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Millennium Commission Award winners have scooped two of the three awards for Whitbread Young Achievers this year. More than 500 nominations were received for the awards which celebrate the achievements of inspirational young people throughout the United Kingdom in the community, the environment and sport.
Winner of the Whitbread Young Sports Achiever Award is Adam Hyland, a 19-year-old from Poole. Adam won a Whizzkidz Millennium Award in 2002 which he used to create new sporting opportunities for young disabled people, despite having cerebral palsy himself. Having been told that he wouldn’t be able to participate in any school sports, he used his Whizzkidz Award to set up his own football team for people in wheelchairs, encouraging the players to integrate with able-bodied players. Even though he has left school, Adam’s legacy remains in that there are now three full-size squads, one of which uses wheelchairs, and he returns every week to run a training session. Adam has continued to break down barriers, setting up the “Poole Physically Challenged Football Team” for young people with mixed disabilities, and developing plans for the establishment of a regional disabled football league 21-year-old James Hurrell from Tower Hamlets received the Whitbread Young Community Achiever Award for his work in developing several inspirational youth projects. In 1998, James won a Summer University Millennium Award to become a Summer University Ambassador, receiving team leadership and skills training and help setting up a project. His project developed into Tolerance in Diversity – a youth-led charity aimed at tackling racism. In 1999, he also set up the London Youth Forum. Tolerance in Diversity now has a budget of over £60,000 per annum and is run by a diverse group of some 30 volunteers, concentrating on creating new community and voluntary sector partnerships. As well as working in London on the Teviot estate, James also worked in Bradford after the riots, facilitating similar understandings. Latest calculations on James’s work indicate an impact on over 3,000 young people and fundraising successes of nearly £200,000. He is currently developing his latest venture ECHO (Empowering Creativity for Hope and Opportunity). “It is particularly pleasing that Adam and James received their Whitbread awards as a direct result of the work they did on their Millennium Award projects,” says Erica Roberts Director of Millennium Awards at the Millennium Commission. “It proves what can be done when courage and ingenuity are underpinned by financial support and dedicated mentoring.” -ends- Notes to Editors • The Millennium Awards Scheme is a unique £200 million programme of small grants to individual people funded by the Millennium Commission with National Lottery funds. • People of all ages, backgrounds and abilities from all parts of the UK can apply for a Millennium Award of around £2,000 to put their own bright ideas into action, fulfilling a personal goal and, in doing so, benefiting their communities • Awards are distributed through charities and other organisations with a track record in grant making. These are known as Award Partners. www.millennium.gov.uk
www.starpeople.org.uk
Millennium Commission 24th-June-2003
Categories: News, News Archive
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