Real Heroes Awards 2023

Huge congratulations to the 2023 Real Heroes winners.

The Real Heroes Awards recognise and reward outstanding individuals across Real Life Options – both staff and the people we support. This year, we wanted to hear about how nominees were committed to our Real Life Options Values (Honesty, Respect, Responsibility and Excellence), as well as how they promote the ‘My Voice’ area of our Model of Support, encouraging others to have their voices heard. Winners were nominated across four categories in recognition for their dedication and commitment to the organisation, as well as the positive impact that they have on the people in our communities.

Feedback from our winners has been extremely positive with Kelly Edington, our staff winner saying, “I honestly feel so grateful. I have worked with Real Life Options for nearly eight years now and I can honestly say I still love my job and have the best team!”.

Fiona, who won our ‘People we support’ category says, “I was lucky because I was chosen as the winner of this years Real Hero award. I was so pleased because I was not expecting that I would get recognised for all of my good work that I have been doing locally and nationally.”

Winners for all four categories were as followed:

• Fiona Jones – People We Support Winner. Fiona works really hard to find ways to advocate for herself, and other people we support and is passionate about getting involved in community groups and enhancing the lives of others. As well as the work she does for herself and her peers, Fiona has overcome many worries and is working towards her Adult Achievement Award Level 5.

• Kelly Edington – Staff Winner. Kelly was praised by colleagues in Falkirk for going above and beyond for people we support, and staff. Kelly is always looking for different ways to enrich the lives of people we support and is commended for learning Makaton to allow her to communicate effectively with a gentleman we support in Falkirk.

• Sheffield Day Centre – Staff Team or Service Winner. The Sheffield Day Centre was a TUPED service, taken over by Real Life Options in September 2022. Since taking over the service, the Day Centre has also moved buildings. Staff, and people we support have been incredibly adaptive and handled the transition brilliantly.

• Karen Innes – Volunteer Winner. Karen has worked for Real Life Options in Portlethen for over fifteen years and is highly respected by people we support, staff, families of people we support and health care professionals. Karen encourages people we support to speak up and is described by colleagues as going above and beyond in her role.

Congratulations to all winners! Keep up the fantastic work.