Here's the people in Bucks, Beds and Herts honoured by the Queen this New Year
A number of people from our area have been recognised
Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire residents are among those recognised by the Queen this year, most for their work helping those in their local area.
People across technology, education and manufacturing are just a few who have made the region proud.
Among those being honoured is Andrea Vincent from Milton Keynes, who received an MBE for services to Victims of Domestic Abuse. She told us: "I'm really pleased I was nominated because it gives me a chance to speak about the organisation MK-ACT."
MK ACT is a charity in Milton Keynes which works with many families every day to help them move on from fear and abuse, providing safe emergency accommodation for those escaping domestic violence.
Andrea Vincent was elected Chair of the Board in recognition of her significant impact on the charity and developed an initiative to amplify the voice of girls and women, focusing on early intervention, education, and innovative services to deliver change.
"I have worked in social services, in the courts and homelessness offices, so I came across many households who were in this difficult situation, and you could see how the provision in society was not what it should be.
"I grew up in Yorkshire in Hull, which is a town that has got much poverty and in my childhood, I came across many people who were children experiencing the domestic violence where the school was there a refuge effectively.
"They were not necessarily poor. They were people from all classes, all areas and all ethnicities, so that built up together with my work to give me a feeling that this is what I want to do."
The Queen's New Year's Honours List also includes Carol Lister and Gail Steed from Bedfordshire, who received BEM for services to the community in Cheddington and Buckinghamshire, particularly during Covid-19.
At the start of the pandemic, they set up a Foodbank Collection point in the local church and founded and coordinated a volunteer service to help the elderly and vulnerable in the community who could no longer access local provisions due to shielding restrictions.
Carol Lister said: "This cause was very close to my heart because I have got an elderly mother and my husband has got an elderly father as well. They are both 91, and we do as much as we can for them. If you have got elderly neighbours around, I think it's essential to let them know that you are there in case they need you."
With the help of 98 volunteers, they were able to help 160 households during the first wave of the pandemic.
Gail Steed told us: "Carol and I worked very closely supporting our elderly and vulnerable. It all began with Cheddington Neighbour Watch, which reduced crime in the area. However, in 2017 we were aware of scammers targeting our elderly residents.
"We held tea and coffee afternoons to discuss with them how to protect themselves. When the pandemic hit, continued to support them. We have asked for volunteers to help us, and the response has been amazing, 98 came forward. We have achieved so much, and our elderly residents cannot believe how kind and caring people are."
They both continue to support the community through the latest wave of Covid-19. Carol Lister added: "When the community comes together, amazing things happen, and that is what happened in our case. The community came together, so if other people can do that, then that is got to be a good thing."
Among the Hertfordshire residents nominated was Rosalind Paul, who received MBE for her charitable services to Young People and Families in Somers Town, London Borough of Camden.
She is a Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of children mentoring charity Scene and Heard. She leads a mentoring project that partners the disadvantaged children of Somers Town with theatre professionals and developed an evaluation system to monitor the progress and impact of the programme.
It is said that the charity can now prove that 86% of Member Playwrights who are old enough to do so have gone on to higher education, which is in stark contrast to the average for Somers Town residents.
Rosalind Paul said: "We work with the children in Somers Town, which is a very small and deprived ward of Camden, and I work quite intensely with the children and families of Somers Town and have done for 22 years the work uses theatre to mentor children. It is about long-term intervention, mentoring support. We want to boost self-esteem and raise aspirations to give these children a public platform for success and to open them up to some cultural things on offer in their surrounding area."
Here are some of the other people nominated from our area this year:
Buckinghamshire
Christopher Moore MBE for charitable and voluntary services to Heritage and to the visually impaired
● Over the last three decades he has been Vice Chair of Bletchley Park Trust, and previously Chair of the Trust’s Executive Committee.
● Twenty years ago, Bletchley Park, home of the pioneering and critical intelligence contributions in support of Allied military operations in the Second World War, was faced with closure and being redeveloped as a housing estate. Today it is a household name, and a museum dedicated to its unique history.
● During his Chairmanship annual visitor numbers rose from under 50,000 to more than 250,000.
● As a pilot himself, he has taken an equal interest in FightforSight, the UK’s largest charity funding pioneering eye research, becoming a Trustee in 1993 before it merged with the Iris Fund in 2005 which he oversaw.
● Illustrating one of the ground-breaking achievements following the merger and during his tenure as Chair is the development of a treatment for Chloridaemia, an inherited condition that causes progressive vision loss, ultimately leading to complete blindness.
● Beginning in 2005, the therapy progressed through various stages during the next ten years, finally achieving commercial application in 2015 able to offer the greatest benefit to the largest number of people.
● He now acts as an effective ambassador for the charity in his role of Chair.
Vinodkumar Mashri Jeram Pankhania BEM for services to the community in Milton Keynes
.● He has built the first ever Hindu Community Centre in Milton Keynes bringing together the wider community to celebrate the art and cultural heritage of India.
● From his arrival in the UK back in the 1990s, he immediately immersed himself in the new town, contributing to its cultural and charitable life with a vision to harmonise and strengthen the growing Hindu population.
● His hugely successful fundraising campaign meant that the Centre opened on time and on budget.
● At the grand opening, he reached out to Civic guests, local Councillors, interfaith representatives and the wider community to welcome them all and invite them to use the facility for all kinds of events.
● Thames Valley Police host meetings and the NHS hold Medical Camps, not to forget the endless stream of residents who drop in for refreshments on a social level.
● During Covid, he used the platform of social media to conduct online Prayer sessions and the equally important tradition of Bhajan singing to lift the weary spirits of the members, reaching over 10,000 views.
● He devised a Community Outreach Programme to provide meals, collect prescriptions and deliver essential shopping to those in need.
● During three months alone, 4,000 meals were sent to recipients at Milton Keynes University Hospital, care homes, pharmacies and an overstretched independent family funeral business.
● Meals are still being provided to older people in sheltered housing and a team of 100 volunteers continue to call upon other vulnerable members in the area.
● As a consequence of the increased number of deaths due to Covid, he established a Bereavement group to offer much needed support to relatives and pertinent advice to Funeral Directors.
Hamaad Ali Karim BEM for service to students and the wider community during COVID-19
● He helped students and graduates across the UK to adapt to challenging labour markets for 18-25 year olds by creating virtual content which reached over 180,000 people on mediums such as Linkedin.
● He aided 85 students to obtain training contracts and graduate positions with the Tazil Foundation, which he co-founded.
● While the pandemic unfolded, youth unemployment drastically increased and in response he recognised a need for students from underprivileged backgrounds to gain key employability skills to give them the best chance of obtaining a job so he created content for law students which he shared on social media to best target students.
● During the pandemic he also became a mentor to 50 students, to try and aid students obtain graduate legal roles.
● His help massively aided a student to obtain a training contract with leading global law firm Reed Smith in an uncertain job market.
● Outside the Covid-19 pandemic he is also involved in a wide variety of other charitable initiatives, notably We Create Change, a platform created at the start of this year to help better educate people on the issues facing ethnic minorities globally.
● The platform has an extensive collection of over 170 resources ranging from articles, petitions, videos and charities to donate to.
● It has been able to reach over 18,000 people in 91 countries, which shows the great work that We Create Change has achieved globally.
● The charity was able to gain partnerships with several prominent figures as well as with Amazon Alexa which is a key resource for people everywhere.
● He has also raised money for other charities, during the University of Birmingham Charity Week he was able to help with the logistical management of a team of around 500 students who raised over £30,000 for food initiatives in the MENA region.
Terence Bromilow BEM for services to athletics in Buckinghamshire
● He, through his leadership, passion and commitment to athletics and the Milton Keynes community, transformed Wolverton AC (founded 1885) from a small local organisation with less than 50 members in the 1970s, into Marshall Milton Keynes AC, with a membership of nearly 700.
● This is one of the largest (by membership) athletic clubs in the country.
● He dedicated most of his spare time outside his career with the Open University (first Lecturer and then Head of the Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics), to the development of the club.
● The club is a true community organisation with membership across all ages (9-90 years) and drawn from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds (approaching 30% from BAME communities).
● He has provided first-rate facilities and coaching for athletes to compete locally, regionally and nationally.
● He developed young athletes to be world class: Olympic Gold Medal winner Greg Rutherford MBE, Mervyn Luckwell and Craig Pickering.
● He has raised funds of well over £750,000 to develop the athletics facility, which is now the club’s HQ in Milton Keynes, developing strong partnerships with other organisations, local and national bodies.
● He was Secretary of the Southern Athletic League for the last 10 years.
● He founded the Milton Keynes Festival of Running, which attracts over 4,000 runners to the city every year, and he continues as a key member of the organisational team, started in 2003.
● His administrative and project management skills are exemplary, and he has been an influential member of many county and regional athletics bodies for years including the Chiltern League, National Youth Development League, East Midlands Road Running Grand Prix Series and British Athletics League.
● He was at the centre of the Bucks and Milton Keynes Schools Partnership programme, which funded a PE teacher/athletics coach to work with infants/junior schools in Milton Keynes to promote athletics and identify talent.
● In recognition of the strong volunteer commitment he inspires amongst members, the club was awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Services in 2020.
Emma Lindley MBE for services to promoting diversity and inclusion in digital identity in the UK and abroad.
● In the identity sector, women, people of colour, older people and disabled people are underrepresented. This often results in identity systems failing some of their users, and potentially blocking them from accessing critical services.
● Having worked in the sector for 16 years, she has identified this as a key issue and co-founded Women in Identity in 2017 with the aim of improving diversity in the identity industry. This is done through research, grassroots talent development, internships, and by building a support network for women, people from ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, and other communities in the industry.
● The organisation now has almost 2000 members worldwide with chapters in Australia, Canada, Germany, Singapore, The Netherlands, New Zealand, UK and USA.
● These are supported by WiD’s 15 ambassadors, who represent the organisation in their respective countries and ensure that the cultural, political and social norms are represented in the Women in Identity community.
● Her commitment to this has had a global impact, and has made a difference to people’s lives across the world.
● Women in Identity works to champion and encourage more diverse workforces across industry to reduce bias and develop identity solutions and systems that work for all.
● She also champions more diverse representation (relating to gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or social status of speakers) across industry events for speakers, contributors, participants, and attendees alike.
● She has demonstrated further commitment to diversity in identity by setting out a strategic plan for the future which details how Women in Identity will continue to grow in a sustainable way in order to maximise the future impact of the organisation.
Andrea Vincent MBE for services to victims of domestic abuse.
● As Chair of the MK-ACT, she is an influential partner in developing a ground-breaking new initiative to amplify the voice of girls and women and take a holistic approach to female empowerment and safety across the community focusing on early intervention, education and innovative services to deliver change.
● She became a Trustee in 1995 and in 1998 oversaw the setting up of MK-ACT, the charity’s Trading Arm Company, a more inclusive organisation.
● She led on a visionary partnership project with Milton Keynes Council and Bedfordshire Pilgrim Housing Association to co-design and construct a purpose-built refuge with separate safe and secure housing units for 20 families.
● This opened in 2011 providing communal spaces, indoors and out, for women and their children to participate in a range of activities and integral support services.
● In the same year she was elected Chair of the Board, in recognition of her significant impact on the charity which was by then a regional leader supporting all those that experienced Domestic Violence.
● While most refuges exclude older male children, she established and defended the principle that MK-ACT should welcome male children into the refuge, up to the end of their 16th year, believing they are best living with their mothers in safety.
● She secured three forms of accreditation for MK-ACT; in 2014 the Women’s Aid Federation for England highest level Quality Standards, and again in 2017, Leading Lights accreditation for the information, advice and support service, and in 2019 RESPECT quality standards for an innovative programme of work with perpetrators of domestic violence, alongside support for their partners. MK-ACT is one of very few Women’s Aid organisations to have been awarded all three accreditations.
Bedfordshire
Carol Lister BEM for services to the community in Cheddington during COVID-19
● At the start of the pandemic she, together with a fellow member of the community, Gail Steed, set up a Food bank Collection Point in the local church.
● She and her friend also founded and coordinated a volunteer service to further help members of the community who could no longer access local provisions due to shielding restrictions, which they nicknamed “Chedd-eroo”.
● With the help of 98 volunteers, 160 households were supported during the first wave of the pandemic.
● They also provided emergency financial support due to a lack of financial accessibility in the immediate vicinity.
● She also liaised with housing trusts, including the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust, to support vulnerable residents and worked closely with seven local GP surgeries to create a prescription drop-off and delivery service.
● In 2017, she became aware of elderly residents that were being scammed and taken advantage of. She therefore created a series of education sessions for all senior residents which took place every six months.
● From July 2018 to November 2019, she took part in the national Neighbourhood Watch campaign entitled ‘Communities that Care’, a national project designed to prevent fraud of the elderly, and off the back of this installed security deterring equipment in the homes of eight very vulnerable residents.
● They continue to support the community through the latest wave of Covid-19.
Hertfordshire
Rosalind Paul MBE for charitable services to young people and families in Somers Town.
● She is the Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of Scene and Heard, founded in 1999, a unique mentoring project that partners the disadvantaged children of Somers Town with theatre professionals.
● She made the organisation more sustainable by introducing new funding streams, raising the income by 50% during her first five years.
● Increasing funding allowed the Board to think about long term planning and developmental goals ahead of day to day subsistence.
● She also developed a robust evaluation system to monitor the progress and impact of the programme.
● The charity can now prove that 86% of Member Playwrights who are old enough to do so have gone on to higher education, which is in stark contrast to the average for Somers Town residents.
● She has worked with the two referring schools and developed a trusting relationship with the teachers and leadership teams so the schools refer children who they feel are in most need of Scene & Heard intervention.
● Continuing to work with over 350 children from age 9 onwards, through their adolescence and into adulthood
● Supporting over 400 arts professionals as they volunteer for the charity.