Youth Awards
Responding to the lack of recognition for young people, young people on our Derby Youth Voice Group initiated the Derby Youth Awards. These awards were designed to celebrate young people and recognise the astounding achievements that young people aged 11-25 have accomplished each year at a special ceremony supported by local organisations and businesses. It was decided after these Awards that a young person who had previously won an Award should co-host future Awards.
During 2020, we were unfortunately unable to host the Youth Awards in person due to the Covid restrictions in place. That didn’t stop the young people coming up with a creative solution, and instead conducted a live stream of the Awards, which was then clipped together so that everyone could see them.
It was not long before young people from our other projects wanted to replicate this and as such, the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Youth Awards were born.
As traction grew and more businesses and organisations wanted to show their support for young people, the Awards also grew.
Hundreds of people came out to celebrate the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Youth Awards at Stoke City Football Club.
The 2022 Derby Youth Awards, hosted at Rolls Royce were the biggest that the young people had organised, with 300 people celebrating young people’s achievements.