$11,000 in prizes for 10 winners

Youth Communication sponsors this award to illuminate the strengths of youth in care. This year, 10 young people from New York State will be awarded prizes of $1,100 each at a ceremony in October 2024. The prize money may be spent however the winner likes, though it is recommended that it be spent on education-related expenses.

Each entrant is required to be nominated by an adult (which could be a teacher, mentor, agency staff, youth worker, religious leader, foster parent, birth parent, etc.). The nominator must write a short recommendation. And the entrant must write two short essays (less than 1,000 words each). One essay is on how the writer helped someone else and the other is a story about trust. (See exact essay prompts below.)

Eligibility: Any current or former foster youth in the New York State foster care system who was born in 2003 or later. People born before 2003 are not eligible.

Feel free to print out the application form and the information on the essays to circulate to youth and staff.

Deadline: September 30, 2024

To enter online: When the recommendation letter and the essays are complete, do the following:

The entry must be submitted by September 8.

To enter through the mail: Print this form (in landscape layout) and fill it out completely. Send the entry, postmarked by September 8, to:

Represent – Awards for Youth in Foster Care
242 W. 38^th St., 6^th fl.
New York, NY 10018

For both online and mailed applications, be sure to include all items:

• Completed application form
• Letter of recommendation
• First essay about “helping someone”
• Second essay about “loss”

Questions? Contact Kudrat Wadhwa at [email protected]

Winning essays will be edited for brevity and clarity and printed in the program. (We will contact winners to see whether they want their names on the essays before printing them.) All entries become property of Youth Communication.

application deadline: September 3o, 2023

Applicants can except to hear from us in early October.