Her Majesty will host the final Queen’s Young Leaders Awards Ceremony
Tuesday 26th June 2018
Her Majesty The Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, accompanied by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will host a reception at Buckingham Palace to present awards to the Queen’s Young Leaders for 2018.
The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme, now in its fourth and final year, celebrates the achievements of exciting young change-makers from across the Commonwealth. This year’s cohort, from across 38 countries, are working to improve the lives of people across a diverse range of issues including supporting people living with mental health problems, access to education, promoting gender equality, food scarcity and climate change.
Among the guests at the reception will be the Chairman of The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Sir John Major, Sir Lenny Henry, David Beckham, Nicola Adams, Caspar Lee, Neelam Gill, Ore Oduba and Tina Daheley.
The Queen was 26 years old when she became Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen’s Young Leaders programme was launched in 2014 in honour of Her Majesty’s lifetime of service to the Commonwealth – a global network of 53 countries and 2.4 billion people, of whom 60% are under 30 years old. In April 2018, The Duke of Sussex was appointed a Commonwealth Youth Ambassador by The Queen.
In the week leading up to the reception, the winners will travel to the UK to participate in a programme of training, mentoring and networking opportunities. This includes workshops at the University of Cambridge and visits to No 10, the UK headquarters of Facebook and the BBC World Service.
The award presentation will be broadcast on Facebook Live, bringing the winners’ families from around the Commonwealth inside the Ballroom at Buckingham Palace.
Background – The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme and the Awards
The Queen’s Young Leaders Award is part of The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme, an initiative established by The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust in partnership with Comic Relief, the Royal Commonwealth Society and the University of Cambridge, in recognition of Her Majesty’s lifetime of service to the Commonwealth.
Launched in 2014 by The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex the first round of Queen’s Young Leaders visited the United Kingdom in 2015. Each year from 2014 to 2018, 60 exceptional young people were selected to receive a Queen’s Young Leaders Award and become ‘Queen’s Young Leaders’ – one for every year that The Queen had served as Head of the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee. Guided by the values of the Commonwealth Charter, the goal of the programme is to enable young people to step up as leaders and improve the lives of people across the Commonwealth.
Legacy
The complete network of Queen’s Young Leaders has now been established. While the Programme may no longer be looking for new Award winners, this is just the beginning of The Queen’s Young Leaders’ journey. Over the next 18 months, the Queen’s Young Leaders Programme will continue to champion the initiatives being undertaken by award winners and Highly Commended Runners-Up, support their networks and share their stories. A £200,000 Legacy Fund, open to all 240 Queen’s Young Leaders and 282 Highly Commended Runners-Up, to apply for grants to help elevate their work and enable them to work together to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing the Commonwealth will also open in September 2018.
The Queen’s Young Leaders form a unique, dedicated and powerful group of young people from 53 Commonwealth countries who are connecting, collaborating and changing lives together – and they will continue to do so for years to come.
More information about The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme and the Awards is available via the following link: http://www.queensyoungleaders.com
