The Ray of Sunshine Award was created in July 2019 by Sarah Grayer FRSA, who was Space Youth Project Manager until she sadly left Space to work in Devon. Sarah became a Trustee for Space and still works on some projects and helps deliver our training workshops.
Sarah says “The Ray of Sunshine award is presented annually to the young person who has overcome adversity and contributed most to their group.”
Each year all group leaders are asked to nominate their Ray of Sunshine nominee to the deciding committee who then decide the overall winner to receive the trophy for the next year. All nominees get a
recognition certificate of their commitment and the outstanding work they have done for their group.
The first Space Youth Project Ray of Sunshine was awarded in July 2019 to Jodie Collins from Poole group. Jodie is now a volunteer at our T-Group as well as being a current member of Space. She wanted to gain a greater understanding of working and supporting young people around gender identity and continues to be an ardent supporter of Space and all our young people.
2020's winner is CJ Ricketts who is a
regular part of Dorchester group, pictured below with the award. As well as being part of Space Youth Project, CJ also works tirelessly with Participation People where he helps to train professionals working in the care system. He also helps with the Corporate Parenting Board and recently met and spoke with Jacob Rees Mogg and Richard Drax when they visited Dorset on a fact finding mission!
CJ was delighted to receive the award, and expressed surprise when he learnt the award was Dorset wide as he thought it was just a Dorchester thing.
Well done CJ, now we wonder who will be 2021s Ray of Sunshine!