Nomination Guidelines

Background

The Colchester Youth Awards Partnership is a collection of organisations and agencies keen to promote a positive image of young people in Colchester. The aim of these awards is to highlight and celebrate the success of young people and their continued commitment to the community in and around Colchester.

The categories for the awards are:

Volunteer
This award recognises the efforts of a young person who gives their time voluntarily for the benefit of others.
This could be as part of a group (i.e. Scouts, Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, Youth Club etc.) or individually.

Carer
This award will recognise a young person who has cared for someone else. This could be a family member or
friend, maybe during an illness or injury, or possibly has helped someone else to get through a difficult time.

Entrepreneur
Individuals or groups can be nominated for this award. We are looking for enterprising ideas, either in business
or in the community. This doesn't necessarily have to be a money making idea, but could possibly be something
like a community café or the setting up of a neighbourhood group. Other ideas may be the raising of sponsorship
to go on an educational trip or similar.

Environment
The Environment Award will go to an individual who has, by means of a particular project or an ongoing
commitment, significantly contributed to improving the environment. The judges will be looking for actions
that address either climate change matters directly or wider environmental issues. Nominations can be for
explicit action or for work that has clearly influenced the activities of others.

Arts
This award is open to individuals or groups who have made an outstanding contribution to the arts.
Applications would be welcome from the world of art including writers, artists, backstage crew etc.

Outstanding Achievement
This award will go to a team or individual for an outstanding achievement. This could be in sport, education, youth services, health issues, citizenship or any other field. We are looking for nominations that demonstrate great effort to reach certain goals, maybe you have achieved better than expected exam results or you have battled difficult circumstances to achieve your aims. You could be a team that managed to avoid relegation because of outstanding effort, or even someone who has conquered a fear. We are not necessarily looking for top of the league champions but it is the amount of effort that we are looking to recognise.

Community Improvement
This award will encourage young people to make a difference to their community. Ideas for community projects
will be assessed and the winner will receive £500 towards their project.

Personal Journey
This award acknowledges and recognises the achievement of a young person who has overcome personal challenges and difficulties in their life.

Nominations will be assessed by a panel of judges drawn from Young People, Partner Organisations and Award Sponsors.

Rules

Anyone may nominate a young person between 11 and 25 years of age.
People who are between 11 and 25 years of age may nominate themselves.
All sections of the form must be completed (see guidelines below).
Photos/DVDs/Supporting Statements etc can be attached but will not be returned so please send copies wherever possible.
Nominations must be received by 31st July 2008 .
Please complete the form in black or blue ink, or in type.

Data Protection

Any personal information given in this form about you, or a person you are nominating, will never be released to any companies or individuals outside of the authorised Colchester Youth Award partner organisations and will only be used in the judging process for the relevant award.

Completing the nomination form

When filling in the section of the form (to a maximum of 250 words) explaining why a person is being nominated you might like to consider the following areas:

Describe what the person/group has been doing. (e.g. Tom has been supporting his family by ……)
When/how long have they been doing this? (e.g. Tom began doing this 4 months ago ……)
What did they do/are they doing to achieve this? (e.g. what planning, organisation, skills do they use to carry out this activity?)
What are the reasons s/he/they are doing this?
How has the activity benefited others around the nominee? (e.g. Tom’s family are now able to …… - tell us what impact the activity has had on family, friends, the wider community etc.)
How has this helped the nominee develop as a person? (e.g. I feel their/my confidence has grown because …… etc.)

For an example of a completed nomination form please click here