The PLAnet youth fellowship are seeking to challenge negative stereotypes of young people, and are encouraging 11 – 20 year olds who are involved in community projects to enter the Philip Lawrence Awards and get recognised for the positive difference they make.

We are launching the ‘Who am I?’ campaign with a video asking young people to describe who they are, in a bid to challenge commonly held stereotypes. The idea for the campaign and video, and all the work that has gone into planning and filming is down to the hard work and creativity of our fellowship of former winners, who’ve worked together at a number of residentials and workshops and are featured in the video.

One of the stars of the film, Jenine, from 2009 winners Fawcett Youth Group, said, “Through our film, ‘Who am I?’, we wanted to show adults that young people are not disrespectful troublemakers. I am a young person making a difference and I hope what we’ve done helps to change how adults view young people. I really hope more young people apply this year.”

View the video, and our others, on our YouTube channel, and add your answer the question ‘who are you?’ to our online gallery (coming soon).

Don’t forget the awards closing date of 15 September is getting close, so get your nominations in soon.

3729.9 miles – the distance from the UK to Pakistan, and the distance PLAnet ambassador Jawad Shah is asking people to walk to raise funds for those affected by flooding in Pakistan. Read on to find out more about how a former award winner is making a difference and being an inspiring role model to others in his community.

Jawad won the award in 2007 with a community organisation called Youth Action, based in his hometown of Blackburn. He was part of an inter-generational, inter-racial project that worked to gain recognition for war veterans from Africa and Asia who fought for Britain in World War Two. He is still in touch with Youth Action, who have since grown into a larger organisation running four or five different youth groups. He says winning the Philip Lawrence Award meant a lot, bringing recognition and helping them get funding. The trophy is still proudly displayed in the reception of their new building.

At the moment, Jawad is busy running a brand new project which he set up himself to raise funds for those affected by the flooding in Pakistan. He’s organising “3729.9 Miles: Mission – Aid: UK to Pakistan”, an event getting people together at a local park to walk, cycle or even backflip the distance from the UK to Pakistan as a sponsored event. The event is planned for September, just after Ramadan, when everyone has stopped fasting and able to do the walk, and is expected to involve more than 300 people.

Jawad came up with the idea himself and developed it with a couple of friends. “Rather than door to door fundraising I wanted to do something different, where you’re actually getting people together, doing something for the community and raising money at the same time.”

From Jawad’s initial idea, the mission has grown with lots of volunteers wanting to help out. There’s now a group of core group of about 30-40 young volunteers, and in the three days since launching, their Facebook page got over 200 people signed up wanting to take part. The mission has developed now to include lots of small fundraising events in the lead up to the main event, and they are keen for anyone who wants to get involved in any way they can.

Jawad says that his involvement in the Youth Action project and the Philip Lawrence Awards Network was a real help and inspiration in deciding to start his project. Jawad was moved to do something to help those affected by the flooding, but rather than just donating to the cause, his experience of seeing so many young people making a real difference in their communities meant that Jawad knew he could do something much bigger.

Jawad sees PLAnet as a platform not only to spread the messages about the Philip Lawrence Awards but also that young people can use to help themselves go further. “It’s not just about winning the award and saying ‘ok, we’ve done our bit’. It’s about being part of the fellowship and using that brilliant platform of a national award. That’s a big platform you can use, and as opposed to making a small difference, make a really big difference. With PLAnet, there’s definitely the opportunity to do something big.”

To get involved or make a donation, visit the 3729.9 Miles: Mission – Aid: UK to Pakistan on Facebook.

If you’re involved in a community project, why not enter the awards, and be in with a chance of winning £1000 and getting recognised for what you are doing.

We’re all for getting more positive media coverage of young people. Check out our magazine, published in association with Children and Young People Now. It’s packed with inspiring stories from past winners, young people’s ideas about changing their communities, and lots of information about PLAnet and how you can get involved.

Thanks must go to our youth fellowship of former winners (above) who had lots of input in the magazine, involved in everything from a youth editorial panel, contributing articles and sharing their stories and ideas.

We hope it gives you a sense of the passion and inspiration that we get from PLAnet. Browse the magazine below, and click on it to view and read it full size. We’d like to encourage you to feel free to comment on, share and embed the magazine as you wish. We want to help counteract the balance of negative stories!

Take the PLAnet summer survey and tell us what young people think about improving their communities.

We want to know what motivates people to make a difference and what the most effective ways are to do this. What role can young people play? Our youth fellowship have taken to the streets of London to ask people what they think, and we’re asking you to do the same.

Please take a few minutes to complete our short online survey. Click here to take the survey.

Check back next month to find out the results.

With 99 days to go till the deadline, now is a great time to get started on your nomination for the 2010 Philip Lawrence Awards.

For the first time this year, we have created an online nomination form where you can quickly and easily submit your entry.

You can track your progress as the lights on each section turn green once completed, and You don’t have to complete your nomination in one go as you’ll be given a password so that you can save it and return later.

You can choose to create a public profile on this site for your project (like these ) and we are busy working on features that will let you promote and show support for your project.

Entering the awards is easy, with just a few simple questions and basic details about your project. You don’t have to provide lots of background information but if you want to you can directly upload photographs, documents and web links to help tell your story.

Have a look at the awards page for more information, read our judges’ top tips, or just go straight to the nomination form.

We’ve just launched the form, so we’d love your feedback on how easy you found it to use, and anything we could do to improve it – feel free to leave a comment below.

(Photo credit: NTI)

The Philip Lawrence Awards Network is all about the groups of young people who are doing great things up and down the country, so we want to make you the stars of our marketing campaign for the 2010 awards.

We’re asking groups of young people to take part by taking photographs of their group that show the positivity, cooperation and friendship at the heart of a PLAnet project.

You could be featured on our website or poster, and will be entered in a prize draw to win a digital camera for your group.

Your brief
Your photograph needs to include:
• A group of young people
• Find a place to take your photograph. Think about what location helps show what your group is about or where you’re from. Are there any objects or equipment you could pose with that tell your story?
• Imagine a circle on the floor. You could even draw one with chalk or tape.
• Stand or sit together inside it – squeeze in!
• Check what’s included in the photograph. Can you see everyone? Is there anything distracting in the background that you should get rid of?
• Smile!

To enter, either upload your pictures to our Facebook page or email your pictures to philiplawrenceawards@catch-22.org.uk.

For more information, and to download and print a consent form view the challenge brief.

Be sure to check out our Facebook page over the next month to check out the pictures uploaded by other groups.

The closing date is 30 June 2010.

Former award winners are calling on other groups of young people to put themselves in the running for the 2010 Philip Lawrence Awards.

Young people from the Fawcett Youth Group in Hackney, 2009 winners, last week were visited by Vernon Coaker, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, and told him about their project and what winning an award had meant to them.

They talked about the local issues that had been the subject of their two films, buildling links with the police and community in the process, and talked with excitement and pride about how it felt to be recognised for their work. Group member Leah said, “It was an honour to win the award because we achieved something and finally got our voice across”.

We know that up and down the country there are fantastic young people like those in the Fawcett Youth Group, who have energy, ideas and a passion to make things better. Young people are making a positive contribution in their local communities, challenging negative stereotypes and countering crime, violence, bullying and racism. We want to hear about them!

Visit our awards page now to find out more and to nominate yourself or a group you know.

GGP in OT with young people from a Nottingham youth project

2009 award winners GGP in OT have an anti guns and gangs message to tell, loud and clear. Last week group members Fabien, Marvin, Marvin and Markus travelled from Old Trafford to Nottingham to deliver workshops to two youth projects in the area. The research based peer education work they have developed can help get the point home to other young people more effectively than adults might be able to do.

Having lived it themselves and experienced the peer pressure and conflicted loyalties that can lead youngsters to join gangs, they were able to share their own stories with the group and to discuss how they had dealt with the tough decisions facing members of the group.

The key messages were about finding something positive to channel your energy into – for group members aka Crown Jewelz and Solja, this was music. They talked about how when they started to work on music and turn away from gang crime they got flack from people around them and it wasn’t easy to stay focussed. But over time they gained respect for it and now they’re starting to see success and make legitimate money from djing and performing. It’s all about being yourself, and keeping out of other people’s trouble.

PLAnet celebrates some really inspirational young people, and we’re really excited to be able to work with them to give them more opportunities to develop their skills and spread their message to more people.

If you’re interested in GGP in OT’s workshops and would like to know more, do get in touch either by email or by commenting below.

Philip Lawrence Award winners ChatBack Productions are in the news again with their latest project – a film called ‘Handle with Care’. Local comedian and soap star Josie Lawrence has joined the group of young people to star in the film which is currently being filmed in Dudley.

The film covers the gritty topic of domestic violence, and the group, aged between 11 to 18, have been involved in all aspects of its production from devising and writing through to acting and editing.

They funded their project with a grant of £20000 from Mediabox, who offer funding to groups of disadvantaged teenagers for youth-led media projects.

ChatBack Productions, set up by fostered teenagers and foster carers’ birth children, won a Philip Lawrence Award in 2008 for their DVD ‘Fostering Reality’, which is now being seen in schools and Children’s Services, encouraging action to improve the lives of looked after children.

We think they are a brilliant example of young people using their skills and creativity to make a difference, and we’re delighted to see they have gone on to further success.

If you’ve visited the Philip Lawrence Awards website before, you’ll have noticed that things are looking rather different around here.

Today is a big day. In the plush surroundings of BAFTA we’re not only announcing the news of this year’s brilliant award winners, but also launching PLAnet – a brand new dimension to the Philip Lawrence Awards.

PLAnet is the Philip Lawrence Awards Network. Its aim is to give more young people the chance to get involved, share their work more widely, and to allow people to share ideas and get support in developing their projects that might go on to be future winners. This website is a key part of doing that and gives you the opportunity to create a public profile page for your project, and to have your say in the forum and on this news blog.

You can also interact with us through Twitter and Facebook and over the next few months, look out for more ways to connect.

As part of PLAnet, we’ll continue and develop our work with the fellowship of previous award winners, and our participation team Lisa and Arron have lots of exciting plans for next year. We’ll be calling on the experience, talent and ideas of the fellowship to make this website as useful and interesting for young people as possible, so do keep checking back on the news page to hear about what they get up to.

We’d like to say a very big thank you to the team who have been working very hard behind the scenes to get everything ready in time for launch. We’re pretty pleased with how it looks – and hope you like it too.