QUESTIONS? CALL: 020 7250 8374
  • News
  • Press Office
  • Blog
  • Resources

British Youth Council

British Youth Council

We empower young people across the UK to have a say and be heard

02072508374
Email: info@byc.org.uk

British Youth Council
CAN Mezzanine 49-51 East Road London N1 6AH

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Programmes & Services
  • Campaigns
  • Members
  • Support Us
  • Contact Us
DONATE
 January 17, 2021

Tag: awards

  • 0
Rhammel Afflick
Thursday, 23 April 2020 / Published in News, UK Youth Parliament

Members of Youth Parliament nominated for the National Diversity Awards

Dmitrijs Meiksans and Faith Oliver have been nominated for the National Diversity Awards 2020 for their work as Members of Youth Parliament and advocates within their communities. The National Diversity Awards celebrate the excellent achievements of grass-root communities that tackle the issues in today’s society.

Dmitrijs, aged 14, was nominated for the Positive Role Model award in the Age category, in recognition of his work within the youth sector, his dedication to supporting young people’s mental health and speaking out about bullying. Besides being a Member of Youth Parliament, Dmitrijs is also heavily involved within his local community. He is the Vice-Chair of the Hampshire Youth Network, Youth Ambassador for local Test-Valley based charity Unity and the Youth Advisor to the Board of Trustees for Andover Trees United.

Dmitrijs Meiksans, Member of Youth Parliament for Member of Youth Parliament for North West Hampshire, said: “Shocked is not the word to describe what I am feeling. I feel grateful and thankful to whoever nominated me for this honourable award.”

He continued to say: “I never thought doing something you were passionate about would win you anything. I simply started with a goal to make a difference to young people’s lives and inspire those who have struggled with their mental health and those who have experienced bullying”.

Faith, aged 16, was also nominated for the Positive Role Model award, within the LGBT category, highlighting the powerful and inspiring work Faith does for the community, including her campaign to criminalise conversion therapy.

Faith Oliver, Member of Youth Parliament for Stockport said: “I greatly appreciate my nomination for this year’s National Diversity Awards. I take great pride in being able to represent my community. Being recognised for my work on criminalising conversion therapy and reducing the stigma around speaking up about hate crime makes me extremely grateful.”

Both of these young people continue to make a momentous difference to both young people and their communities and we would encourage everyone to vote for them in their respective categories. Voting is now open until Friday 15th May.

Amanda Chetwynd-Cowieson, Chair, British Youth Council, the charity which organises UK Youth Parliament, said: “Congratulations to Faith and Dmitrijs! I’m delighted to learn they have been nominated for a National Diversity Award for the tremendous social action they have led on in their local communities.

“Young people are committed to bringing about social and political change in their community and I’m excited to hear to see the value of their voices being recognised by such a prestigious award”

To vote for Dmitrijs, please visit www.tinyurl.com/DMKVoteVote and to vote for Faith, please visit www.tinyurl.com/VoteForFO

awardsMembers of Youth ParliamentNational Diversity AwardsUK Youth Parliamentyoung peopleyouth voice
  • 0
Rhammel Afflick
Friday, 08 March 2019 / Published in News, Press

Local projects recognised with Youth Voice Star Awards

Local projects have been recognised in the British Youth Council’s Youth Voice Star Awards. The awards celebrate the breadth and diversity of local work happening across the UK to promote young people’s voices.

The celebratory ceremony, which took place in London, was a chance to recognise the youth workers who make it happen, the change makers that champion young people, the organisations that give a platform to youth voice, and projects doing things differently to address local and national issues.

Amanda Chetwynd-Cowieson, Chair, British Youth Council said: “It really is inspiring to see some many people are working hard to promote the voices of young people.

“Young people continue to lobby for change on the issues that matter to them. It’s absolutely imperative we recognise those young people, the organisations behind them and the staff – who often work with limited resources – to make sure young people can influence decision makers regardless.”

The following awards were announced:

Award for Personal Development:

Jessica Griffiths from Kent
Jess Griffiths, is an active member of the Kent Youth County Council (KYCC). When Jess first came to KYCC as a very shy young person, she didn’t speak to anyone, wouldn’t make eye contact and wouldn’t speak out in groups.  Jess is a very different person today, she has really developed her confidence, she now supports new members of KYCC and is a positive role model for new KYCC members.

Celebrating Diversity Award:

BYOU in Wigan
BYOU are an LGBTQ support and Action group, BYOU have actively campaigned for positive change in Wigan’s Borough, The team have developed and successfully implemented 3 successive Pride events which set up in 2016. As well as this huge event for the borough BYOU have developed training which has been delivered to over 50 Teaching staff, elected members and more recently has become an integral part of our Foster Carers training. Now set as a requirement for all foster carers.

Young Campaigner of the Year:

Adam Shaikh from Sandwell
Adam Shaikh is 21 years old and the former Youth Commissioner of Sandwell and Chair of SHAPE Youth Forum. After going through childhood and adolescence with a painful past, Adam joined Youth Parliament and from being a quiet young man grew in confidence and was well respected by his peers. Adam was elected as Youth Commissioner of Sandwell 2 years ago. He grew a strong relationship with the Commissioner and senior officers within West Midlands Police and presented the Youth Summit in 2016.

Youth Led Project Award:

Bright Minds Big Futures in Stockton
In 2017 Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council made a pledge to put young people at the heart of all that we do and work together with children and young people to make the Borough a great place to grow up. In March 2017 a Coordinator was appointed to make this a reality. Without a budget, clear concept and objectives the task began. They worked from the ground up, ensuring that young people were there from the beginning to lead on the direction of travel and fully develop and implement the initiative.

Youth Voice Champion:

Tim Taylor Director of Customer Services at South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive
Tim Taylor has worked tirelessly to improve the experience of young people on public transport in South Yorkshire. He was central to the formation of the South Yorkshire Young People’s User Group in which youth representatives from across the region meet several times a year with transport operators and decision makers to raise and challenge issues and policies on transport.

Youth Voice Worker of the Year:

Sarah Bellamy, from Rotherham
Sarah Bellamy has worked with young people for over 15 years, working tirelessly to support children and young people. “Sarah is best thing that I have got from youth voice. She is the most important person in my life after my family and I don’t know how I’m going to live without her in my life. She is superhuman.”

Find out more about the Youth Voice Star Awards

awardsyouth voice
  • 0
Rhammel Afflick
Tuesday, 13 September 2016 / Published in News

British Youth Council announced as finalist for national awards

The British Youth Council has been shortlisted as a finalist for two Children and Young People Now Awards – ‘Tne Youth Volunteering and Social Action Award’ and ‘The Children and Young People’s Charity Award’. The nominations are in recognition of the volunteers, partners and staff who came together to ensure over 960,000 young people had their say during UK Youth Parliament’s Make Your Mark campaign in, UK Youth Parliament’s 2015 campaign for better mental health services, ‘Time to Talk’ and it’s most recent campaign on racism and religious discrimination, ‘Don’t Hate, Educate’.  The second nomination for Charity Award is for the charity’s work in giving young people a voice through its democracy-based initiative, Youth Voice, across the UK.

UK Youth Parliament’s Make Your Mark campaign has cemented its place as the UK’s largest referendum of young people with more young people having their say year on year. The Make Your Mark campaign gives young people a say on what is discussed by their Members of Youth Parliament in their annual House of Commons debate. Both this year’s topics were also made subjects of British Youth Council’s Youth Select Committee inquiries which attract a formal Government response and dialogue between young people and Ministers.

‘Don’t Hate, Educate!’ has seen Members of Youth Parliament working in their communities to reduce racism and racial discrimination. Over the last year, UK Youth Parliament have campaigned, in partnership with Kick It Out, to challenge negative attitudes around race and religion; work with others to educate their communities in order to tackle ignorance about race and religion, and promote integration in their communities.

UK Youth Parliament’s devolved campaign, ‘Time to Talk’, involved Members of Youth Parliament striving to improve young people’s access to school counsellors within their place of learning. The campaign, which was developed in partnership with Youth Access, also saw Members of Youth Parliament call on decision makers to ensure that schools allocate enough time for students to see school counsellors; and that they are safe, professional and youth friendly.

The Children & Young People Now Awards have become the gold standard for everyone working with children, young people and families. Now in their eleventh year, these awards provide a great source of pride and recognition for all those who strive day in, day out, to improve the lives of others. They offer an opportunity to raise the profile of projects and initiatives to funders and the general public.

The awards present a tremendous showcase of learning and best practice from across the country that can be an inspiration to all. They also recognise initiatives from the public, private and voluntary sector that work with children and young people from birth to adolescence as well as their families. Initiatives might be aimed at all children and families within a community or targeted at those who are the most vulnerable or disadvantaged.

Anna Barker, Chair, British Youth Council said: “It’s exciting to see the work of our young people and staff celebrated at a national level. UK Youth Parliament’s Make Your Mark campaign is the largest referendum of young people in the UK, and each year the UK Youth Parliament has managed to reach even more young people but I’m equally pleased to see their mental health campaign and ‘Don’t Hate, Educate’ campaign recognised. Mental health has been a longstanding priority for young people, and racism and religious discrimination, an issue that has become more prevalent post-Brexit, must be tackled in modern Britain.”

James Cathcart, Chief Executive, British Youth Council said: “I’m very proud that the work of the young volunteers, partners and team has been recognised, particularly at time when youth voice and its champions needs to be heard and supported more than ever before”

awardsballotcampaignChildren & Young People NowMake Your Markmental healthpollracismreferendumsocial actionyouthyouth voice

Recent Posts

  • British Youth Council calls on government to replace lost EU funding

    The British Youth Council are calling on the UK...
  • Young people call for a body confident future

    In 2017 the Youth Select Committee held an inqu...
  • Recognition for youth work – an honour to be honoured

    When I received the email notifying me that I h...
  • Young people held back by barriers to employment, report concludes

    The British Youth Council’s UK Young Ambassador...
  • Reflections on being UK Young Ambassador to EU Youth Dialogue Report

    Coming to the end of my role as UK Young Ambass...

Email us: info@byc.org.uk

Call us: 020 7250 8374

Registered Charity no. 1123224 Company Limited by Guarantee no. 6226595

Registered in England and Wales
Registered Office: CAN Mezzanine, 49-51 East Road,
London, N1 6AH.

  • ABOUT
  • PRESS
  • COMPLAINTS
  • GET SOCIAL
British Youth Council

British Youth Council © 2016 All rights reserved.

TOP