We are proud to announce that we have been recognised and awarded the incredibly prestigious Queens Award for Voluntary Service.

The award is the highest honour a voluntary group can receive and acknowledges the tireless efforts of our wonderful team of NEO volunteers.

Judi Blacow, chair of NEOs trustees commented: Our amazing volunteer team keep our Community House open and provide fantastic support services to our local community.

Their duties vary; from driving to collect surplus food supplies, making up and delivering crisis food hampers; working in the shop; cooking; waiting on; cleaning up in the community café; food preparation; gardening; running bingo and kids club; general maintenance etc. The list is endless and we are so lucky to have such a flexible team, willing to tackle most things that come their way.

In addition to our core team of volunteers, we have hundreds of others that come in for special events, for example, our very successful Christmas hamper campaign usually attracts around 200 additional willing volunteers, helping us sort, pack and deliver hampers for families and socially isolated folk.

COVID has resulted in increased demand for crisis support and our volunteers have continued to deliver much needed mobile support services across the wider Wirral community to meet this demand. I am so very proud of each and every one of our team.

I also want to thank our amazing NEO 50 members and our fantastic funders, without whom none of this would be possible.

Jane Harris, Director of regional grants for the Steve Morgan Foundation added – “The work carried out by Neo Community volunteers is inspirational. The volunteers work tirelessly to benefit the disadvantaged community of Rock Ferry and its surrounds with a project that has contributed to improving access to healthy food, reducing food waste, providing employment training and volunteering opportunities, reducing social isolation and improving self-esteem. No opportunity is ever passed by and no need ever overlooked. All this with a no-nonsense, pragmatic approach and hundreds and hundreds of hours of hard work at the coal face.”

Local resident Anne who has volunteered for NEO for a number of years said, “I am very proud to be a volunteer at NEO and to be involved in the fantastic work that makes such a difference to people”

Volunteer Groups wanting information on the QAVS nomination criteria should contact the Clerk to the Lieutenancy of Merseyside on 0151 363 9528 or e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please visit our Get Involved page if you are keen to have a positive impact on your community.