Local volunteer is awarded British Empire Medal for work in Northamptonshire

A community in Corby are celebrating one of their own being awarded the British Empire Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours List, for voluntary services to the community. George Hill, who has lived in the area for almost 25 years, has been chair of the community group KHL Big Local since its beginning in 2012.

KHL Big Local covers the areas of Kingswood and Hazel Leys in North Northamptonshire. KHL Big Local, part of the Big Local programme that put residents across England in control of decisions about their neighbourhoods, was awarded £1 million by the National Lottery Community Fund 12 years ago to create lasting change in the community.

Since then, the community has gone from strength to strength, with a particular focus on implementing the Community Plan, as well as running valuable resources such as Citizen’s advice sessions, work with Home-Start Corby and even a new community skate park on Kingswood estate.

Of the award, George said: “I am thrilled to have been awarded the BEM award. As chair of KHL Big Local, I have learned so much over the past 12 years. I’ve learned challenges are opportunities in disguise.

“And as a leader I’ve also learn that we don’t create followers, we create leaders. Everyone involved in KHL Big Local deserves all the credit for the work we have put in to make the community what it is today. If by speaking about the BEM I could encourage one person to volunteer, then my work is worth it.”

George had also been heavily involved in the Local Trust project ‘Create Civic change’, which supported 15 communities across England to shape, lead and commission art and creative interventions, to make positive social change where they live. George soon took inspiration from the project and decided to quit his job at 60 to become a self-employed artist and is helping other local artists get onto the path of earning.

The investment in creativity led to six murals across Kingswood and Hazel Lees to reflect the importance of creativity. KHL Big Local also invested in a Community Workshop and are partners in the Workshop, which is two years into a long-term lease and offers a place for people to be truly creative, hosting pottery, textiles, patchwork, wood shop and painting classes for everyone in the area.

Of the importance of art in the community, George quoted Lord Attenborough:

The arts are not a luxury. They are as crucial to our well-being, to our very existence, as eating and breathing. Access to them should not be restricted to a privileged few. Nor are they the playground of the intelligentsia. The arts are for everyone – and failure to include everyone diminishes us all. Sir David Attenborough's reading at Westminster Abbey on 17 March 2015 is abridged from Lord Attenborough’s maiden speech at the House of Lords on 22 November 1994.

The Lord of Northamptonshire will be presenting George with the medal later this summer.