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News
Buchan Dial-a-Community Bus win top award
Buchan Dial-a-Community-Bus, a community transport initiative in Aberdeenshire, scooped the prestigious Charity of the Year award at the recent TFN Annual Charity Awards. Buchan Dial-a-Community-Bus offer a range of transport services, providing an essential link for rurally and socially isolated people in the Buchan area. Services include a Demand Responsive Unit, shopping services, patient transport, library visits, community groups use and a Shopmobility project.
The project operates five minibuses and a community car scheme with the aid of nine locally employed staff and over 60 volunteers.
Delighted to win
Rachel Milne, Dial-a-Community Bus (DACB) Manager, was delighted to win the award. She said, "Dial-a-Community Bus works really hard to provide accessible, affordable transport for the community and it’s wonderful to have this effort acknowledged by our peers in the voluntary sector.
"The judges were impressed by what we have achieved with the resources that we have and by the innovative partnership we have with organisations like the Grampian Police."
Buchan DCAB and Grampian Police have a long history of partnership working – volunteer off-duty police officers were the first bus drivers, with many still driving for the community group use service as and when they can.
Partnership with Grampian Police
Links with Grampian Police have grown as the charity has, with lots of help being given from the Road Safety Unit and the Mintlaw police office, as well as other departments. DACB are currently providing training and community placements to the Grampian Police cadets.
Sergeant Alan Brown has worked with the charity since 1994, starting as a volunteer driver he was appointed as one of the Volunteer Directors in 2005. He said, "I have been a volunteer with DACB for many years, work which I have always found rewarding and complimentary to my job with Grampian Police . . . I am delighted that this partnership, which has been built over many years, has assisted in some way to the success of DACB in achieving this award. This is great news for all those who work with DACB, but more importantly, for the community that is served by them."
Community Action Award for Alness group
Congratulations also go to the West Alness Residents Association, who walked away with the Community Action Award, having expanded and refurbished their local community centre. You can read more about their win here.
Three other awards were given out – Charity Champion, Campaign of the Year and Partnership Award – at the awards ceremony hosted by broadcaster and journalist Ruth Wishart at Glasgow’s Science Centre on Thursday 24th May 2007.
The TFN Awards are organised by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and the voluntary sector newspaper Third Force News. The awards will be an annual event to tie in with the Gathering, which is the Scottish voluntary sector fair.
In our Rural Round Up 78, we were pleased to report that many of the nominees for the awards were rural.
- Source
- Voluntary organisation
- Date
- 6-Jun-2007
- Categories
- COMMUNITIES, News - General
Congratulations
7-Jun-2007 @ 15:04PM
Bridget Paterson
Many, many, many congratulations to Rachel Milne and all her team at Buchan Dial a Community Bus. This is an excellent scheme bringing much needed services to the marginalised of the area.The award is well deserved.
Rachel manages a great service which is always looking to both consolidate and to innovate. She also found the time to assist me with lots of help when I was getting to grips with Cowal DESERVE/ Interloch Transport, the Community Transport for Cowal.
Bridget Paterson