Lucy Lucy

Volunteer and founder, DASH

Lucy, from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, founded the charity in 2011 after witnessing asylum seekers sleeping rough on the streets of Huddersfield. Not wanting to see homeless people in her home town, she started an accommodation project where local people would offer rooms in their homes for asylum seekers to stay.

After the local council’s support service for refugees and asylum seekers closed in 2012, Lucy moved the organisation’s work up a gear by registering the charity formally and building partnerships with local organisations to fill the void.

Under her leadership the group has raised over £70,000 and expanded to offer drop in clinics, assistance with the appeals process, food parcels, ESOL classes and social and cultural activities for its service users, helping hundreds of people over the last four years and working with many newly-arrived Syrian families in the town.

Val Johnson, who nominated Lucy, said 'Passionate and committed - she never gives up - never takes no for an answer - the welcome is there because of one woman's efforts!'