The President's Award Youth Committees

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At the National Youth Committees Workshop held in the friendly city of Port Elizabeth, during April 2007.

Overview

The first Youth Committee in The President’s Award (TPA) was established in the mid-1990s amongst participating schools in Grahamstown.  Since then, the following Youth Committees have been established: 

• August 2004 – Boland Youth Committee
• July 2006 – Port Elizabeth Youth Committee
• March 2007 – Johannesburg Youth Committee
• October 2008 - Cape Town Youth Committee 

Initially, the Youth Committees only accommodated youth from participating schools.  Due to the development of the Phakama Section (high-risk youth from residential youth centres and community-based groups) within TPA in 2004, Units within this Programme Section were included and the name changed from Schools Youth Committee to, simply, Youth Committee.  

In April 2007, the different Youth Committees from the regions attended the first joint workshop on the operation of the Youth Committees within TPA. Click Here to read a summary of this national workshop.

Boland YC 2007 

 " We have been developed not only as people but as leaders who can and will make a difference in the Award Programme as well as in our diverse nation" (Boland YC) .

Gauteng YC 2007                                               

  "There are so many different people out there who share my passion to inspire people to make a difference. We have shared a combination of incredible insights and inspiring vision and I now feel both rciher and ready to tackle the tremendous tasks that lie ahead" (Brad Mostert, Gauteng YC).

Grahamstown YC 2007

  " I've probably just gone through the most amazing and life altering experience I will ever go through. My mind is filled with ideas, plans and hopes. It feels like I can achieve anything. We as a Committee and a National Award have set ouselves a mountain to move and here we started to move the first stones" (Zane Watkins, Grahamstown YC Chairperson, 2007).

Port Elizabeth YC 2007

   "We as the Youth Committee of Port Elizabeth really needed this workshop! We have found stability, structure and a foundation to a positive future. Through this experience we as a committee have learned to combine our different strengths, even though we come from vast backgrounds" (Tracy King and Justin Wools, PE YC).   

Growing Youth Committees, Growing the Award!

The Youth Committee is not a new phenomenon in TPA, but various new Youth Committees have been established in the past few years.  Due to the potential of collective effort amongst participants and the benefits derived from such an integrated approach, TPA is committed to establish more Youth Committees.  All stake holders benefit from the Award participants getting together and planning Award activities that impact their own lives and their communities significantly.  The young people extend the reach of the Award significantly and wherever a Youth Committee is active, there the Award will grow.

“My dear young people, I see the light in your eyes, the energy of your bodies and the hope that is in your spirit. I know that it is you, not I, who will make the future.  It is you, not I, who will fix our wrongs and carry forward all that is right in the world.”            Nelson Mandela