.

"The programme will take our counselling work into new areas including increasing our support for carers, introducing an enhanced bereavement service and encouraging end of life conversations and establishing dedicated condition specific support groups."

Hawarden High School

Another secondary school winner, said: "The £2,000 donated to the school by Airbus will make a huge difference to the learning support department at the school.

"We are planning to use the money to invest in technology to support our learners, which will include the purchasing of laptops to support learners that struggle with handwriting or that have literacy difficulties.

"The laptops will allow learners to use assistive technology to help with the word processing and reading text.

"In addition, programmes will be purchased that enable the learners to work at home, more independently in case of a further lockdown.

"We plan to purchase a small set of iPads and educational applications to be used by pupils that access learning support.

"The focus of these iPads will be to help students to gain confidence through developing their reading and spelling skills with increasing independence."