Nigel Nash & Peggy Sherwood MBE

2016 | Queen's Birthday Honours

Nigel Nash MBE, Service Manager, Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. For services to Children and voluntary service to the LGBT community

He has been working with children since 1985, as a front line social worker and then Service Manager for Cafcass. He is a role model for the wider organisational transformation, which has seen Cafcass drastically improve the services it offers to children so that it is now assessed as Good with Outstanding leadership by Ofsted. In 1981 he completed his Pastoral Ministry Training. For over 20 years he has been the Conveyor and Chair of the Brighton & Hove LGCM (Lesbian and Gay Christians), challenging homophobia within the Christian faith to help develop a wholly inclusive church. He has been pivotal in raising funds for the group, which relies solely on donations to survive, and has enhanced its effectiveness by forming partnerships with Changing Attitude Sussex and Quest. He has also provides individual support for autistic teenagers who struggled to express their sexuality, and has for over 15 years volunteered at a local shelter by providing food for the homeless in Brighton. He received his MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2016.

Peggy Sherwood MBE, Lately President, Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group. For services to the Jewish community

In 1997 she became a committee member of the Jewish Gay & Lesbian Group (JGLG), becoming President in 2000, stepping down 15 years (September 2015). When she joined the JGLG committee the number of women participating was very low, she reached out to women by developing focused activities, substantially increasing the membership of women. As President she empowered young LGBT Jews by establishing Young Jewish Lesbians (YJL), and instigating research into the needs of Jewish LGBT youth, aged 16-21, which led to the establishment of a JGLG Youth Project. She organised ëOrthochavsí – Friday night dinners for the Orthodox Jewish LGBT community which has enabled members who have found it difficult to come out within their community to meet and gain support from others in a similar situation. She organised interfaith activities to promote tolerance and built bridges in particular with Imaan, the Muslim LGBT group. She volunteers at the Finchley Progressive Shul homeless shelter run in conjunction with Homeless Action in Barnet, cooking meals and organising the rota of volunteers. She also volunteers for the Cinnamon Trust, which works to keep pets at home with their elderly owners, by volunteering to walk their dogs. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2017.