And so it’s over for another year. Youth Matters 2015 – or #YMA2015 for those of you who work predominantly on social media – you’ve been a good friend to us. We’ll miss you (loads).
We ran our YMCA awards ceremony in central London on Thursday 22 October for 250 guests, nominees and close friends. Starting mid-afternoon and running into the early evening, it gave us the chance to celebrate the very best of our young people and YMCAs from the past 12 months.
Celebrations spread over five categories, giving us 15 finalists on the night for Young Leader, Young Achiever, Young Worker, Young Volunteer and YMCA of the Year. One by one, we went through the awards with last year’s winners returning to hand over the trophies to the 2015 incumbents. If anything, they looked more proud than the winners with each passing award!
And without wanting to sound too much like a poor acceptance awards speech (I must stress there were none of these going on at Youth Matters) there are so many people to thank for what was a truly amazing evening.
Most importantly of all, there are the young people who were nominated, shortlisted and made the finals. There were 66 of you in total and every submission was heart-warming, inspiring and worthy of a trophy in itself.
Then there are the performers and the backroom staff who we all saw wide eyed and traveling at the speed of light to do everything they could to make sure the evening went as smoothly as possible.
Moving on there are our brilliant sponsors, Charity Bank, Co-Operative Systems, Nisyst, Utility Aid and 01 Telecom who contributed so much and, finally, there is … you.
Without our audience and our supporters getting engaged on Twitter, Facebook, in the press and on the night we wouldn’t have had the huge celebration we did.
Check out the best of our pictures from the night on Facebook, watch our finalist videos on YouTube or read more about the winners in our latest press release.
If you want to know more about Youth Matters 2016 or, if you are involved at a YMCA and would like to help with the event, please email YMCA England’s Communications team.