This year’s Cornwall Works WISE Outstanding Achievement Award has gone to Tim Cocks, founder and managing director of Active Plus, the social enterprise which supports injured military veterans to offer training, work skills and confidence building to others.

Tim, from Penryn, is a true social entrepreneur who left the public sector after a notable career to pursue a passion for making a difference for people and communities.

At age 16 Tim left home to join the military police where he spent most of his time playing rugby. He returned following the untimely death of his father in an accident at Falmouth Docks and later joined the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.

He was deployed on a new project that aimed to build relations between the fire service and the community, with a focus on supporting young people to make positive changes in their lives.

The Phoenix Project went on to be the catalyst for change for many troubled young people across Cornwall. Tim led Phoenix to achieve many local and national awards and inspired fire services across the country to follow suit. His entrepreneurial streak led to negotiations with DWP, expanding the project to “Phoenix Works” helping hundreds of jobseekers to build employability skills through doing thing that firemen do – working as a team, following instructions, communicating, taking the lead and making decisions.

In 2011, at 50 years young he left the fire service and with a small grant from the European Social Fund through Cornwall Works 50+ set up his own social enterprise, which has since gone from strength to strength.

Using the skills and experience of military veterans to inspire people of all ages and from all walks of life, he has created a unique delivery environment based on people helping themselves through helping others.

But more important than that, our winner’s ideas, energy, enthusiasm and drive mean that hundreds of people across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.