NOMINATIONS for this year’s Bude Community Actions Through Sport (CATS) awards are now open.

CATS is a registered charity that aims to promote, recognise and reward all young people for positive community action with sports-based awards.

It was established in Bude in 2005 in answer to anti-social behaviour and in response to a dispersal area being imposed on the young people of the area.

These young people, along with representatives from the police and secondary school, set out to raise the reputation of young people in the area. They felt aggrieved that the positive contributions young people were making to their communities were going unrecognised and set about to not only recognise but also reward these positive contributions.

Since then, with the help of the Big Lottery Fund, there are many more branches across Devon and Cornwall, all recognising the young people in their communities such as Holsworthy, Callington and Torpoint. In time CATS hope to see the CATS ethos rolled out right across the UK.

Annually each branch carries out an awards evening in a wider community environment, as opposed to being in a classroom or club environment, so to highlight the positive contributions of young people to a wider range of people.

The young people get rewarded with sports or healthy living rewards at the ceremony.

Bude CATS are holding their awards evening on Thursday, May 26 at the Parkhouse Centre, Bude, with the closing date for nominations on Thursday, April 14.

The group asks if anyone knows of a young person, aged 5 to 25, in Bude or the surrounding area who is involved with voluntary work — not just sport-related — to fill out an online nomination form and give them the recognition they deserve.

The following site displays a link to the nomination form as well as other information

• CATS is currently doing some community consultation work in order to help it to shape the future of the CATS charity and ensure that its work remains relevant and continues to have an impact.

The community consultation involves filling out a short questionnaire. The data collected will be used to show evidence of consultation in order to strengthen future funding applications.

The questionnaire can be completed by young people, CATS volunteers, CATS community branch committee members, parents/guardians and anyone who works with or is interested in supporting young people in Devon and Cornwall.