We’re so pleased to share that to date, over 100,000 children and young people have participated in the Young Leaders Award!

This is a huge achievement for us, and we feel privileged to have been involved in so many stories of young people supporting their communities.

We believe, now more than ever, that it is important for young people to learn leadership skills and character virtues that will help support their development in the school setting and beyond.

To celebrate 100,000 children and young people taking part in the YLA, wanted to share a few of our favourite YLA stories from the last year.

10-year-old Lewis recently won the 'Young Leader of the Year in Calderdale' Award, after he organised a football tournament for his local community.

He held the event after being inspired by his Young Leaders Award, to raise money for two charities: Andy's Man Club, who work to raise awareness of male suicide and Mission with a Vision, who help young Kenyan girls escape genital mutilation. Lewis raised nearly £2,000 through the event, and even scored the winning goal of the tournament!

Watch Lewis' story here.

Year 11 student and Young Leaders Award graduate Amelia has started her own social young enterprise company, donating all profits to the homeless.

After taking part in the Young Leaders Award, 15-year-old Amelia became passionate about reaching out to her local community in order to support those who live around her. She noticed the need to support those who are homeless in her community, so committed to do something about it.

Challenged to get other people also wanting to do something about it, she delivered assemblies in school about homelessness, inspiring 42 students and 7 members of staff to sleep rough for a night outside her school.

From this sleep out, 10 students formed a social young enterprise company called ‘Supporting the Streets’, of which Amelia is the Managing Director. On the day of the sleep out, Supporting the Streets provided over 600 portions of soup from donated produce for the homeless.

Read more of Amelia's story here.

Students from Bingley Grammar School have been running the Young Leaders Award for the past three years with Year 7 pupils.  

The Young Leaders Award is a fully resourced leadership and character education programme, designed by the Archbishop of York Youth Trust, to be delivered by teaching staff within the classroom. The Award has empowered over 100,000 pupils from 850 schools to learn and practice key leadership skills and character virtues and to transform their communities through social action.  

Part of the KS3 Young Leaders Award encourages pupils to think about what they are passionate about, and how they want to ‘be the change they want to see’ in their communities. While taking part in the Award, one student leader from Bingley Grammar developed a passion for politics and wanted to share this with other Young Leaders. Through carrying out a social action project to help the elderly at Thompson Court Care Home, he met representatives from the local MP's office and took the opportunity to engage with them. Impressed by his commitment, communication and interest in bringing about change, he was offered an apprenticeship in their office.

During the apprenticeship, he took part in debates, went canvasing, studied the news and became aware of local issues within his community. As a result, he organised a trip for other pupils to visit the Houses of Parliament, where they met the Head of Diversity and Inclusion for the Houses of Commons and had a tour of the Houses of Parliament.

Watch the full Bingley Grammar story here.