The Drinkaware Challenge is a new module of the Youth Achievement Awards, the flagship peer educational programme of the charity UK Youth, developed in collaboration with The Drinkaware Trust. Funding for this programme is being provided by a grant from the Big Lottery Fund.  It was launched in June 2007. The objective of the Challenge is to engage young people in the practical elements of alcohol education and awareness raising. UK Youth is contributing the expertise in youth work, while Drinkaware provides alcohol information. The Youth Achievement Awards have key goals for young people including:

• Developing essential life skills
• Improving study skills;
• Enabling young people to communicate effectively and share their learning;
• Recognising their achievements by gaining national accreditation; and
• Increasing participation in decision making, directing their own learning and raising expectations.

There are four levels of participation – bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Youth groups who want to take the Challenge will form an ‘award group’ responsible for supporting each other and to planning their project and learning targets within it. The Drinkaware Challenge will address alcohol abuse by encouraging young people to think up their own alcohol education projects, for example campaign media like posters, youth club alcohol policies, first aid projects, presentations, or drama. Young people will engage first hand with the challenge of how to change people’s attitudes and behaviour for themselves and learn key skills along the way. A leaflet explaining the Drinkaware Challenge in more detail can be downloaded below. 

To find out more about The Youth Achievement Awards, visit UK Youth’s website.

 drinkaware_challenge_leaflet 540.64 Kb

Following on from the successful national conference on 21 June, UK Youth are now rolling our a national series of training events for youth workers across the UK.

To find out more, including dates and locations of the events and how to book, download the pdf below or contact UK Youth at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it   or phone 0845 8620432.

 youth achievement awards newsletter 278.10 Kb