Bristol wins 'Hello' Campaign of the Year Award

The Bristol Hello Group, led by Bristol City Council, North Bristol Trust and NHS Bristol, is celebrating after winning a Shine a Light national campaign award for their outstanding contribution towards the Hello campaign (national year of communication).
Run by The Communication Trust and Pearson Assessment, the Shine a Light awards are the flagship initiative of Hello. At the awards ceremony on Wednesday 23rd November, hosted by Vanessa Feltz, the Bristol Hello Group was crowned the winner of The Hello Campaign Award for their work supporting children and young people’s communication development in Bristol. 
Rebecca Cross, Service Manager for the Children and Young People's Service, said: “The Bristol 'Hello' group are thrilled to have won this award. A wide range of people in Bristol have all worked very hard this last year to spread the 'Hello' message to increase understanding of how important it is to develop good communication skills and that this is everybody's business. The group share the belief that improving our children and young people's communication skills is a crucial factor in improving outcomes through into adulthood. Winning this award will hopefully encourage even more communication champions to come forward from across the children's workforce.”
The Bristol Hello Group involved a wide range of stakeholders who have fully participated in the planning and delivery of the campaign. This included representatives from North Bristol Trust Speech and Language Therapy Unit, the Child Health and Early Years Commissioners, University of the West of England, Youth and Play Services, School Improvement, Media Leads, Libraries, Museums and the Language Improvement Team.
Anita Kerwin-Nye, Director of The Communication Trust, said: “Huge congratulations to the Bristol Hello Group. On behalf of everyone involved in Hello, we would like to thank them for their support and outstanding contribution to the campaign. The judging panel were blown away by the innovation and creativity the group used to bring the Hello campaign to life in Bristol.
“It has ranged from partnering with Bristol Zoo, using gorilla statues around the city to promote language, to running a Bristol Communication Week in September that gave information on communication to parents through Children’s Centres. Top tips on communication were circulated to all the children’s workforce and a recipe book with symbols was developed for children that use alternative and augmentative communication.” 
Kerwin-Nye adds: “The Bristol Hello Group has shown they have a ‘whole city’ approach to supporting children and young people’s communication development. Their focus is clearly not just for the national year of communication, long term benefits will be felt in Bristol.
Chris Hall, Managing Director of Pearson Assessment who sponsored the Shine a Light awards, said: “The Shine a Light awards have truly shown the outstanding work that has been carried out in support of the Hello campaign. We have been so impressed by the work that has been taking place in Bristol and congratulate them on all their achievement.
 “Working with The Communication Trust to host these awards and being part of the national Hello campaign has been an incredible experience, which has tapped into our company ethos to support professionals and make a difference to their day to day practice. We hope the success of the year and all the outstanding practice, which has shone through these awards, continues into 2012 and beyond.”
Hello is a campaign to make children and young people’s communication development a priority in homes, nurseries and schools across the country. The Shine a Light awards were designed to honour individuals, teams, projects, communication friendly settings and communities that have excelled in the area of speech, language and communication.
Applications were considered by 40 judges including Dame Clare Tickell, who recently led a Government review of the Early Years Foundation Stage, Professor Neil Mercer from the University of Cambridge, Professor Geoff Lindsay of the University of Warwick, and Jean Gross, England’s Communication Champion for children.
To see the full list of winners and to read the winners stories, go to www.hello.org.uk