Outstanding Community Contribution

The Outstanding Community Contribution goes to Graham Cridland

The Nomination

I would like to nominate West Sussex Angling Academy for the work in the community they have done in the past 5 years.

At this time of austerity and the need to make savings, for every student who is excluded from school or recovering from breakdown, drug/alcohol abuse carries a cost to the tax payer.

1 Student excluded from school or in the penal system, cost the tax payer £180000 per person, per year.

1 Student recovering from mental breakdown, drug/alcohol abuse, cost the tax payer £300000 to £400000 per person, per year.

By keeping students in school, helping them to gain employment, be valued members of the community, reduces crime and strain on the NHS.

To Date the Academy has had 319 students attend fishing courses, of these 275 have completed the courses.  24 students are still in school and leave next year, the remaining 251, not only remained in school and achieved reasonable GCSE grades, but also went on to further education.  These students are now employed in all trades in the building industry (147), in the car industry as car technicians (100) and the Armed Forces (4).  For students who were never going to achieve is a tremendous achievement for them, thus giving the Academy an 84% success rate.

The result of this is that none of the students have been in trouble with the police or had to use the NHS except for minor injuries from work or sport.  This has reduced crime in their community, and they are now respected members within that community.  With the above costs per student has saved the tax payer £66 million.

RUNNERS UP

Jason Cunningham

Samantha Lucy Harberd

Nomination and awards terms and conditions here

Outstanding Community Contribution
Heart Local Hero Award
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