"Reaching for Gold is a new competition to encourage innovation and creativity in young people – essential skills for the industries that will lead us out of recession. 14-19 year olds across the South East are invited to put forward ideas that can make a practical difference to society.  The themes for the competition are Youth, Community and Disability. 

Online applications are being sought from across the South East, particularly targeting those living or working with disadvantage or disability, through Community & Voluntary Organisations and/or schools. The competition is now 'open for applications' and will close at 5pm on the 2^nd October 2009. All the documentation, guidance and resources are available on the website: www.reachingforgold.org.uk 

Our intention with Reaching for Gold is for this to form a natural extension to the work you are doing, to add value to your existing activities, and provide an outlet for practical activity linked to citizenship, PHSE or PRE classes (or any others!). 

Nine winning applicants will then be selected and notified by October 9th, to work intensively with both Corporate and Voluntary Sector Partners to develop their ideas and project management skills in a series of structured business development sessions. An empowerment package of prizes will be awarded to each of the nine groups to facilitate the idea development stage, including a Toshiba NB100 Laptop, a Mobile Notes E-Pen and a Sony DSC-SX30 camcorder.

The competition will culminate with the young people pitching their projects to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel at Windsor Castle on 15th December 2009, followed by an awards ceremony (we will contribute to travel costs on the day). Judges already include Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and Esther Rantzen, with others to be announced, with ASIMO, the Honda humanoid robot making a special appearance.  

All finalists will receive mounted certificates. The participants in the top three groups will each receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal and the overall winner will take home the Reaching for Gold Trophy (theirs for a year!). In addition to that, the organisation that puts forward their young people and wins, will receive a cheque for £5000 to help work up the winning idea further.

Reaching for Gold is supported by BT, Cisco, Honda, Huawei, Intel, Legal & General, PWC, Sony and Toshiba.”