1 What is Young People of the Year or YOPEY (pronounced yop-ee)?. A - - PDF document

1

Introduce yourself and Young People of the Year or ‘YOPEY’ (pronounced yop-ee) to your audience. (Guidance – anything in brackets is not for reading to your audience – below you will read short scripts for each of the slides in this presentation in this folder on the YOPEY schools CD. We suggest printing this out before you

• present. At the presentation you can run either the Powerpoint display or the

PDF document as their content is identical. However we recommend the Powerpoint as this will support you more fully. For instance, the TV clip in this folder will have to be run separately if you use the PDF. By all means go ‘off script’ and add in your own material to further inspire your audience. Thank you for doing this and we looking forward to receiving nominations from your students.)

2

What is Young People of the Year or ‘YOPEY’ (pronounced yop-ee)?. A short film by television news helps to explain a lot…

3

(No need to say anything while film is playing)

4

A former national newspaper journalist called Tony Gearing set up YOPEY. He used to work on The Daily Telegraph and before that The Independent. A few years ago Tony became fed up with the ‘bad press’ his industry was giving young people. So in 2005 he ran the first ‘YOPEY’ in his home town of Royston in Hertfordshire. It was such a great success that he has gone on to run more YOPEYs in bigger towns and counties. And now Scotland! YOPEY wants your help to find young people who ‘give to others’. They can then be ‘Revealed, Recognised and Rewarded’ as young Positive Role Models and nominated for cash prizes.

5

Look at these headlines. Adults who believe these headlines could think every young person is a binge-drinking, drug-taking, violent hoodie. More seriously though, research shows nearly three in four media articles – 71% – about young people have a negative tone, 15% are neutral while only 14% are

• positive. That’s fewer than one in every seven articles about young people are

nice about you. Yet we all know the vast majority of young people are good and some are fantastic! However, the press aren’t the only ones to blame for this unfair bad image

6

We all know the vast majority of young people are good – and that some are FANTASTIC! All the young people pictured here have been entered in YOPEYs for doing something positive for their community. To date over 4,000 young people have been nominated for YOPEY. They ‘give to others’ – in many different ways that YOPEY ‘reveals, recognises and rewards’. Each YOPEY competition ends with an Awards Ceremony that celebrates their ‘giving to others’. The goal of YOPEY is simple… …to put fantastic young people back in the spotlight – by telling their amazing

• stories. Then they will become true Positive Role Models for other young

people to emulate. And then, hopefully, they will replace the negative stereotypes that dominate the media.

7

This is the positive publicity achieved for young people by YOPEY in just one English county. Imagine how many good stories about young people it could achieve in Scotland with over 160 newspapers, plus radio and TV stations…

8

YOPEY has a BIG fan in the Prime Minister! Mr and Mrs Brown recently invited several YOPEY winners to No 10 Downing Street for a reception to celebrate their achievements.

9

This is what the Prime Minister said about YOPEY!

10

How does YOPEY operate? Like school, it has its ‘3 Rs’. Unlike school, all three of YOPEY’s ‘3 Rs’ are spelt with an R! (You can laugh here )

11

YOPEY Reveals Young Unsung Heroes with the help of the community – that’s you (address your audience) – telling YOPEY about them. That’s where the people here (in this assembly hall/ classroom/etc) come in. YOPEY needs you to nominate young people via its website yopey.org or on the entry forms available today. (Show them a copy printed off from the CD.) YOPEY Recognises Young Unsung Heroes with the help of the ‘villains of the piece’ – the media – by getting them to publish positive stories about young people entered into the competition. Yopey founder Tony Gearing says you’d be amazed how pleased the media is to do this – many papers have put YOPEY entries on their front pages. Good news does sell!

12

And finally, at Award Ceremonies, YOPEY Rewards the very best with prize money put up by local businesses, large and small. The Buchanan’s of Scotland Young People of the Year has £6,000 in cash prizes to be won with a top prize of £2,000 and lots of other cash prizes. Each cash prize is shared equally between the winner – possibly one of you here – and a good cause of your choice – such as a youth club, charity or even this

• school. But it is the young winner’s choice where the money goes!

YOPEY has awarded over £60,000 in cash prizes – half to young people and half to their communities.

13

If I tell you the stories behind a few YOPEY entries, hopefully it will help you to recognise the potential winners among you here in school and among the people you know outside of school. Remember, these young people will not necessarily be the top achievers in academic work or at sport. They will simply ‘give to others’ in ways that you think are special...

14

So while we go through these examples, think… Do I know someone like this?

15

Joshua helps to care for his older brother Sam, who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy and is in a wheelchair. As Josh says: “There are lots of things I do for Sam that everyone else takes for

• granted. Like putting the Playstation controller in his hand or putting his hand
• n the computer. Feeding him Big Macs – when Mum lets me – and holding up

cans of coke with a straw. Just stuff we all take for granted really.” So do you know a young carer like Josh? They could be helping to look after a brother or sister, or possibly their mum or dad, or maybe even someone they’re not related to.

16

Amateur actors Richard and Sonya help run two drama clubs for children. Sonya says: “I feel genuinely proud when children perform a play I have helped prepare. Seeing the joy it brings their parents gives me a real sense of achievement.” So do you go to a club run by young leaders like Richard and Sonya? It doesn’t have to be a theatre club. It could be a dance club. It could be Scouts or

• Guides. It could be a general youth club. Often these clubs are run by people

not much older than yourselves, and YOPEY is open to young people aged up to 25…

17

Peter spent his gap year teaching English in Africa. He was shocked to find his classes contained up to 160 pupils and sometimes he had to teach them under trees because there wasn’t enough classrooms. So when he got back to England he started to fund-raise to build a single classroom, which in Uganda costs only £2,000. Three years later he had raised

• ver £50,000, built 24 classrooms, several teachers’ houses and equipped an

Aids orphanage. Over 5,000 Ugandan children have benefited from Peter’s

• work. And all while he was studying for his degree!

What are students you know doing on their gap years or at university? Maybe you’d like to nominate an older brother or sister or someone else you know for the work they have done after leaving school…

18

Girl Guide Lucy helps to run a Rainbow unit for 15 girls aged 5 to 7. She is always ready to help and makes sure all the girls are included in activities, supporting less able and less confident children sensitively. The Rainbows enjoy working and playing with Lucy and respect her for her fairness particularly when playing games. Lucy says: “I used to be a Rainbow in the same pack and want to give the Rainbows the same enjoyable experiences I had.” Do you belong to a uniformed youth organisation – it doesn’t have to be the Guides, it could be Scouts, Boys or Girls Brigades etc – and know a Young Leader like Lucy?

19

Becky is the chief fund-raiser at her school, making tireless efforts to contribute to charities. In one school year she led her fellow sixth-formers to raise £7,000 through concerts, discos and even a sleep-out where everyone lived like the homeless for one night. Do you know a fund-raiser like Becky? Or you can nominate a whole group

• f people such as a fund-raising committee as YOPEY is not just open to
• individuals. It is also open to joint entries, for young people in twos and threes

and larger groups – even whole schools. Just like the individual entries, group entries have to ‘give to others’.

20

This group of teenagers came from an area that lost three young men to drug abuse – out of a population of just a few thousand – in 15 months! So they formed a drama group called the Song And Dance Seniors or SADS and put on a hard-hitting play to show adults how easy it is for youngsters to fall into the local ‘drugs scene’. The play was performed to over 400 people and “it taught the adults a lesson because they didn’t think this was happening with their young people,” said the 15-year-old playwright, Do you know someone who has campaigned against drugs, maybe in this way, maybe in another?

21

Lee has a talent for sports, though this doesn’t mean he’s his school’s top goal scorer or run maker. Lee found he had a talent for teaching sport to disabled children. He gives an hour of his time each week to a special school after his own school finishes. His success and enthusiasm has even encouraged some of his schoolmates to join him at the special school. To help a deaf boy play sport, Lee learned a lot of sign language in a short time. Do you know someone who gives a lot of time to sport, not as the leading goal-scorer, but in some other way that involves ‘giving to others’?

22

For the service part of his gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Greg Entwistle helped a 10-year-old autistic boy, Jacob. Greg was only required to help Jacob for three months to win his gold award. He stayed for 18 months until he went to university this autumn. Jacob’s mum Pamela said: “The work Greg did went far beyond caring, as he took part in a structured programme, helping our son learn vital social and communication skills. He did work one-on-one with Jacob, building his speech and language skills through worksheets, games and role play. He used his favourite topics – Roald Dahl, Disneyland Paris – to engage him and help him stay focused. He taught him play skills, using K'Nex and building models (which both boys love).” Greg said helping Jacob was “the most beneficial thing I got out of the D of E scheme and possibly out of my teenage years.”

23

Jenni and Yvette ran the Sunday school at their church. Jenni said: “Since I enjoyed Church classes as a youngster so much I decided to go back and help out.” Do you go to church and do you have young people running some of the activities there? Remember, check out their ages. You can enter them if they have not yet had their 26th birthday.

24

Tom, Jamie and Ed are their school’s ‘techies’. They do all the technical stuff for the school plays and concerts. Tom, Jamie and Ed are so good at it that their school lent them out into the community for public events, such as a folk festival. Their experience has led them to setting up a mobile disco from which they earn money. How good are our school’s techies? Do they do work in the community? You could nominate them…

25

Charlie was nominated by a friend at school. That friend said: ‘He’s always there for me when I’m down and need advice about life’ ‘Always there’ turned out to mean supporting this friend through a period of bullying Charlie didn’t fight fire with fire. He simply walked with the friend to lessons, went with him to school dinners and generally stuck by him and spoke up for him if the bullies tried anything. Do you know someone who has been a mentor to someone else through a difficult time? Maybe they helped you?

26

Stacey has a condition she says is similar to the Elephant Man’s and also has learning difficulties. Yet she goes to a regular school. That school nominated her for being a Positive Role Model in the face of adversity. Do you know someone like Stacey you’d like to nominate for making the best

• f life despite major difficulties?

27

Lee is only 11 – YOPEY entries can be as young as 10 – and animal crackers! He wants to be a zookeeper when he grows up and when he saw an appeal for volunteers from a rabbit rescue centre, he knew it was a chance to get in some early work experience. The centre’s owner said: ‘I couldn’t run the centre without Lee,’ Lee can clean out 20 runs and hutches in a day, and give all the bunnies a cuddle. Do you know someone like Lee who cares for animals other than their own pets? They too can be nominated for YOPEY. And that’s the end of the examples…

28

To reinforce the point that YOPEY ‘Reveals, Recognises and Rewards’ young people who ‘give to others’, the winners give away half their prize money to a good cause of their choice. But they keep the other half as a reward for their good work. A good cause can be the people who nominated the winner although it can’t be you (students at this school) as individuals. However it could the organisation you represent such as a youth club, charity or this school. The choice of where to give half the prize money is normally made by the young winner.

29

So fill out the forms we have here today or visit www.yopey.org and nominate

• nline. There are no categories in a YOPEY. Everyone is entered into the same
• competition. They simply have to be aged from 10-25 – live, study or work in

Scotland – and ‘give to others’ in a way that you think is positive!

30

Remember the young unsung heroes you nominate could be doing almost anything – here’s a few ideas – as long as it is positive and involves ‘giving to

• thers’.

31

And also remember. Even if the person you are thinking of nominating is not quite as amazing as the young people you’ve learned about today, please still nominate them. Every nomination can become a positive story on the YOPEY website and in the local paper, giving the person you know the recognition they deserve, and helping to give all young people the fairer image in the media they deserve, Young people are winners – YOPEY helps to celebrate that!

32

Thank you for listening and YOPEY looks forward to receiving your

• nominations. Remember visit www.yopey.org to nominate online or fill out one
• f the paper entry forms.