Some opportunities are priceless

Last year our winners gained untold benefits from some of the ‘money can’t buy opportunities’ we were able to hook them up with. We want to make sure our 2009 winners get the same treatment. We’ve already been offered some great things, but the hunt continues.

Earlier this year, blogger Olly Benson reported on award Winner Ryan’s prize in the art’s category…

As part of his prize for winning a Young Achievers Award, Ryan met with Jonzi D, artistic director of Breakin’ Convention (an international festival of hip hop dance). As a result of that meeting, Ryan was invited to audition for this year’s convention in Nottingham. His company was successful, and got the opportunity to perform with some of the biggest names in hip hop theatre.  They’ve also performed in Bradford as part of the Breakin’ Convention there, as you can see:

Apart from being a great opportunity for Ryan, what was brilliant was the feedback from the Breakin’ Convention, which included him being described as “very organised and a complete joy to have on our stage.” To me, Ryan absolutely symbolises what a young leader should be about, and exactly the sort of person that The Youth of Today should be championing.

So how can you help?

Can YOU give a

young person a

money-can’t-buy opportunity today?

The Young Achievers Trust recognise, celebrate and support brilliant young volunteers and we need your help…

The winners of the 2009 Young Achievers Awards for 16-25 year olds will be presented in November of this year. These are exceptional young people who have been volunteering to make their community a better place. As part of their follow on support we offer them an opportunity that money could not buy!

As a youth-led charity we are seeking support from potential partners who play a key role in the success of our work.

So how can YOU be involved?

• Could one of the winners come to one of your projects or meet your patron?
• Are you able to access a venue where we could hold our celebration event in November?
• Can you offer an internship or do you have access backstage at an impressive venue?

Last year the prizes offered included – A day shadowing Tony Juniper head of Friends of the Earth and a trip behind the scenes of ITN news production to be in the control room when the main news was going out live.

If there is anything that you can offer then do get in touch -

You will receive recognition on the Young Achievers website for any donation and will be kept updated with the progress of the winners over the following year. Please e-mail abbykegg@unltd.org.uk with:

Your Name:

Job Title:

Company/Organisation:

Email:

Telephone:

Money can’t buy opportunity that you can offer:

Thank-you for taking the time to respond.

www.youngachievers.co.uk

The first run of stars

Last week we were tasked with the exciting job of reading through a big pile of nominations to come up with this year’s Longlist. We’re pleased to be able to tell you the names of the 2009 stars below.  Every single person deserves a great deal of recognition for their commitment and we’re incredibly impressed with all the  achievements we’ve read about.

For each award – sports, environment, arts or community there are seven people for the two age categories. Four will make the shortlist with a chance to win £1,000 for personal and project development. The final three in each category  are commended young people.

Community (16-19)

Top 4
Abbi Morrall

Katrina Hammond

Olivia Prince

Steven Jones

Commended

Jack Sweetenham

Chloe Edmunds

Shubnit Bhumbra

Community (20-25)

Top 4
Adam Grodecki

Kristian Reed

Wliur Rahman

Amman Johal

Commended

Thomas Robbins

Nick Giaquinto

Leanne Coyle

Art (16-19)

Top 4
Rachel Edwards

John Maw

Adam Reed

Joe White

Commended

Sarah Pickup

Lowenna Hosken

Amar Sejpal

Art (20-25)

Top 4

Richard Tipple

Christopher Ashley

Paul O’Connor

Katy Dawe

Commended

Clifton West

Benjamin Taylor

Lois Wild

Environment (16-19)

Top 4
Ryan Brown

Katie Haywood

Rebecca Bailey

Sean Fowler

Commended

William Sandcraft

Sufyaan Mustak Patel

Daniel Wright

Environment (20-25)

Top 4

Anna Collins

Hanna Thomas

Kathy Marshall

Peter Forrest

Commended

Stuart Roe

Sport (16-19)

Top 4

Adam Leighton

Debbie Foote

Lydia Morgan

Chabris Napier Lawrence

Commended

Katy Delaney

Chris Graves

Michael Jones

Sport (20-25)

Top 4

Joanne S Davies

Hassan Ali

Dale Metcalfe

James Stott

Commended

Gillian Smith

Laura Ensoe

Rana Miah

Sporting success

As we count down to the deadline for submitting nominations for the 2009 awards, lets take a look at the progress of a 2008 Young Achiever a year after receiving the award.

Since winning last year, Rikki Colgate has continued delivering free weekly sessions on the Townsend Estate for youths in his Community. He now delivers two sessions a week .  Out of these sessions he has managed to enter the young people into local ASB diversionary football leagues held on Friday nights.

He has been invited to the Mayor’s Office for a select gathering of local Community Champions , he’s also made presentations to the Council Chamber on Bournemouthon Community Sport and its benefits.

He is now getting paid as a self employed Community coach thanks to support from local community grants and support from Anti Social Behaviour funding streams in the area. He’s the lead coach for Nacro on the estate and has under his tutelage 3 younger volunteers aged 16-18 who have seen the positive benefits of Rikki’s commitment to volunteering and are now involved themselves in giving back to their Community.

He is currently contemplating returning to Education to do a degree in a sports related discipline and is pondering travelling the world as a football coach – an idea that was alien to him before he won the award.

Rikki fully acknowledges that without the confidence of being nominated, never mind winning the award he would never be where he is today. He is blown away by how far a journey he has come on in such a short space of time and is thankful to all the help and encouragement he has received from the Young Achievers since winning last year.

We’re really proud of Rikki and look forward to more young people seeing their horizons expand through this awards scheme.

Thank you for changing my life

In a previous blog post, I mentioned we were looking for stories from Young Achievers from previous years and today we had a lovely email from a guy called Tristan Hale who was a winner ealier this decade. Here is what he had to say:

“In 2002 whilst a mathematics student at York University I set up and ran a sports volunteering programme at the university, supporting students to take sports coaching qualifications in return for them volunteering in local schools. I was lucky enough to be nominated for the Whitbread Young Achiever awards as they were then, and even more fortunate to be a runner up in the sport category.

Being a Young Achiever finalist had a massive effect on the course of my life. The recognition of the awards spurred me on to work even harder to support students and sport at the university and whilst it may have had a detrimental effect on my degree, it did make realise that not only did I enjoy sport development but I was actually quite good at it.

The real benefit of the awards was the support and opportunities that were provided after the ceremony. As a direct result of the awards I attended four European conferences and seminars where I not only learnt a lot, I made lifelong friends. It was a great honour to be invited back the following year and thanks to a chance conversation with Lisa Wainwright at the awards ceremony I was invited onto the Sports Innovation Team, working on the Year of the Volunteer 2005. Lisa then went on to write me a reference to for my MSc in Sport Management where my decision to leave maths behind was vindicated by my achieving a distinction and the award for best masters.

I am now Volunteer Development Officer for Northamptonshire Sport, developing volunteers and volunteering in sport across the county. I am also heavily involved in fencing and in January 2009 I became an Executive Director of England Fencing so my time as a volunteer certainly has not stopped.”

It’s great to hear Tristan’s story and it’s a reminder of how important recognition of this kind really is. It has certainly put a massive smile on our faces.

Francis: Young Achievers Awards nominee

Francis explains how he was nominated for a young achievers awards and what it takes to be a young achiever.

Recognising inspirational young people who’ve made a difference through their volunteer efforts, in the arts, community, environment and sport during the past 12 months.

Please note:
• All sections of this form must be completed as fully and clearly legible as possible.
• Supporting material will not be considered.
• If you’re nominating yourself, you will need to fill in the details of a sponsor or fellow volunteer or organisation who can verify your activities.
• Nominations must be for individuals who live in England, no group or international nominations will be considered.

I WOULD LIKE TO NOMINATE THE FOLLOWING PERSON AS A YOUNG ACHIEVER:
(You must obtain permission from the nominee before submitting the form)

1 – NOMINEE CATEGORY (please tick one)

• Young Arts Achiever
• Young Community Achiever
• Young Environment Achiever
• Young Sport Achiever

2 – NOMINEE

Male

Female

Title:

Name:

Address:

Postcode:

Email:

Telephone:

Date of Birth: Age:

3 – NOMINATOR/SPONSOR

I am a nominator, here are my details:

I am self-nominating, this is my sponsor:

Title:

Name:

Address:

Postcode:

Email:

Telephone:

Job Title:

Organisation:
Relationship to Nominee:

4 – BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Please provide as much relevant information as possible in no more than 200 words per question.
4.1
Describe the activity carried out by the nominee over the last 12 months.
eg. What have they been doing, how did they become involved, how much time spent on it, skills used?

4.3
What is so special about the nominee’s achievement?
eg. has the nominee demonstrated creativity or innovation or inspired others to volunteer? How has the nominees life changed as a result of the activity?

4.4
What wider community benefit or impact has the nominee’s activity had?
Eg. Have they created change in their community or raised awareness of an issue?

5 – HOW AND WHERE DID YOU HEAR ABOUT YOUNG ACHIEVERS?

5.1
Which organisation/newspaper/publication?
please specify:

____________________________________________________

5.2
What method?

By printed flyer

By e-flyer

By email

Via a website

By word of mouth

Through membership of an organisation
please specify:

____________________________________________________

I would like to receive more information about the Young Achievers Trust.

I confirm that to the best of my knowledge, all information on this form is correct, that I understand and abide by all terms and conditions, that the nominee has agreed to be
nominated and for their details to be used in publicity.

Signature ______________________________________(please type your name if e-mailing)

Date ______________________________________

____________________________________________________

Once fully filled in please e-mail to nominations@youngachievers.co.uk

If you are unable to email then please post in an
envelope clearly marked “YA Awards” to:

Youth Team,
UnLtd,
123 Whitecross Street,
London,
EC1Y 8JJ
____________________________________________________

The Search for England’s star achiever is on…

Yes, that’s right we’ve launched Young Achievers Awards nominations 2009.

If you or someone you know has achieved something special through their volunteering in community, art environment or sports, we’d like to know about it.

We want to recognise 56 young people in total – that’s 8 winners, 8 runners up, 16 shortlisted and 24 commended 16-25 year-olds. All 56 will receive some support and the winners and runners up will win cash prizes for personal and project development, an RSA fellowship and money can’t buy prizes.

Nominations close on 27th September 2009 and the winners will be announced at the end of a celebration day on 13th November 2009.

So, there’s no time like the present – nominate now through our website.

If you have any queries, don’t hesistate to contact us via info@youngachievers.co.uk

Best wishes,
Helen

YAT Nomination form 2009 (3)

Back on the scene

With a fresh faced bunch of young trustees and a fabulous mixture of new and unwavering support, we’re busy planning the launch of the 2009 awards. We’re brimming with ideas on how we can recognise inspirational young volunteers in exciting and valuable ways.

We’re also really interested in the heritage of Young Achievers. Lots of you will probably remember the Whitbread Awards and we’re looking for people who have been winners in the past, right up to the present decade, to come forward and tell us about their experiences. The aim is to build a picture of where we’ve come from and how people benefit from these awards year after year. Previous winners might also be interested in having some input in our current Trust.

So, if you were a winner or runner up and or you know anyone who was, please do tell them to drop us a line.

Watch this space for more news and stories from Young Achievers in the coming weeks…

Bye for now,
Helen – Young Achievers Trustee