Children and youth category winners

In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and amid the gathering momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Sister System charity was troubled by the conversations it was having with its service users – care-affected girls and young women, the majority of whom are Black and Brown.

Losing a child without warning is every parent’s worst nightmare – but it’s a reality for around 70 families in West Yorkshire every year. And, after a child’s death, communications with the police, hospital or coroner’s office can often exacerbate the trauma for bereaved families. Yet there is often little in the way of specialised bereavement support for those living through such a tragedy.

Gypsy and Traveller communities face some of the most severe health inequalities and their life expectancy is 10 to 25 years shorter than the general population. Young members of the community are more likely to drop out of education than their peers. A lack of learning about personal health at a young age has an impact later in life. Many young Gypsies and Travellers begin work in trades and go on to develop musculoskeletal problems and health conditions like diabetes and heart disease, partly because they did not get key messages about healthy diets through school.

When IWF was established in 1996, the UK was responsible for hosting 18 per cent of the world’s child sexual abuse imagery. Today the figure is less than 1 per cent but IWF continues to work with a host of partners around the world to lead the fight. To tackle the problem more effectively, in 2018 IWF increased investment in training and welfare support for its analysts, allowing them to be more effective in removing content. Due to the extreme nature of the material they see daily, they are uniquely supported in a variety of ways. The charity also continually invests in new technologies that help it find material and prevent it from being shared.

In 2017 over 1,000 young people were referred to Redthread services. Over 60 per cent engaged with a Redthread youth worker. One-third were signposted to health and/or mental health services and one quarter were referred. Almost 80 per cent did not reattend hospital for any reason within a year. Of those who did only 12 per cent did so for violence-related injuries. The charity’s model is so compelling that in London the mayor’s office is keen to expand it to all major trauma centres, and the charity is now fundraising to spread it further, across the whole of England.

The Lullaby Trust, a charity which helps prevent cot death among infants, found that parents under the age of 20 were four times as likely to lose a child to sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. Infant mortality in general was 44 per cent higher for this group. Faced with the spectre of unnecessary death among babies, the charity decided to reach out to young parents to discover the barriers which prevent them from accessing advice. It found that young parents in London experience disapproving attitudes from professionals and a difficult environment, leading to isolation and depression. But they were also less likely to follow advice about care for their babies.

In 2003, Hanif Qadir witnessed rising tensions in the Walthamstow area of London – an increase in violent street crime and extremist behaviour – and worried about the impact it would have on young people growing up in the area. He resolved to take action to help. He formed the Active Change Foundation, which launched the Young Leaders Programme, intended to teach young people the skills and knowledge to help them identify and extinguish conflicts and radical behaviours.

Safer London Foundation was set up to improve the safety and wellbeing of young people in London affected by violence and crime. The charity’s Empower project addresses sexual exploitation of girls by gangs, providing prevention measures and interventions to empower them to make positive life choices.