The third edition of the Joy Bangla Youth Award will be held on October 20-21 to identify, showcase and recognize the young change makers of the country.
This year, 30 youth-led platforms, groups or clubs will be awarded under 10 categories.
They include skills development, inclusive education, empowerment of differently-abled people, cultural awakenings, innovators, sports and fitness, public awareness building initiatives, gender equality and other initiatives to scale up social development indices.
Eligible organizations are those platforms or clubs which provide essential social services to children who out of school or without families, to street children, and to other vulnerable people including people with disabilities, vulnerable women, old-aged people, religious and ethnic minorities, and refugees.
Those who are implementing innovative programs for enhancing youth employability, disaster and climate risk reduction and/or sustainable environment management, and sports or physical education activities for the youth will also be considered.
Application process
People aged between 18 and 35 can apply online from the youngbangla.org website until September 30, a statement from Centre for Research and Innovation said.
To extend the reach of the network, as many as 47 activation camps will take place across Bangladesh in the coming days at upazila level and within academic institutions.
Thirty Joy Bangla Youth Meetings have also been designed at district level where aspirants can submit their hard copies.
Top applicants will be picked through a rigorous screening process. Then, evaluation teams will go for spot visits to assess the impact of the work of the applicants and pick the final 30 who will be invited to the final assessment stage on October 20-21.
On the first day, a number of interactive sessions will take place to help the finalists sharpen their skills, identify obstacles in the future road and assist them to grow further.
On the second day, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son SajeebWazed Joy, who is also her ICT adviser, will distribute the awards.
Award origins
'Young Bangla' was launched in 2014 to involve youths in the development process and to help bring their ideas before policymakers.
According to the youngbangla.org website, 341 organizations and 110,000 members are involved.
In the first edition of the award - one of its flagship initiative - 30 individuals and organizations from over 1,500 applicants were recognized for their outstanding work at the community level.
In the second edition held in 2017, a total of 64 youth-led organizations received awards for their noteworthy work in the field of community development, business enterprise and other social awareness-building initiatives.
Past award recipients are now leading the district level campaigns for the second edition.
Sabbir Bin Shams, executive director of non-profit CRI that works as the Young Bangla Secretariat, said they would provide all kind of “technical and necessary assistance" for this initiative.
Over the past two years, a number of schemes have been rolled out for the award winners, including Microsoft Young Bangla Lab, and Young Achievers delegations to China and India.
