Volunteer Collaborative Award 2025

This award recognises volunteers who have empowered people to work together, share experiences, and learn from one another. 

Congratulations to our shortlisted volunteers: Claire, Serena, Rosemary, Giulia and Shaqai Bowes.

This year’s Collaborative Award winner is Shaqai Bowes. 

Shaqai has been a dedicated volunteer for the Developing Futures Programme, a 12-week mentoring initiative run by Hestia-Twining. The programme supports young people aged 18-24 from ethnic minority backgrounds who face mental health challenges in various London boroughs. 

Over the past six months, Shaqai has volunteered two days a week, dedicating her time to the programme’s growth and efficiency. Her role includes onboarding volunteer mentors, organising informal chats with applicants, ensuring they understand the process, and providing them with valuable information to keep them engaged. She also creates dynamic newsletters, thoughtfully curating content to share success stories and sourcing external resources for the young people supported by the service. 

Shaqai actively explores work experience opportunities and identifies organisations for potential collaboration to further support both mentors and mentees. Her leadership skills shine through in her initiative to establish a young people’s steering group, aimed at expanding and improving the mentoring programme.