Barry Clout joined the Board of Trustees of MVA in 2013. Barry was one of life's givers - he gave his time, energy and knowledge freely and generously to things that made a difference. He affected lives for the good in everything he did and was loved and respected everywhere he went. He was especially passionate about young people and the countryside.

When Barry sadly passed away in the September of 2015, he left a legacy in the people that he inspired and the difference he made. In his memory, MVA created an annual award in his name for local volunteers for Outstanding Contributions to Volunteering in Medway.

The 2023 Award nominations are now Open!

Deadline to submit nominations: 10th October 2023

Download the nomination form here

Please feel free to contact a member of our volunteering team on volunteering@mva.org.uk or 01634 812 850 if you have any questions about the award and they’ll be more than happy to help.

Barry Clout Volunteering Award Winners for 2022

MVA’s Barry Clout volunteering award has been running in Medway since 2016 and is an annual celebration of the outstanding contributions volunteers make to volunteering and local communities every day across the Medway towns. The award is held in the memory of an MVA Trustee Barry Clout who was a longstanding supporter of the Voluntary Sector in Medway.

MVA are proud of the number, quality and diversity of the nominations they received this year and had 21 nominations in total from 9 different local VCS organisations.

These nominations were presented to a panel of judges consisting of Martyn Reeves (Chair VCS Leaders Network), Peter Stokes (MVA Trustee) and Roland Stanley (Dragon Co-Working).

The panel were very impressed at the inspiring volunteer stories they heard and found it very hard to decide on this year’s winner. The panel recognised that all of the nominees this year demonstrated a very high standard of commitment, passion and contribution to Medway’s communities and wishes to thank all nominees for their generous support.

MVA are delighted to confirm that the winner of this year’s Barry Clout Award goes to a group nomination of 4 volunteers who have been supporting Medway’s LGBTQIA+ communities for over 40 years. They are:

Hilary Cooke (Medway Pride)
Derek Arrowsmith (Medway Area Gay Independent Community aka Magic)
Peter Moorcraft (Medway Gay Men’s Health Forum)
Martin Adams (Medway Gay Men’s Health Forum)

The runner up award for 2022 goes to Bill Bhatia who volunteers on the Medway Towns Gurudwara Council amongst a number of other local VCS organisations.