Hull City Council

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself. Many councils are seeking to establish a new relationship with local people and local communities. Community involvement and engagement is increasingly important as a way of shaping council thinking, contributing to service design and improvement and to responding to continuing resource pressures. It may also involve direct community involvement in service delivery. This award is intended to showcase the whole range of community involvement.

HEY! Volunteering is a community programme focused on driving through and supporting the council’s strategic ambition for the city ‘being a place that is vibrant with culture, enterprise and opportunity; a place where people want to live, work, play, study, and invest.’ Originally set up to support Hull’s year as UK City of Culture in 2017, HEY! Volunteering is a 2,400 person strong volunteer cohort made up of passionate and engaged residents, that continues to support arts, culture and heritage across the city. In 2022 the volunteers gave 22,300 hours of their time across 5,863 shifts and 1,685 training opportunities.