En-Chord receive top accolade

The Stockbridge Village community came together to celebrate local champions, in partnership with community representatives and Knowsley Council, Villages Housing held their annual community awards evening at St Albert’s church hall.
Now in its third year the ceremony brought together residents of all ages, the local Mayor and Mayoress and representatives from Villages.
Nominations were sought from the community and winners were voted for by Stockbridge residents. Over 25 achievement awards and 35 ‘Oscars’ were presented on the night.
The top award, the ‘Joseph Lappin Community Cohesion and Excellence’ award went to En-chord – a music group formed two years ago for young people to play instruments and sing. They set up their own music project in March 2011 with help from Knowsley Council and Youth Music.
The group have come a long way despite their limited experience of the music industry with hard work and lots of passion and enthusiasm, not only for music, but for reaching out to help other young people in the area. They now run consultations and music workshops as well organising jamming sessions with other musicians and gigging themselves.
Barbara Murray, development officer for Villages Housing said: “The awards ceremony was a real success. It was great to bring so many different people together to celebrate their successes. En-chord performed on the evening and then picked up there award which was nice as they had no idea.”
Second and third place went to Neil Joseph and Bernard Ennis for their work in the community.
Guests included Vernon Jackson CEO at Villages, Father David Potter, Reverend Andrew Stott, Dave Parry the owner of the local supermarket, Inspector Maria Hoogendyk, Cllr Bill Weightman, Cllr Heather Weightman and Cllr Dennis Baum.