One of the most anticipated events of the year is taking place tonight (21 July 2022) with the University of West London hosting the first ever Young Ealing Foundation Awards (YEF Awards) which celebrates and recognises young people (aged 11-25 years old) and the providers who help young people across Ealing and its seven towns.
This year’s shortlist showcases the commitment Ealing young people have shown towards their local communities as well as the providers who help enable young people to achieve their potential and is organised by the Young Ealing Foundation.
Nominations across the borough were received and a group of young people from the Young Ealing Foundation shortlisted the finalists.
“We are extremely excited as this is the first ever Young Ealing Foundation Awards,” Tanya Taylor, head of communications and business development for Young Ealing Foundation told EALING.NEWS. “We were absolutely blown away by the number and quality of nominations – we always knew Ealing was full of brilliant young people and fantastic youth providers, but seeing nominations come in and hearing individual stories has been absolutely amazing.”
Over 250 people are expected to attend the event which will be at the Weston Hall at the University of West London where as well as the awards being given out there will be music and performance going on.
“We’re really grateful to the University of West London for kindly providing us with this wonderful space which we’re so lucky to have in our Borough,” Tanya added. “Huge thanks goes to Westside Radio who have hooked us up with our superb co-host Fee Mak, who will be hosting alongside one of our awesome Ealing Young Champions, Lily Connelly-Woods, as well as DJ Kizzi who will be spinning some tunes for us after the ceremony while food and drink is being served.”
Holding the event is essential and provides great pride to Ealing and its communities, Tanya said. “We feel it’s extremely important to come together and celebrate the amazing achievements of Ealing’s fantastic children and young people and the people that serve them.”
Tanya added: “Young people often don’t get the recognition they deserve and all too often the narrative around young people these days can be quite negative – we want these awards to challenge the narrative and shine a spotlight on just how brilliant children and young people are – and how they are achieving phenomenal things every single day, right here on our doorstep. Especially coming out of the pandemic, we feel that now, more than ever, young people deserve to be celebrated and acknowledged.”
The full shortlist is below, the winners will be announced later tonight (21 July 2022).
