Youth Minister Peter Tinley formally recognised the efforts of 19 outstanding young people at The Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award ceremony at Government House last night.
The Gold Award is the final level of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. To be eligible for the Gold Award, recipients must learn a skill, improve their physical wellbeing, volunteer in the community, share in a team adventure and complete a residential project.
Examples of residential projects include volunteering in India, Vietnam and Ethiopia, and undertaking cultural exchanges, while examples of developing new skills are learning to drive, speak Hungarian or play the bagpipes.
The Gold Award is open to young people aged 16 to 25 and takes 12 months to complete. Participants must have already achieved Bronze and Silver awards before they can apply for a Gold Award.
In the first six months of 2017, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants across all levels in Western Australia supplied 61,373 hours of volunteer work to the community.
The Department of Communities has provided $132,091 for the WA Division of The Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards for 2017-18.