A young person’s support group set up to help those who care for family members has won prizes to the value of £500 in a community competition. Speada, which stands for Sports, People socialising, Education, Activities, Disabilities, All Welcome, won the money after entering the ‘We Care’ competition run by Spalding fuel company Rix Petroleum.
The contest was aimed at helping out charities and community groups and invited local people to vote for their favourite cause by ‘liking’ them on the social media website Facebook.
Speada attracted the most amount of likes during the competition which ran for several weeks between April and July.
Volunteer Carly Hain, who is a qualified youth worker, said the organisation had been set up after the council made cuts to funding for young people’s services.
As well as working with carers aged from seven to 19, Speada also supports people up to the age of 25 who have disabilities.
Carly said: “We heard Rix was running the competition and as we are always in need of funding we thought we it would be a good idea to enter. We did it but didn’t expect anything to come of it so we were really pleased to receive an email saying we had won.”
She added the money would be used to buy outdoor equipment for the people they work with as well as arts and crafts material.
“We set Speada up to give young carers an opportunity to step back from their day-to-day duties and do something fun,” she said.
“It is a lovely thing to do because they are always caring for other people so deserve to have someone do something for them for a change.”
Speada meets on Wednesday evenings at Terrington St Clement in Norfolk.
It currently supports around 30 young carers and disabled people to help give them a break from their everyday routine and to meet with others in similar situations to and share experiences.
Robin Exley, manager at Rix Petroleum’s Spalding depot, said he was delighted Speada had won the competition.
He said: “Speada is doing fantastic work in the community and it is precisely these types of projects our We Care competition was set up to support.
“I hope the prize enables them to continue to carry out such valuable work and help all those people who give up their own time in the selfless caring for others.”
