Raising Your Game’s young people receive Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards

The achievements of young people from Raising Your Game were celebrated at a ceremony at Windsor Castle in March.

The 15 young people, from across England, were presented with The Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) Bronze Award, which they achieved through Raising Your Game. Their certificates were awarded by chief executive of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Charity, Peter Westgarth.

The DofE Award is open to young people aged 14–24, and helps them acquire skills and increase their physical wellbeing. It has three levels – Bronze, Silver and Gold – and the Bronze Award has four sections – volunteering, physical, skills and expedition.

The young people had to do a minimum of three months’ activity for each of the volunteering, physical and skills sections, and plan, train for and do a two-day expedition. They also had to spend an extra three months on one section.

The activities the young people took part in included DJ’ing, cooking, volunteering at a Mencap gig and helping adults with a learning disability.

Bronze Award-holder Javid said: “I didn’t realise how hard it would be, but it gave me a real sense of achievement when I’d done it. I hope it might help me get to uni, and get a job.”

During the ceremony, group members gave presentations on their expeditions. There was also a short film, created by one of the participants, documenting their personal journey through the programme.

“It was a fantastic day and an amazing atmosphere,” said Raising Your Game regional coordinator for Avon and Somerset and DofE Award leader, Heather Ribalta. “The day was very personal and should build on the young people’s self-belief and self-confidence. I hope it will shape the future of awards for people with a learning disability.”

Mencap and the Metropolitan Police are working to raise awareness of learning disability and communication difficulty

The Metropolitan Police Service has recently signed up to Mencap’s Stand by me police promise – ten pledges to help ensure people with a learning disability live their lives free from hate crime.

These include challenging discriminatory attitudes among fellow officers, supplying information in a suitable form and understanding how to identify if someone has a learning disability. While the police promise focuses on victims of hate crime, the relationship that Mencap has with the Metropolitan Police bodes well for future work.

 “It’s great that the UK’s biggest police service has signed the police promise, and we hope that the work we’ve already done on raising awareness of learning disability can be continued,” said Mark Gale, Mencap campaigns and policy officer. “The service has already showed an interest in our work with young people at risk of offending, so we hope to build on this and make progress in how it works with these young people.”

To find out more about the Stand by me campaign click here