In November 2016 we were privileged to be invited to the Black Country Chamber of Commerce Awards evening. We were nominated in the category of Outstanding Achievement Award for which we felt very honoured. Even though we are a National training company, working with schools across the UK to help and support them with vulnerable students, we love where we live and very much support our local industry.

Being a small business is exciting, and also terrifying at times! Over the last five years we have seen miracles, faced challenges, endured tough times and celebrated the successes. We are extremely grateful for those who support and encourage us; our friends and family of course, the staff and associates of BraveHeart and the lovely community of educators that we work with.

So we dolled ourselves up and on Friday 18th November (after a long day training in a school in Cardiff) we made our way to the awards evening. We were delighted to be seated on a table with our competitors in this category – the brilliant ladies from Fizzog Productions.

After a lovely meal and evening of entertainment we came to the awards part of the evening and waited expectantly as we went through the many amazing awards, showing off the small business community of the Black Country. Finally it came to the last award – The Outstanding Achievement Award. I have to say we were genuinely expecting the Fizzog ladies to win as they have done some incredible work and are well known within the Black Country and beyond.

Then they announced the winners were actually us – BraveHeart Education. We were dumbstruck. As I write this, a few months later, I’m still amazed that we won but I’m also very proud of the work we do in BraveHeart Education. For me the outstanding achievement is being able to use our personal experience of living with vulnerable children and young people and helping them to achieve. We know that how we treat and nurture our children today has an impact on our society tomorrow and as such we strive daily to change the outcomes for children who’ve had a difficult start in life.

So it only goes to say that our children and young people deserve their own Outstanding Achievement Award. Sometimes that may be as simple as getting into school each day (not so simple for some) or managing to make friends, do homework on time or sit an exam. However small these steps might appear to us they are huge to them. Whilst we are honoured to have achieved this award – the plague in our office stands as a reminder to us of the real achievers – the children and young people themselves and the staff and parents who love and support them daily.