Not long left now... two and a half weeks to go until the 2013 Young Achievers Award Celebration event. Why not join us and be inspired by the Young Achievers Award winners and runners up, amazing young people who are making an impact in their communities today. Shortly we'll be releasing the winners and runners up for each category in the lead up to the event on 4th April 2013. So watch this space and follow up on twitter to be the first to know who has won this year.

To attend the 2013 Young Achievers Award event, RSVP at http://youngachieversawards-es2004.eventbrite.com/?rank=1

As somebody who has worked for a youth charity for the last year and a half and really seeing how young people provide each other with the support they need, I jumped at the chance to join the Young Achievers board in July 2012. I have learned a lot in that time and am constantly impressed by the work of our small board and inspired by the young people that we recognise through the awards.

The most unique thing about the Young Achievers Trust is the commitment of our board and the follow-up support that we offer to our award winners. Our board are all aged between 16-25, giving up time, wrestling with ideas, fundraising and planning our yearly awards, our trustees are dedicated to the cause of our award winners and as young people ourselves we can truly connect with their ideas and achievements.

My role on the board is of the secretary. Now, before I was offered the role I wasn’t quite sure what it meant, but I was keen to learn more about the structure of a charity, the legal jargon (still not sure about this one!) and the general workings of a charity from the inside. I’ve learned now, that it’s not just about that, but about using your experiences, contributing ideas, sharing concerns and working through those to provide to the young people who we recognise through our awards.

The Young Achievers Awards are held annually in March and have been a constant in my mind since July, thinking about all the things we need to do in that time and reaching milestones one by one to be joyously ticked off.

Our most recent and significant milestone is the opening of this year’s nominations: we opened the nominations for Young Achievers Awards 2013 on 1st November, and they have been extended to 14th December, allowing you to get your nominations in for inspirational young people from around the country (cheap plug, but go on do it!)

I don’t need to explain our awards process so much, check out our website for that - www.youngachieverawards.org - it explains all there, so just to give you a bit about my experiences of the Young Achievers so far - there are dedicated, inspiring young people all working for a common goal. We get that from the enthusiasm of our board members, from hearing about our award winners achievements and really recognising that process from the bottom, to the top.

I can’t wait for my first awards; it’s quite common for Young Achiever board members to talk about their experience in number of awards and to get my first one chalked up will be quite exciting. I know there’s a lot of hard work along the way, but to get that first one under my belt, will be pretty exciting.

Our next phase in the nominations process is to shortlist the nominees - for this we use some expert advisors from the sector and our own input, this is when it gets emotional and is something I am really looking forward to. I am excited about reading the award nominations and reminded of the amazing work that young people all around the country do. It’s easy to forget when you are sitting in a meeting at 7.30pm on a dreary Tuesday night in November, feeling quite hungry! To be reminded of why we do it, and that young people are really making a difference in their communities is incredibly inspiring.

Andrew Wilding-Smith, Young Achievers Trust Secretary

The awards are split into four categories: art, sport, community and environment – with the addition of the Future Leaders Award for 2013 – and each category is open to people aged between 16-19 and 20-25.

To nominate, click on the 'Nominate now' tab.

NOMINATIONS DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL MIDNIGHT ON 14TH DECEMBER 2012!

Each year the Young Achievers Trust recognises the amazing achievements of some hugely impressive young people from around the country, we search far and wide for projects and causes led by young people and for young people. We hold annual awards and support packages to give our winners the information and contact to build on their incredible work.

We do this through the Young Achievers Awards, and every awards ceremony have to have a selection process from the Oscars to the Caerphilly Cheese awards these require nominations, in the form of films, cheese or in our case, exceptional young people.

This year’s nominations open on 2^nd November and remain open for four weeks, we would ask all young people or fiends or family of exceptional young people to get the nominations in and for the Young Achiever’s Trust to recognise their efforts. Each winner and runner up receives a Money Can’t Buy prize – a one-off opportunity to enhance your skills, knowledge and project within the sector.

In the run up to the opening of our nominations is a lot of planning with the board of trustees, all trustees are aged 16-25 and volunteer in their free time to support and enhance the trust, we meet once or twice a month to catch up on our plans and then use some spare time to get on with the meat of our work. We use our board meetings to share ideas and to timetable who will undertake the work and how it will get done.

As we are all doing Young Achievers work in our spare time we need to do some meticulous planning of who takes care of what and when it will be done by; the most essential being the update of our website and the update of our nominations form.

We also plan a series of promotional activities using the links we have built up within the sector and the integrity of the awards themselves so that other organisations can promote and talk about the awards on our behalf. This increases the reach of our awards massively and helps pull in all those wonderful nominations.

The process from there is emotional and exciting, watching the nominations rolling in from all around the country, reading about the incredible work of the young people nominated and somehow making a choice of who to award. There’s a lot of hard work over the coming months, but reading the nominations and conducting the awards ceremony will be incredibly rewarding and a huge excitement to look forward to.

Remember, we can’t do an awards package without your nominations, get them in from 2^nd November, if you know an incredible, inspiring young person – fill in the nominations form and let us know!

You might already know that the Young Achievers Trust is governed by a board of young trustees, but did you also know these trustees are supported by a group of advisors who kindly donate their time, experience and expertise? For example, Arnie, the most recent advisor to join the YAT, has over 30 years' experience in the voluntary sector! Find out more about who they are and what they do by clicking here.