1. Select a specific current issue that is of importance to youth development in your country and the region and explain why you have chosen it.
2. Describe and analyze the role of young people and their networks; Governments; NGOs, family and community networks, and other development partners to resolve the particular issue you selected and discuss the immediate consequences.
3. Keep in mind the centrality of youth empowerment, engagement, and mainstreaming to the topic and for national development, the advancement of regional integration goals and for our sustainable economic development.

Eligibility:

The contest is open to all young women and men who are citizens of the Commonwealth Caribbean and CARICOM whether they are attending school or have already left the school system.

Awards

13 - 17 age group

1. The First-place winner will receive a cheque for $ 1,000.00, a lap top computer, and a one- week educational /nature heritage and cultural tour to Guyana with accommodation and allowances provided. The first-place winner's school will receive a fully-loaded desk-top computer system. The winning essay will be published in the Vibes the CYP Caribbean Centre magazine and other Commonwealth and CARICOM publications. The winner will also be invited to present her /his paper at appropriate meetings of CYP and CARICOM.
    
2. The Second-place winner will receive a cheque for $500.00, a lap top computer. The winning essay will be published in the Vibes the CYP Caribbean Centre magazine and other Commonwealth and CARICOM publications.
    
3. The Third-place winner will receive a lap top computer. The winning essay will be published in the Vibes the CYP Caribbean Centre magazine and other Commonwealth and CARICOM publications.
    
4. There will be media promotion and press releases to newspapers in the communities of the first five prize winners.
    
5. The five finalists in the 15 to 19 age group will receive a plaque and certificate.

Writer's Checklist

1. Your essay should demonstrate a clear understanding of the youth and their development in the Caribbean, the concept and role of leadership and how young people can make a change in their societies and countries.
2. Your essay must have a main point and presents several specific examples to prove it. In the course of your essay the issue being discussed is clearly explained, and
3. You must carefully review your work. Ensure you run your computer's spell-check programme, with an eye out for mechanical details, including spelling, punctuation, page numbers, paragraphs, internal citations, and a comprehensive list of sources consulted at end of essay to give proper credit to your sources of information.
   
   NOTE: All these criteria must be met in order for your essay to be judged.

How will essays be judged?

A panel of Judges comprising officials of CYPCC, CARICOM, regional academic institutions, youth policy makers and regional youth leaders will be convened during August 12 to15, 2007 to review the submissions. The judges will focus on:

1. Quality of research (1/3)
   There must be adequate research on the facts of youth empowerment, national policy and regional development perspectives, effective networking and partnership and the central role of young people in resolving the issue.
    
2. Quality of analysis (1/3)
   The essay is presented clearly with a concise argument to support your view.
    
3. Style and mechanics (1/3)
   The essay must have a clear structure with a title, an introduction, body, conclusion, and bibliography.
   Winners will be contacted by September 10, 2007
    

Guidelines for Submissions

1. Submit four full copies of an original work in English on the designated topic. The copies must include a title page, and a comprehensive list of sources consulted.
2. You must include one completed registration form with your completed essays.
3. You must number your pages - bottom centre and ensure proper collation. All submissions must include a word count, excluding the list of sources and the registration form.
4. Entries must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman or an equivalent font with a one-inch margin on all sides of the page.
5. Your essay will be disqualified if it does not meet the requirements or is postmarked after the submission date of July 24, 2007. You have included four copies of your essay in the package.
6. Email submissions are accepted provided that you also comply with the requirement to mail in submissions
7. FAXED APPLICATIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Mailing details

The Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are the organisers of the Contest. The address to send entries by July 24, 2007 is PO Box 101063 Georgetown, Guyana or youthwrites@cypcaribbean.org
For further information call (592) 226 8565, or Fax (592) 226-8371. The registration form is available online at www.thecommonwealth.org/cyp/, but must be printed out and mailed.
 

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About Youth Writes

Youth Writes is an annual Contest that has been developed to coincide with the annual observance of Caribbean Youth Day. The purpose of the contest is to give young people the opportunity to say how they feel their development and their place in the region should be managed. The views of young people are critical to the policy agendas of Governments and regional and international development agencies working for and with young people in the Caribbean.

Youth Writes and CARICOM
Among other things, the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development launched in March 2007 was mandated to assess the situation of Caribbean youth and make a clear statement advising Heads of Government on the kind of society that nationals aged 10 – 29 wish to live in; policy options and strategic directions for creating an environment across Member and Associated States which enables active and effective adolescent and youth participation in development and integration systems and processes; and the profile of the “ideal Caribbean youth”.

Youth Writes and the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP)
CYP’s mission is to engage and empower young people to enhance their contribution to development. We believe young people have rights and they must be empowered. We also believe that we as well as governments and other stakeholders are accountable to young people as much as young people are accountable to each other and to the rest of society. In this rights-based approach to development, young men and women, we advocate for and promote through our work, the effective participation of all young women and men including vulnerable groups in the development process and for social transformation.

Youth Writes in Shaping Policy
By focusing on an annual topical issue of importance to young people, Youth Writes will provide a channel for the voices and aspirations of a wider cross-section of the Region’s youth. Youth Writes will benefit from a healthy youth critique on development perspectives differentiated by age. This is in keeping with the life-cycle concept of the development to ensure the peculiar concerns of youth cohorts across their developmental span. The age ranges for Youth Writes are 13 to 17 and 18 to 29. The 2007 will concentrate on the view of adolescents and youth between the ages of 13 to 17.

This will lead to consolidation of views, themes, and recommendations that CYP and CARICOM and Governments can take into consideration in designing research and development agendas to achieve holistic youth development.