Celebrations are in order!
Organisations from across the West Midlands gathered in Birmingham’s Macdonald Burlington hotel last Thursday for the West Midlands Leadership Awards 2022 to celebrate the inspiring team members that have had an instrumental impact and led their companies to success.
Amongst those team members was one of our own, Aspire Active Partnership Manager Luke Johnson who walked away with the prestigious Young Leader award. The award recognises the best leader aged under 35 for “their ability to make a real difference in their organisation by bringing about positive change and inspiring others around them”.
We want to say the biggest congratulations to Luke!
As the personification of Aspire’s values and with a work ethic second to none, there’s no worthier winner.
Luke was recognised for his work as the lead for Aspire Active Partnerships, a network of more than 40 children’s activity providers across the country.
During the pandemic and successive lockdowns, the Partnerships network used digital platforms to support business owners operating in physical activity and education to provide virtual services for young people, working towards their shared goal of “helping more children be more active, more often”.
When the stay at home rules introduced in 2020 stopped young people gathering to take part in physical activity, Luke was a key leader in the coordination of responses for peer businesses while supporting colleagues within Aspire to adjust to the changing situation.
Under Luke’s leadership, the nationwide Partnership of businesses has grown from 23 in 2019 to be on course to reach 50 by the end of 2022.
Luke said:
“Aspire is firmly a team effort but it is an honour to be recognised for my contribution in helping the children’s activity provider business community survive and build confidence to emerge stronger. Being tested in this way has given our network resilience and provided Aspire with a basis for future commercial partnerships. I would like to thank everyone on the team for their work during the pandemic to make the Partnerships membership portal a ‘go to’ digital resource.”
Another big congratulations to Luke, thank you for your hard work, focus and commitment that has had an astounding impact on Aspire and many more companies across the physical activity and education sector!