Rural Youth Europe Awards 2023

The Rural Youth Europe Awards are back for 2023 and this is your chance to compete against the very best of rural youth across the continent! The awards aim to showcase the very best of our member organisations, so this is a great way to gain visibility for your project or organisation at a European level.

See the official call document here

The Categories 

For projects carried out between June 2022 - July 2023.

  • Rural Youth Project of the Year
    A Rural Youth Project is a project where young people have worked together towards a common goal on a voluntary basis. A project in which an individual or group of young people have worked together for the benefit of themselves, their local community or the greater good.

  • Inspirational Person of the Year
    A young person who has set an example for others and who has been truly inspirational in their actions and/or words.

  • Inspirational Club of the Year
    An exceptional club that has set an example to others and has been truly inspirational in their actions and support to their members or local community.

 
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How to submit your project?

  1. Fill in the application form. 
  2. Send in a minimum of 1 photo to support your submission appropriate for social media.
  3. Send the form and photo direct to communications@ruralyoutheurope.com. All entries will be verified with member organisations before judging.
  4. Please send any submissions received to communications@ruralyoutheurope.com by Friday 21st July.
  5. Remember: All submitted materials should be in English.

Please note that by submitting video/photo material you also agree to it being published on the Rural Youth Europe website and social media channels - please make sure you have permission from members before submitting.

Application Forms

Rural Youth Europe Project of the Year Application Form
Inspirational Rural PERSON of the Year Application Form
Inspirational Rural club of the Year Application Form

 

Prize

As well as recognition at a European level, the winner of each category will receive:

  • A guaranteed space on the 2024 Study Session
  • A certificate and pack of RYEurope merchandise
  • A feature on Rural Voices - the Rural Youth Europe Podcast          
  • A feature on the Rural Youth Europe Social Media Channels

Judging Criteria 

Rural Youth Europe - Project of the Year 2023
  • We will be judging how well the aim of your project is in line with the overall purpose of your organisation and what the benefits are to your organisation, members and local community.
  • Level of innovation and creativity in all project phases such as general idea and implementation, communication and advertising throughout the project.
  • Level of involvement and volunteering of young people in the planning and implementation of the project.
Inspirational Rural Person of the Year 2023
  • We will be judging the level of innovation, adaptability and resilience of the individual. 
  • Level of impact on other youth and clubs.
  • Level of involvement and volunteering in different projects.
Inspirational Rural Club of the Year 2023
  • We will be judging the level of innovation, adaptability and resilience of the club. 
  • Level of involvement and volunteering in different projects that benefit members and the local community. 

Selection process

The Inspirational Rural Youth Person and Club will be judged internally, with the winner and runner-up announced at the European Rally in August 2023 and via social media.

For the Rural Youth Project of the Year, past RYEurope Board members will carry out an internal judging process to choose the three best projects to proceed to the second stage of the competition. After the selections, a public voting will take place on the RYEurope Facebook page. This stage will be worth 20% of the overall score with the project receiving the most votes on Facebook gaining 20%; 2nd place 15% and 3rd place 10%.

Unbiased judges will carry out a judging exercise and award points which will make up the remaining 80%.The winning project will be the project which receives the highest scores from public votes and judges votes combined. The winning project will be announced at the European Rally in August 2023 and via social media.

For more information on the awards please contact the RYEurope office by contacting Dan on communications@ruralyoutheurope.com

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PREVIOUS EDITIONS

Winners of 2019 Rural Youth Project of the Year

Umbrella NGO from Georgia 

Young Rangers Program

Umbrella NGO, Georgia

The project “Young Ranger” implemented in Lagodekhi Municipality and considered engagement of local youth to the protection of the Lagodekhi Natural Reserve by developing competencies of rangers and patrolling the area. The goal was to protect nature and biodiversity by engaging local youth in the process.

Up to 100 youngsters aged 13-17 from the nearby communities/villages were involved in the project that lasted for one month in August 2019. With the perspective to continue the project in 2020.

Participants were provided with practical and theoretical inputs, they developed skills that are needed for rangers to patrolling and got information about the biodiversity of the nature they live in.

The lecturer part of the project includes several activities that can teach the young participants:

  • Ranger Rights;
  • Provides information about protected areas and the biodiversity there.

The practical part involves four hours of walking in the protected area trails where participants will study with senior rangers:

  • Fire safety;
  • Monitoring of biodiversity;
  • Visitors' behavior rules;
  • First aid for medical care;
  • References about the plants.

Why the project should be the Rural Youth Project of the year 2019?

  • Based on the volunteering
  • Had 0% budget
  • Implemented first time in Georgia

The project had great impact on new generation from local area in term of raising awareness on the problems of poaching and negative impact of global warming on natural reserve. Locals are the main role in preserving nature, biodiversity and fight poaching.

The project was implemented by the joint arrangement of Protected Areas Administration and Umbrella, with the assistance of MP from the Lagodekhi and Kvareli municipalities Guram Majarashvili.

 

Sailing Challenge

The Wales Federation of Young Farmers Clubs

Over the years Wales YFC has developed a broad International Programme working in Partnership with RYE and partners from all over the world to offer young people a range of experiences from homestays to volunteering, working abroad and research projects.

In 2019 the international Sub-committee came to the conclusion that our programme excluded one key user group and so we set about developing a specific trip to combine travel and our young members aged under 18. Our goal was to offer a unique experience and give young people the opportunity to develop their confidence and skills to travel further and take full advantage of the opportunities available through the Wales YFC programme. We believe that the project outcomes speak for themselves and the continuation of the programme for 2020 is also testament for its success.

Our goal was to work in partnership with “Her Cymru” to help young people grow in confidence, develop teamwork skills, improve their communication skills and help reach their potential. It was also an attractive prospect for many young people as something unique and different to add to their CV’s as well as offering the opportunity to complete their Gold Duke of Edinburgh award Expedition task.

As a result of the trip we have seen the young people involved develop to be active members of their communities. All have gone on to play active roles within their clubs and communities and have developed the confidence to take leading roles within their clubs and counties. From Secretaries to Junior members and even youth Parliament members and a lot credit their trip.

Good deeds for elderly people

Estonian 4H

In 2018 Estonia celebrated 100th anniversary. The celebrations already started in 2017 and will last until April 2020. Estonian Government asked people to do different presents for their country. Estonian 4H youngsters and leaders also wanted to give something back to their country. So in 2017 we decided to help elderly people in rural areas, do good deeds for them as our present for Estonia`s anniversary. Our project also lasted throughout the 2019. The idea came from both youngsters and leaders from rural areas who saw in what conditions older people live in and what joy even small good deeds could bring to their lives. The goal is to bring two generations together, support elderly people as we can so that no granny or grandpa should be alone during our country`s anniversary.

About 1100 Estonian 4H youngsters with the help of their leaders all over Estonia have come together in their local communities and looked for elderly people who need some sort of help. Good deeds can be very different. We have helped with housework, gardening, farming, renewing community places for elderly people, collected woollen socks, sewed baskets and caddys for their walkers, painted flowerpots. Young people with their leaders have visited elderly people who live alone but also retirement homes, offered them company, presented songs and dances, brought gifts. By the end of 2019 we have done a variety of good deeds for nearly 500 elderly people all over Estonia. This is a project where different generations in one community come together, this is a projects of teaching our kids kindness and helping and supporting each other.

 

 

 

 





Democracy is More than Voting

Umbrella NGO, Georgia

Unique, impactful and pioneer project for Georgia in term of youth - local authority dialogue.

It boosts motivation of young people to be activated at local level and after the project two youth centres were established with the initiation of participants of the project and our organisation.

Aim was to support structural dialogue between youth and local authorities by bringing together young people and local authorities and developing competencies related to youth participation, structural dialogue and engagement tools.

The idea came on previous project when we had only representatives of youth and did not have any local authorities, after the project because of barriers and lack of awareness about the issue local authorities did not cooperate with youth organisations. So we decided to include them in the project to overcome the issue.

Youth organisations operating in rural area, representatives of youth centres and municipalities, elected young representatives of municipal councils, and we Umbrella team and volunteers were engaged as implementing organisation.

The impact at local level was informed about their rights, young people, training youth workers, established dialogue between youth and LA in three municipalities. Multiplies effect of youthworkers and shared experience with peers on youth participation levels etc.



Project of the Year Senior Category Runner-ups

Woadl - help 

 Jungbauern/Landjugend Gebiet Wipptal, Austria 

We help immediately – get in touch with us. That was the slogan of our project called “woadl help” addressed to the people of our area Wipptal. In June 2018, we decided to give voluntary support for a duration of 25 weeks, at least once a week.

This idea was born, when we talked about the fact that the employees of nursing homes are overloaded with their work. Often there is too little time to deal with old people in a human way.

13 different social facilities were involved in our project such as retirement homes, facilities for disabled people or refugee families. Once a month we created a folder for our members with suggestions about the possibilities for voluntary help. To gain on a higher range we also published our offers on social media.

The main aim of our project was to make aware, how many people need help and in how many ways this help can be provided. Our intention was to wake awareness, to reach a long-term rethink and to offer an easy way to voluntary work. We were overwhelmed that 50 members of our organization were ready to spend their leisure time, overall 52 days, to support our project.

We were given presents with many emotional moments and we became witnesses when hearts were open, when children eyes shown and when tears of joy flew.

Many of our members still offer their help in various social facilities.

Our project should win, because we recognized that time is the most valuable gift in our hectic life of faster, stronger and higher

Enormously sustainable – Rural Youth plants trees and creates habitats 

 Rural Youth Vöcklabruck, Austria

 ‘Enormously sustainable – Rural Youth plants trees and creates habitats’ is a diversified project that deals with many different topics related to the umbrella term forest. Through actions like planting trees, a fundraising campaign and several regional TV reports, areas ranging from sustainability, non-profit making to public relations were covered. These are the reasons why our project should be the rural youth project of the year 2019. With this project, we wanted to show how important our future is to us and that we are willing to actively work for our climate. The forest is an important part of our Austrian landscape and we wanted to make a contribution to maintain it in the future. Essential for us was to make the population aware of the importance of the forest for humans and animals. 

During the project's discovery phase, it was already clear that we want to implement something that would continue in the future and that would last for several years or even generations. In the course of this, the idea to plant trees was born. Over time, this basic idea grew into an annual project and over the course of the year, it developed into what has now become our project. Our local groups were enthusiastic about this project from the beginning and so all local groups in the district Vöcklabruck participated in the project. Each local group has made its contribution, which we are particularly proud of. In total, around 200 young people took part at the project. The total number of participants is of course much higher, because we involved the general population thanks to our fundraising campaign. 

Winners of 2018 Rural Youth Project of the Year

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Most People Manually Cutting Grass

By ZSPM, Slovenia

Project “Most people manually cutting the grass” shoud be the Rural Project of the year 2018 because this event was unique and innovative project which unites people from all over Slovenia and of all ages. We wanted to show that people in Slovenia still know and respect our tradition and old farm habit. We also want to keep this tradition for future generation.

Our goal was to break the Guinness record – collect as many people as possible in one place in order to cut the grass. To achieve our goal team work was very important.

We want to organize big event with a lot of participants and bystanders and while we were thinking how to achieve this we got an idea –  try to break the Guinness record. Idea was realised in 4 months.

Approximately 100 people were involved and participated in the organization of the project, majority of participants are members of DPM Škofja Loka (Rural youth association Škofja Loka). People from all over the Slovenia, members of similar societies and Association of Slovenian rural youth were participated by attempting the record. The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, honoured us with his visit and participation in our record attempt. We had a lot of support from bystanders.

Event was unique and full of country's spirit. People were proud to be part of this event both participants and bystanders. This was team work between young and older people in order to achieve the same goal.

The event took place on Ski resort Cerkno (1291 m high, municipality of Cerkno) where 570 participants and 1000 bystanders enjoyed the unique event in Slovenia.