Young Achievers Awards: Search for England's star achievers
Last updated 7/26/2010 8:02:43 PM
Young Achievers Awards - Search for Englands star achievers
A national search is underway for England's star achievers with the opening of nominations for the prestigious Young Achievers Awards.
The awards recognise inspirational young volunteers, activists and social entrepreneurs aged between 16 and 25 who have made an outstanding contribution to the arts, environment, community or sports. They could a cash prize plus a year of support and development opportunities.
Russell Brooks, Chair of the Young Achievers Trust, said: "The awards provide an opportunity for young people to be truly recognised for the incredible work they do, which often goes unnoticed. By celebrating young people we hope to inspire a new generation to be engaged in action based volunteering to make a real and visible difference to our society".
The 2009 Young Achievers Awards winners included Katy Dawe, 22, from Hackney, London, who founded an arts campaign to raise awareness of knife crime in Hackney, after her friend Oliver Helmsey was stabbed in London. In 2009 Katy held an exhibition at the local town hall to support ArtAgainstKnives and to raise awareness. The exhibition raised over £60,000. ArtAgainstKnives has gone from strength to strength and has had a big impact.
Fellow winner Peter Forrest, 20, from West Yorkshire, was near exclusion from school at the age of 15 when he was given the chance to work with Dream Achievers, a charity providing young people the opportunity to work outdoors with canal boats. Peter started volunteering for one day a week, but after he left school he opted to continue with Dream Achievers and became the youngest person within the organisation to gain a National Qualification in Boat Management.
Abbi Morrall, 17, from Leicestershire, was bullied for the first five years of her school life, but is now using her experience to support other bullied children and to raise public awareness of the issue. Abbi has set up her own anti-bullying website and currently receives around 30 e-mails a day from bullied children in the UK. She visits schools and community groups to talk about her experiences and how she beat the bullies.
If you know an exceptional young volunteer and would like to find out more about the awards and how to make a nomination go to www.youngachievers.co.uk. Individuals can self nominate or be nominated by completing the attached nomination form and e-mailing it back to info@youngachievers.co.uk or posting it to 1st Floor, 50 Featherstone Street, London, EC1Y 8RT.The deadline for nominations is the 30th September.
For further information or to attend the event please contact Chris Denholm at Young Achievers Trust on 020 7250 5737 or chris.denholm@youthnet.org.