The Prince's Trust awards celebrate achievements of young people
Annual awards recognise accomplishments of young people who have made a difference in their own lives and lives of others
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Your support makes all the difference.The Prince of Wales joined award winners, celebrities, family members and supporters at London Palladium to pay tribute to young people who have made a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.
The Prince’s Trust and TKMaxx & Homesense Awards recognise young people who have overcome issues such as abuse, drug addiction, homelessness and depression, and made a success of their lives after working alongside the trust on training programmes, community projects, and to set up businesses.
This year’s awards were hosted by Phillip Schofield and Fearne Cotton. Prince Charles joined celebrities including Danny Dyer, Tinie Tempah, Anne Marie and Clara Amfo.
Here are the winners of this year's awards:
National Ascential Educational Achiever Award:
Jay Kelly’s school grades began to suffer after he realised he was different to other girls his age when he was 14.
Later when he began living as a man, his family struggled to accept his decision.
“This coupled with struggles with my mental health meant I didn’t get the grades I wanted at GCSE and when I was studying to retake them my mental health deteriorated further and I was hospitalised for four months,” said the 18-year-old, from Portsmouth.
After taking part in the trust’s Fairbridge programme, he no longer self-harms and has moved to London to study mental health nursing at university. He said he was excited about what the future holds.
National Homesense Young Achiever Award:
After suffering years of systemic abuse, Dylan England thought everything was his fault.
But when he saw the same thing happening to other children, he knew he had to do something and reported it to the police and gave evidence in court.
“It was an incredibly difficult time in my life,” he said. “I felt completely isolated and at my lowest point. I still had to go to school and do my GCSEs, but inside I wanted to die and tried to take my own life.”
After taking part in a 12-week programme which helps unemployed young people gain confidence and skills, he said his confidence soared and he is now an assistant team leader and a young ambassador.
National NatWest Enterprise Award:
Now 27, Jazmin Lee lost her mother at the age of seven and had to balance being a carer for her grandmother with pursuing her dream career in the fashion industry.
Despite struggling with her self-image and bullying, the Brighton native pulled through and with the support of The Prince’s Trust now runs successful business Plus Equals, which redefines what it means to be fashionable and plus size.
She said: “Being overweight, people didn’t take me seriously when I said I wanted to pursue fashion and this, alongside my caring responsibilities, affected my education and I ended up with only three GCSEs to my name and suffering from depression.
“When my grandmother passed away I felt I had hit rock bottom, but then eventually things began to get better. When my creativity began to develop, I realised that there is room for everyone, including me, and it was time to create my own space.”
National Delta Air Lines Rising Star Award:
After falling pregnant while still at school, single mum Rachel Smyth, 24, from Glenburn, was intent on doing well so she could provide for her son.
But after she left college and she struggled to find work and money ran low.
“I thought I’d easily get a hairdressing job after studying it at college, but there was nothing going and I was forced to sign on for Job Seekers Allowance,” she said. "Sometimes money was so tight I couldn’t afford the electricity to warm the house and often lived off one meal a day so that my son could have three.”
Rachel enrolled on the trust’s six-week Get into Healthcare scheme run in partnership with the NHS and was ecstatic when she secured a job with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde at the end of it.
National Mappin & Webb Young Ambassador Award:
Grace Graham had to deal with the early death of her father when she was 15 and the trauma of a sexual assault a few years later.
Then her boyfriend was murdered during her first year of university.
Despite everything she persevered and graduated – but when reality caught up with her she turned to alcohol to cope.
“A few years later I approached The Prince’s Trust with an idea to set up my own corporate massage business,” said Grace, who has helped raise more than £370,000 for the trust through her work as a Young Ambassador.
“I really believe in the benefits of holistic services and my business, WorkSpa, brings a variety of well-being services to the workplace to reduce employee stress and improve productivity.”
National Dell EMC Community Impact Award:
After noticing North and West Belfast had the highest number of suicides in Northern Ireland, Team 34, made up of Laura Gorman, Cameron Carson, Aoife O'Reilly, Matthew Duggan, Celine Smyth, Demi-Leigh Bateson, Laurie McKay and Connor McMullan, who met through the trust, decided to do something about it.
“We contacted PIPS, a local suicide prevention charity, and they told us that most of the community programmes were designed by adults, for adults; it was obvious we needed one for young people,” said Laura.
“We called our programme HOPE, which stands for Hold On, Pain Ends, and created PowerPoint presentations, videos and breakout activities designed to help build young people’s resilience and their ability to support each other.”
Mentor of the Year in Association with Good Morning Britain:
Rahul Mehra has supported young people through running employability programmes for The Prince’s Trust over the past three years.
He recently designed a visual merchandising course as part of the programme to give young people the opportunity to learn about brand, product placement, design and store presentation, and he has mentored over 100 young people through his work.
He said: “I’ve always had mentors in both my professional and personal lives, and that experience of having people nurture me and help me grow has allowed me to do the same for others.”
National HSBC Breakthrough Award:
Kieran Egan was not an attractive proposition for an employer.
He had been arrested for hooliganism, was homeless and could not hold down a job. But the trust’s programme Team taught him not to be defined by his past.
He is now working and studying for his Level 2 qualification in active sports leadership and also volunteers on the Team programme.
“I feel more confident and happier,” he said. “I’ve also rebuilt the relationship with my mum and see her regularly now, which is great. My life is good.”
Aga Khan Development Network Global Award:
Eighteen-year-old Nilam Tambe lives in Bhavani Nagar, a slum in the Indian city of Mumbai, with her mum, dad and two younger siblings.
Home is a kitchen, toilet and shared sleeping area.
She felt the strain of her father, a labourer on a construction site, trying to provide for the entire family and for three children in education and began looking for a job to help keep her younger siblings in education.
Nilam learnt employability skills such as IT and English through the trust’s Magic Bus programme which helped her “successfully achieve her dream” and she was eventually offered a supervisor role.
Aga Khan Development Network Global Award:
Ahmad Abu Rumman, 28, lives in a tight-knit tribal neighbourhood in Salt, near Jordan, where he used to hang around causing trouble with his cousins and friends.
“Living in a tribal neighbourhood with no high school diploma and no work is difficult, I was immersed in a community of trouble makers, so that is what I leaned towards,” he said.
Ahmad moved hours away to work for his uncle’s business, but when an argument in the community caused it to collapse he went back to his old ways.
After finding the Prince’s Trust’s Finding the Team programme three years later, he became inspired by the natural beauty around him and convinced the Jordan Trail Network to extend the trail to his hometown. He now works as a guide on the trail and as a youth leader teaching psychosocial support.
The Independent was a media partner of this year's Educational Achiever Award.
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