After being in a room filled with charity leaders, founders and supporters at the inaugural North West Charity Awards, the importance of having the right skills within a charity is vital to its success. One of JCI’s core values is for its members to be active citizens within their communities, creating positive local impact. In 2011 JCI UK launched a volunteering project on a national level under the name “ACE” – Active Citizen Experience, to reward those members who went the extra mile. ACE is a community project where JCI Members can register their volunteer hours. Members are then awarded bronze, silver, gold and platinum certificates according to the hours logged in recognition of their efforts on an annual basis.

• Bronze 10 hours
• Silver 20 hours
• Gold 30 hours
• Platinum 100+ hours

The programme has been improved over the years, now extending to include all key areas of JCI that impact our communities. So if you are volunteering in any of the four key areas: Community, Business, Personal Development and International. We recognise that many of our members will volunteer through the traditional charity route.  However we want to encourage members who volunteer via the unconventional/unstructured routes to also record their hours. For example;

• Anything from giving up your time to be a companion to a lonely person
• Picking up litter - Join JCI UK on September 15^th for the worlds civic-led mass clean-up day Let’s Do It!
• Non-council JCI hours can also be counted, so if your chamber help or organise any community/charity events these hours can be claimed.

Let get creative! Please make sure you start to record and log your hours. This year’s recipients will be awarded their certificate at the annual JCI UK National Convention by the National President and National Community Director. Taking part is easy; all you need to do is record you’re volunteering hours from the 1^st of January – 31^st October 2018 by completing our form. We believe in recognising the hard work our members put in, so don’t miss the opportunity to get recognised! For more information, email phoebe.benta@jciuk.org.uk or follow our Facebook: @JCIUK /Twitter page: @JCI_UK Phoebe Benta JCI UK Community Director