How the UK’s young people want the world to change and what they are doing about it

Proving that you don’t have to be an adult to change the world, young people from all over the UK are being hailed for their pioneering projects and ground-breaking ideas that are changing the country. Campaigns run by young people to build a free-running training park, to help teenagers manage their money and be environmentally conscious, and to provide work experience for those at school have all been named as finalists in the Deutsche Bank CHANGEit awards.

Run by international leadership organisation Common Purpose and sponsored by Deutsche Bank, the CHANGEit awards aim to show that young people can make positive changes to society and to recognise the achievements and ambitions of young people, between the ages of 11-18, who are already doing so. The awards have nothing to do with academic achievement or exam grades, but everything to do with good citizenship and positive action.

CHANGEit consists of two categories: The Innovation awards, for young people who have big ideas that deserve to reach their full potential, and the Performance awards, for young people who deserve to have their campaigning efforts recognised. A few of the finalists in these categories include:

Performance finalists
·       Hayden, 16, from Birmingham, decided a year ago he wanted to support aspiring young musicians and work to change the stereotypes of young people who listen to or make R&B, rap and hip-hop music. He set up a recording studio in his bedroom and has since offered hundreds of young people the opportunity to try their hand at recording in a comfortable and relaxed environment.
·       Matthew, 18, from Milton Keynes, who suffers from Dyspraxia, created Matts-Hideout.co.uk when he was 11. It began as a website for him to talk about his frustrations with his disorder. He soon had a number of readers and the website expanded into a forum for young people from all over the UK and internationally to chat online about the issues they face with Dyspraxia.
·       Jack, 16, from Dover, set up the Green Footprint Group (GFG), a committee consisting of students from six local schools, which works to help each school and the wider community become more environmentally conscious.
·       Marley, Georgina, Sian and Skyler, who are aged between 13-16, from Tairgwaith, Wales, came up with Circle of Youth and began producing regular newsletters to inform people about local activities and the history of their community. They have since produced 20 newsletters and are regularly stopped on the street by community members wanting to chat about their articles.

Innovation finalists
·       Dylan 13, Paul, 14, Jake, 15, Mark, 15, from Leeds are known as The Rooftop Gorillaz, a group of free-runners who are campaigning to have a free-running training park built in their local area.
·       Emma, Jamie and Lewis, who are all 14 and from Edinburgh, are starting We Want to Work. It is a campaign to create work experience for young people under the age of 16 that provides practical training and skills as well as exposure to a variety of jobs they might want to pursue in the future.
·       Alex, 13, Henry, 13, Luke, 13 and Vignesh, 14, from Newcastle run Get Ca$h, Keep Ca$h. It is a campaign to inform young people about responsible finances via a website.
·       Tara, 14, from London, is starting Smile with Style, a campaign which aims to encourage young people to help each other. Tara is working to have young people from schools and youth clubs in South-East London design T-shirts to sell for the charity Smile Train and for funds to go back into local youth clubs.

Common Purpose Chief Executive, Julia Middleton, praises the finalists: "They are remarkable and courageous in the positive changes that they have brought to their communities. Their achievements have shown that young people can have a valuable leadership role in society."