Fairtrade Fortnight Awards

The Fairtrade Fortnight Awards recognise the amazing creativity, effort and impact of campaign groups who bring Fairtrade Fortnight to life each year in communities across the UK. 2011 saw more entries, and more difficult decisions for the judges than ever before. All winners and runners-up receive cash prizes of £500 - £700 to be reinvested in their campaigns, courtesy of the official award sponsors, The Co-operative Group.

Overall winners

Outstanding achievement: Bristol Fairtrade Network 

Bristol campaigners built major partnerships with local and national organisations, actively reaching new and enormous audiences.  Highlights included a fashion show in the middle of a busy shopping centre, Fairtrade Fiesta featuring local young rappers, and visit from a Nicaraguan Fairtrade coffee producer..

Highly Commended: Wiltshire Fairtrade Coalition
Wiltshire excelled at networking across the county, organising events, coordinating activity between groups, and strategically targeting numerous key decision makers as part of their campaign to become a Fairtrade county.
 

Best Media Campaign

Winner: Fairtrade Lingfield and Dormansland
Media savvy campaigners used every outlet available to them, from local radio, regional press, community newsletters and social media to reach a huge audience way beyond the borders of their small villages. Their coverage centred on excellent community wide events including fashion show and pirate party, and of course, bunting!

Runner Up: Devizes Fairtrade Group
Devizes advertised their Fairtrade Fortnight events far and wide, through press, radio and their own materials, and got a number of local celebrities and dignitaries involved to catch the attention of the town.

Best Outreach and networking

Winner: Bexhill-on-Sea Fairtrade Town
Playgroups to pensioners were involved in a bumper fortnight of activity in Bexhill, crammed full of events. Over 70% of schools and faith groups in the town contributed to the bunting world record showing just how widely their message of trade justice reached in the town.

Runners-up: Salford Fairtrade City
Salford was a hotbed of Fairtrade support and activity yet again in 2011, and working with Salford City College and Salford University, Salford Fairtrade City did a great job taking Fairtrade to their audiences, from students to local businesses and more. 

Runners-up: Woking Fairtrade Action Network

Nearly 50 local groups decorated bunting for justice in Woking from schools to book groups to homes for the elderly, but the outreach didn’t stop there. Exhibitions in a shopping centre and a phone box, and good use of online media also made the application stand out.

Most Creative Show-Off

Winner: Carmel College
Staff and students took the flashmob idea to new heights in their canteen, with a highly coordinated and powerful performance that took Carmel College by storm.

Runner Up: Fairtrade Lichfield
Fairtrade Lichfield’s special edition ‘Fairtrade City’ spoons, produced by their flagship employer Arthur Price were already a creative idea, but after art students from the local college then turned 300 of them in to a Fairtrade art installation. Judges were not only impressed with the idea, but the extent to which it has been exhibited around Lichfield and in London.

Best Cotton Activity

Winner: Riverside School of Performing Arts
Students wrote and took their play ‘Cheap and cheerful’ on an extensive tour to highlight the harsh facts about fashion manufacturing. Audiences filled in over 800 Fairtrade campaign postcards that were handed in to high street clothing stores in the Bullring to encourage them to use Fairtrade cotton.  

Runner Up: Paisley Fairtrade Partnership
Paisley campaigners delivered highly educational performances of their own play ‘Bless his cotton socks’ with a campaigning edge, to highlight unfair subsidies that keep African cotton farmers in poverty.

 
Official sponsors of the Fairtrade Fortnight Awards

Outstanding Achievement Winners Bristol Fairtrade Network receive their award