Celebrating and receiving recognition for our amazing youth programmes is always a privilege. We love sharing our success with our young people and other community groups within the local area.
County Durham Youth Council Awards for Tommy, Archie and Maya
A huge congratulations to our young superstars Archie and Tommy who won the County Durham Youth Council Award for their amazing volunteering at Benfieldside Community Garden.
Additionally, congratulations to Maya for her amazing volunteering across our youth and community programmes for which she has received a Durham Youth Council Awards.
NE Charity Awards 2025, Maya Patterson
One of our fabulous volunteers, Maya Patterson achieved the Highly Commended Award at the NE Charity Awards in September 2025, for her voluntary work with Building Self-Belief CIO. She was recognised as a Young Charity Champion of the year for her major contribution to Building Self-Belief, in particular for her support with the youth clubs and at Benfieldside Community Garden. Well done Maya, this is very well deserved!
North East Youth Impact Awards
What a brilliant evening celebrating the achievements of youth organisations and young people across the region. Congratulations to Shauna, our Level 6 Community and Youth Work Apprentice for winning the Youth Worker of the Year award. This is a fantastic achievement and a truly special award to win, well done to all of our nominees too! Thank you to North East Youth for a fabulous evening.
Kew Gardens Environmental Leader Award - Shauna Nixon
Congratulations to Shuana Nixon on successfully completing the Kew Young Environmental Leader Award
The work she submitted met our criteria, showcasing her growth across the nine leadership dimensions.
By delivering your Grow Wild project alongside the award, Shauna has made a positive impact on the natural world while raising awareness of environmental issues within her community and beyond. Well done! We hope she feels inspired to continue this incredible work and use her leadership skills to take on new projects in the future.
RHS School Gardening Award Level 1
We are delighted to have been awarded the RHS School Gardening Award, Level 1 for our work at Benfieldside Community Garden, our community garden. Thank you to all of our volunteers - we could not do it without you!
RHS School Gardening Awards - Level 2
Another fabulous achievement - we have been awarded RHS School Gardening Awards, level 2. It is great to be recognised by such a well established institution for our work at Benfieldside Community Garden!
Marsh Outstanding Volunteer Award Winner - Shauna Nixon
Congratulation to Shauna Nixon for winning the prestigious 'Marsh Outstanding Volunteer Award'. This is for Shauna's continuous contribution to the development of Benfieldside Community Garden. Very well done!
"As leader of the Benfieldside Youth Community Gardening Project in County Durham, Shauna has poured her heart into building a community garden that brings people together. She’s created a space for young people to connect with nature, and she leads by example, doing everything from planting to weeding. Shauna mentors younger children, making sure they feel welcome and involved. She’s even brought in local businesses to support the project, organising a corporate volunteer day, to expand what the garden can offer."
It's Official - Building Self-Belief are Investors in the Environment!
Building Self-Belief is absolutely delighted to have been awarded the Investors in the Environment Bronze Award. There is a great deal of 'talk' about green initiatives, but to achieve this award, you have to implement the policies, not just write them. We now have our Travel Policy, our Waste Management Policy and our Environmental Policy. We have also incorporated our approach to green initiatives into our induction process for trustees, staff and volunteers.
Eco Ambassadors at North Durham Academy WIn Environmental Award
Building Self-Belief were absolutely delighted that our Eco Ambassadors from our North Durham Academy a Greener Future for Stanley garden project won this prestigious award. Being Highly Commended in the Environment Awards is a fabulous way to honour the hard work and significant contributions of the young people involved in this project.
Sunderland Counselling Service Award
I was delighted to be a guest at Sunderland Counselling Services AGM on 30th November 2023 and help them celebrate their 40th anniversary. As CEO of Building Self-Belief, it was a great opportunity to see the timeline of how SCS has developed and evolved over the past 40 years. It was an invaluable lesson in how to adapt to survive in the ever-changing charity sector.
Cranfield Trust Award
Building Self-Belief CIO are delighted to have received the Masonic Charitable Foundation and Cranfield Trust Award. Local Durham Freemasons, Paul Quinn and Duncan Maw visited Building Self Belief to present them with a certificate to celebrate the partnership and the expertise and support it has provided to help the charity and ultimately the young people it supports.
North East Charity Awards
As a Consett based charity, Building Self-Belief, were delighted to have made it to the North East Charity awards final on July 19th 2023, in the category of Outstanding Contribution to Social Change for their work with their Consett Youth Panel.
The judges loved the work that we do with the young people. Our Youth Panel support us on lots of our activities and community events, this has included working on community gardens in Consett and Stanley, Coronation events in Tow Law. And most recently working with local artist Tommy Anderson to create a new Youth Banner for Consett, as part of our Consett Heritage project. Some of them will also be attending the local community talks by ex-steelworkers, as well as conducting their own interviews and podcasts about the town.
North East Charity Awards
In support of our Employability Programmes with Y12 students from Cardinal Hume School, Gateshead, we were guests of Haines Watts at the North East Charity Awards. Haines Watts were up for the award for Outstanding Charity Support by a Small to Medium Business. It was a fantastic evening and wonderful to have such amazing support from them!
High Sheriff Awards
In March 2023, we had the privilege of attending the Durham High Sheriff Awards in recognition of our outstanding achievements. We received an award of £2,000 for the work we do across our projects. A huge thank you to The Sir Tom Cowie Charitable Trust who doubled our total on the night!
It was wonderful to celebrate the success of our amazing youth programmes, alongside other community and voluntary groups across County Durham, Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton all working to divert crime. This event would not have possible without the support of Sir James Knott Trust, The Banks Group, Darlington Building Society, UKSE, Durham Constabulary, Durham Police and Crime Commissioners Office and Durham Shopping Extravaganza.