Update - 2009 Winners of Against All Odds

Norma Hornby, Chair of the Canal Boat Project and Nessie Club, says, “Our Morgan Foundation Entrepreneur Award has proved to be the highlight of the Nessie Club’s ten year existence and it would have been impossible to predict its tremendous impact on the lives of individuals and groups of young people since that lovely award ceremony in Carden Park last November."

'Against all odds’ sums up the ground-breaking achievements of seven 'failing and underachieving' thirteen year olds who set up the Nessie Club in 2001. This canal boat-based social inclusion project has enabled over 1000 vulnerable and at-risk young people to overcome poverty and deprivation. Young carers at university; NEET young people volunteering in Romania, Peru and the 2009 Ghana project, demonstrate that all young people can achieve. Three founder members, now graduates, are still managing the Nessie Club. From meeting the prime minister; a House of Lords Award; to surviving an arson attack - Nessie Club members have beaten the odds.

Norma continues, “Press announcements about the award enthused three long-term supporters of the Nessie Club to nominate Nessie Club members for other very prestigious awards: this resulted in Paul Wright’s commendation for an Ambassadorial Scholarship to Washington DC (he is through to the final selection).

“Another supporter nominated the Nessie Club for the BBC Young Citizens Award – as outright winners they went live on BBC TV from Bournemouth. Mike Hall MP nominated the Nessie Club for the Westminster Kids Count Award, which enabled another group to bask in their collective success in the House of Lords; and so the story goes on.

“The award ceremony inspired each young guest to move another rung up the ladder to a better life; whether it’s securing youth work apprenticeships or career-based employment. National Children’s Bureau have booked, as paid consultants, Paul Wright and Vicky Glynn, the award recipients, to deliver their Morgan Foundation presentation at national conferences in Leeds and Liverpool and they used this presentation to persuade Warrington Council not to demolish Lymm Youth Club in Warrington.

“It would not have been possible to predict these life-changing outcomes from our Morgan Foundation Award: the assessment process was rigorous but supportive and our collective sense of pride and achievement will dominate our work over the next twelve months.”