Who scooped a SCOPE this year?

The two overall winners pose with their trophies and some of the SCOPE judges. (L-R) Ramsey Fawell from the Belfast Telegraph, John Nixon from Drumarg Community Association, Dan Corr from Nationwide, Carol O' Bryan from the Simon Community NI and Noel Brady from Sx3.


UTV’s Julian Simmons brought a jovial mood to the fifth NICVA/Nationwide SCOPE Communication Awards today (1 May 2003) at NICVA, when he announced this year’s winners.

The overall large organisation winner was the Simon Community NI , with overall small organisation going to Drumarg Community Association. Each of the individual Award categories celebrated a winner and runner up.

A record 147 entries were received this year from voluntary and community groups in Northern Ireland. The Awards showcase the outstanding quality of work being produced by voluntary and community groups and provide a platform for feedback that will help to raise communication standards in the sector.

Full list of winners

Before announcing the winners, Julian entertained the audience with his usual brand of humour by describing examples of good and bad communication, concluding with a self-penned sonnet that he had prepared for the ceremony.

The message of the Awards was that good communication is not about big budgets. Frances McCandless, Director of Policy at NICVA and Managing Editor of SCOPE social policy magazine, emphasised that it is not about being “the biggest and glossiest”, but about employing a creative use of resources to achieve results. Both the overall winners produce their communications material in-house and to a high standard.

The website and audio visual categories received an overwhelming number of entries, suggesting that the sector is utilising new media to communicate their message.

However, the entries for the ‘Display advertising’ category were of disappointing quality. Ms McCandless took the opportunity to encourage the sector to experiment with this format as an effective way to reach a wide audience.



The innovative 'Belfast by Bike' publication wins the Information Leaflet category for Sustrans. (L-R) Noel Brady from Sx3, Frances McCandless the Managing Editor of SCOPE and Director of Policy at NICVA, Julian Simmons from UTV and Alan Pentland from Sustrans.



The Volunteer Development Agency wins best Promotional Concept for their 'Would You?' campaign. (L-R) Susan McAlpine and Fidelma Glass from the Volunteer Development Agency, Richard Nelson from Citigate and Lise McGreevy the Communications Officer at NICVA.