Her Majesty The Queen this week presented Awards to the Commonwealth’s first ever Queen’s Young Leaders in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Members of The Royal Family and a host of high profile individuals attended the event, which recognised exceptional young people who are making lasting change in their communities and across the Commonwealth.

As part of the ceremony David Beckham and Sir John Major spoke to guests about the future of the Commonwealth and the importance of good leadership.

His Royal Highness The Duke of York, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Michael of Kent all joined The Queen in congratulating the winners.

Earlier in the day The Queen’s Young Leaders, all took part in exciting engagements across London. They had a breakfast meeting with the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, at 10 Downing Street, visited the UK headquarters of global social networking company Twitter and met with Senior Executives at the BBC World Service.

The Queen’s Young Leaders Award winners are spending four days in the UK to take part in a residential development programme as part of the Award package. The programme includes a two day residential at the University of Cambridge to continue the online training they have been taking part in since January.

The Young Leaders will then go on to meet with UK business leaders and visit life-changing social action projects, the week of events will be finished off on Friday, with a celebratory dinner at the top of the BT Tower.

The search is now on for the 2016 Queen’s Young Leaders Award Winners. Although there was no winner from Gozo or Malta this year, as a programme, the organisers said that they would very much like to see entries from Gozo and Malta.

The Awards are open to anyone in Gozo and Malta aged between 18-29 years, who is making a remarkable difference in their communities.

If you or someone you know is doing exceptional work in their community apply or nominate them at www.queensyoungleaders.com.

Information about the The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, in partnership with Comic Relief and The Royal Commonwealth Society, has established The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme in honour of Her Majesty The Queen’s 60 years of service to the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee.

Guided by the values of the Commonwealth Charter, the goal of the Programme is to enable young people to step up as leaders and improve the lives of people across the Commonwealth.

Award details

Each year from 2014 to 2018, 60 exceptional young people will be selected to receive a Queen’s Young Leaders Award and become ‘Queen’s Young Leaders’ – one for every year that The Queen had served as Head of the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee.

This year’s Award winners are aged between 18 and 29 and are working on raising awareness for a variety of different issues including: education, climate change, gender equality, mental health and disability equality.

As part of the Award, winners will receive bespoke mentoring and online learning provided by the University of Cambridge. Award winners will attend a week-long residential programme in the UK in June, when they will receive their Award at Buckingham Palace from Her Majesty The Queen.

Criteria to win an award:

** Nominees will have proven experience of working to improve their communities locally, regionally or at a national level and will show evidence of their achievements

** Nominees will be aged between 18 and 29 for the year of the Award and be citizens of a Commonwealth country

** Nominees will demonstrate evidence of their leadership qualities

** Priority will be given to individuals who have overcome challenges to achieve their goals

** All nominees will need to be supported by a suitable referee.

Photograph: Credit PA

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