Community self help group gets Lidl award

The course taught people practical money saving techniques, such as cooking on a budget, living healthily on less, and making their money go further.

As a result of running this course, Ballymoney CAP Centre were nominated for a Lidl Community Works Award. This year to mark 2016 being the NI Year of Food and Drink and to celebrate the wide range of excellent local producers that Lidl work with, each of the winners would receive support from Lidl with a special foodie twist.

CAP Life Skills was one of the nominations within voluntary associations that Lidl felt were a worthy cause, and that their customers feel passionately about.

Conor Boyle, Regional Director at Lidl Northern Ireland said: “We received over 4,000 nominations, a record for the campaign which is now in its third year; proving that there are still so many groups in need of support and we’re delighted to step in and continue to help where we can.”

CAP Ballymoney were nominated, and Susan Attenborough, Life Skills Coach of the Ballymoney Centre, received the lucky call to say that CAP Ballymoney were runner s up. Susan and her fellow coach Sandra Phoenix have been running the Life Skills course alongside a team of committed volunteers, and is just one of the many services that CAP provide. The support and help that CAP gives to the local community is immense, from the personalised service they provide to their clients in their own homes, offering advice on debt management - right through to hands on help such as working with the local FoodBank to provide food vouchers for those needing to feed a family for the week. CAP also provides hampers at Christmas to ensure no one goes without.

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As well as visiting the 33 winning groups, the Lidl Community Crew went out on the road popping up at events, local Lidl stores and visiting runner-up groups with surprise treats and goodies. CAP Ballymoney received their prize on Tuesday 21st June at the Old Schoolhouse. In attendance were Beth Thompson (Centre Manager), Lisa Harrison (Community Links Coordinator), Reverend Andrew and last but not least, Susan Attenborough & Sandra Phoenix (Life Skills Coaches) who made the course possible! The Life Skills team would like to thank Lidl for choosing CAP as a runner up. Susan, Life Skills Coach said ‘We were truly excited to hear that our new CAP Life Skills Course, the first to run in Northern Ireland, was recognised by Lidl Community Awards’.