Carers Trust Heart of England proudly hosted its annual Carer Awards Ceremony on Thursday 20th November at the iconic St Mary’s Guildhall, Coventry, bringing together more than 100 attendees for an evening dedicated to honouring a host of remarkable carers and community champions across Coventry and Warwickshire.

The Carer Awards serve as an important moment each year for the local community to come together and recognise not only unpaid carers, but also the businesses, educational organisations and fundraisers who go above and beyond to support carers and the people they care for.

The Carer Awards took part of Carers Right’s Day, a day all about raising awareness of the rights the UK’s 5.8 million unpaid carers are entitled to, and to help them get the support they need and the recognition they deserve.

This year’s ceremony was jointly presented by Pete Fahy of Coventry City Council and our very own Jodie Cotterrell, who guided those in attendance through an inspiring evening reflecting compassion, resilience, and community spirit.

A standout moment of the evening was the unveiling of Bear2Care, a brand-new mascot created to support young carers in schools across the region. The character was designed by Lily, a talented young carer whose creativity and imagination saw her deservedly win a competitive design competition. The Bear2Care mascot will now play a central role in engaging and supporting young carers through school-based initiatives.

We would also like to express our gratitude to Severn Trent, the official sponsor of this year’s awards, whose generous support helped make the celebration possible and ensured that local carers received the recognition they so deeply deserve. They sponsored the Carer of the Year Award which was won by Bernie O’Brien (Coventry) and James Morrison (Warwickshire). The full list of winners can be found below.

The event once again highlighted the invaluable role carers play within their families, communities, and wider society. Their dedication often goes unseen, but the Carer Awards aim to ensure their contributions are celebrated and remembered.

Winners

More on Bear2Care Project

Over the last few weeks we have developed our Bear2Care project - a travelling mascot for schools, wearing a Carers Trust Heart of England t-shirt, designed to spark gentle conversations about caring and empathy with younger pupils.

Young carers have been working on their Bear2Care designs over the last few months and after a much deliberation, our winner Lily fought of competition from some other amazing designs to win the competition. Lily's design was subsequently brought to life in the form of a life sized Bear2Care mascot which was revealed at our awards event. Lily also received her own teddy bear sized version of the mascot as a constant reminder of her excellent work.

A huge thank you to Adele at Cov Cloth and the People's Angels at Coventry Building Society for helping bring our mascot to life and also for judging the competition which was no easy task!

Schools can now “host” Bear2Care for 1–2 weeks, using assemblies, story time, classroom visits and blogs to explore young carer themes. Where they can share their stories on social media using #Bear2Care, providing awareness and access to timely support, helping more families recognise when a child might be a young carer.

The initiative is designed to:

• Boost identification of hidden young carers
• Strengthen partnerships with schools and family hubs
• Create a club-style sense of belonging for young carers and their families.

Future plans include family bears, craft workshops and digital storytelling so children can create their own Bear2Care adventures.