16 October 2019
Two hundred young people who attend Jersey Youth Service projects around the island are due to attend the YOSCARS event to celebrate their achievements this week.
The YOSCARS – or Youth Oscars – is being held on Friday, 18 October, when a new Youth Ambassador will be announced who will raise awareness and be the voice of the Jersey Youth Service across government and in the community.
Last year, Timothy Melim and Sophie Venton were announced as the island’s new Youth Ambassadors.
Young people will host the event, provide entertainment and, throughout the evening, young people between 11 and 17 years old, from 18 different youth service projects, will collect bronze, silver or gold awards for their active involvement in their local projects. This is for either volunteering to work with other young people, getting involved in organising fundraising events, planning residentials, and being involved in the co-production of their youth project.
Timothy Melim, who has been a Youth Ambassador for the past year, said: “It was a really fun experience and quite interesting going around to the different youth clubs and hearing the young people’s perspectives on their projects.
“It was interesting to see how quickly Jersey Youth Service acted on being Rights Respecting. I enjoyed delivering mini-children’s rights workshops during the roadshow too. It was fun being involved in the JYS Annual conference and running a workshop for youth workers and we received really good feedback. I’m looking forward to working with the new youth ambassadors.”
The Minister for Education, Senator Tracey Vallois, said: “We are so lucky to have young people so actively involved in the youth projects within the relevant parishes, working as volunteers with other young people. These projects help to give young people a voice, build confidence and self-esteem and the annual YOSCARS is a fantastic way of bringing all these successes together and celebrating young people’s achievements. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate everyone involved in organising such an important awards ceremony for young people in Jersey.”
Principal Youth Officer Mark Capern said: “The YOSCARS is a chance to formally recognise and celebrate young people’s achievements and bring young people together from youth projects across the Island. Youth work is a learning process and young people being involved in the design, delivery and coproduction of their youth club is important if we are to make sure that our services are young people focused and relevant and what better way of getting this right – get them involved. Then say thank you and well done.”
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