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How did the competition work?

Local authorities ran a series of competitions to find the best and most successful projects they had given Youth Funds money to. Each authority had to pick just one project from their area, which was then entered into the nationwide ‘Actions speak louder…’ competition.

15 winning projects were given awards of up to £45,000.  The extra money was used to develop or expand a project, meaning that more teenagers will benefit from it.

Because the teenagers who came up with the idea were the ones that really knew what their project is all about, they decided where the money was spent - whether it was on an existing project or setting up a new one based on their original idea.

• What are the Youth Funds?

Who chose the winners?

A group of 23 young people aged between 15 and 20 formed the judging panel. They looked at each project and decided which ones have had the biggest impact on the community and how many other teenagers the project could help if it had some extra money to expand.

Who were the winners?

15 projects from across the country were rewarded for their success. They are:

• the ‘Getting a Life’ project in Cambridgeshire, which is helping disabled teenagers try out new leisure activities
• the creation of the new Nettica Cybercafe in Coventry
• the YO2 Youth Club which brings together young people with mental disabilities from across Devon
• the Xtrax drop-in centre which gives teenagers a safe place to go in an area of East Sussex that has its fair share  of crime and social problems
• a revamped “sports cage” for young people in Essex to use
• the Mpower Garden Project, which created a new garden and playground for disabled teens in the London Borough of Haringey
• a new sports pitch for the Centenary Park Sports Club in Harrow
• the Breaking Barriers project in Lewisham, which is aiming to tackle gang culture in the area
• new cameras and equipment for the Youth Arts Cinema group in Lancashire
• a new football pitch and computer room for the Oliver Hinds Youth Club in Nottingham
• the SHINE project in Sheffield, which is helping obese teenagers to learn about healthy eating
• the S*tar project, which is helping 14 and 15 year olds teach younger people about sexual health issues
• musical instruments and DJ decks for the Fairfield Music Project in Stockton-on-Tees
• a series of local talent shows in Walsall that raised money for the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami in Sri Lanka
• a multi-cultural evening in Worcestershire, which gave young people from different ethnic backgrounds a chance to get to know each other better

You can find out more about these projects by reading our case studies, which explain how teenagers came up with the idea, what they used the money and how the projects helped their local community .