Time to choose your very

We’ve found the champs doing great work in city... and now it’s over to you

WHO should be crowned Glasgow Community Champions for 2019?

The public vote to determine the winners of the regional heats kicks off on Thursday – so it is time to get behind your favourite.

The Evening Times awards, in association with Glasgow Fort and supported by our other partners Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Community Planning Partnership, Glasgow Housing Association and Trades House of Glasgow, celebrates everything that is great about the city and its people.

This year, for the first time in the longrunning event’s history, Evening Times readers will determine who triumphs in each category in the north west, north east and south of the city.

Over the next three days we will be unveiling who is on the shortlist for each of the nine awards – and on Thursday, all details of how to vote will be revealed.

The winners will go through to the Grand Final on December 6.

Today, meet the finalists for the Team, Individual and Public Service awards.

‘‘ For the first time, Evening Times readers will decide who wins

THE Team Award finalists in the North West are Glasgow’s No 1 Baby and Family Support Service, which provides support to vulnerable families; Beatson Cancer Charity Volunteer Team; North United Communities, delivering grass-roots services to children and families fighting poverty; and North West Recovery Communities, which runs drop-in cafes for people in recovery.

In the North East, the following teams are in the running – Green Deal Action Group Glasgow North East, who have been spearheading the fight against energy products mis-selling; inspiring community cafe volunteers Mary Dunn, Agnes Collins, Robert Franks and Joe Conlan at Reidvale Neighbourhood Centre; St Paul’s Youth Forum, which runs a range of healthy eating and gardening initiatives; and the Volunteer Team at Home-Start Glasgow North, who help families living tough lives to get the support they need.

The Team Award contenders in the South are Calina and Dagmar, tireless workers at Govanhill Community Development Trust; the hardworking Community Committee at Ardenglen Housing Association, who support a range of initiatives; Team ALC – Active Life Club; and Youth Team – Castlemilk Youth Complex, a group of young people delivering programmes on everything from substance abuse to relationships.

THE North West Individual Award finalists are Alexander ‘Sandy’ Busby, a stalwart of Yoker Resource Centre for the last 30 years; Callum Hutchison, a mentor at Braveheart Industries; Fiaz Khan, equality officer at CEMVO; and Shulamite Ezechi, founder of ANYiSO, a support organisation for ethnic minorities.

The Individual finalists in the North East are: Angela Queen, who works hard to support local foodbanks; Elaine Leitch, who set up Jiggly Joggers to encourage women to exercise; Lesley Pollok, of Give us a Pedestrian Crossing at Mount Vernon Station; and Susan Wilson, Tesco Parkhead’s Community Champion.

The finalists in the Individual category for the South are Erin Boyle of The Kano Foundation, which takes disadvantaged young people to football games; Graham Steel of Govanhill Housing Association’s community garden group; Raza Sadiq of Active Life Club; and Sadie Masters of Priesthill Youth Club.

THE Public Service Award finalists in the North West are Gregor Ritchie and Fraser Devine of mental health group Men Matter Scotland; Milton sporting hero John Reid of North Glasgow Boxing; Samira Maxamad, driving force behind Glasgow Housing Association’s Rights and Choices programme; and Ted Scanlon, who has helped to transform Drumchapel through his work with Thriving Places.

In the North East, the only finalist is Jackie Ewing, a generous support worker at Bridgeton Community Learning Centre.

The South finalists are Helen Wilson, charity can co-ordinator for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice for the last 30 years; John McCann, one of the first recovery co-ordinators in Glasgow with GHSCP and Gift-tech ‘The Gift of Technology” – Glasgow Clyde College.

• Details of how to vote will be revealed in Thursday’s Evening Times, on our website www.eveningtimes.co.uk and through our social media channels.