What is the YAA?

Through the YAA young people are encouraged to actively participate in their own “Social Development Journey”, developing, acknowledging and articulating life skills and competencies which help them to become a positive force for change in their own lives, and the lives of others. The awards based system provides recognition of achievement and encourages young people to reach their full potential.  The awards are tiered, Bronze through to Platinum, although can be started at any point.

The YAA:

• Is aimed at young people aged 14+ the awards provide a framework which recognises the four levels of responsibility taken by young people participating in activities that interest them
• Recognises and encourages young people to get involved.
• Recognises and encourages young people to work with others and share responsibility.
• Recognises and encourages young people to take individual responsibility and play an active role in organising activities. This can be community-based.
• Recognises and encourages young people to move into a leadership position.
• The award does not come with a programme; instead, the open framework allows young people, along with their learning providers, to mould the awards around existing youth work, activities and/or school programmes.

• It’s easy to use
• The award is progressive, allowing for young people to be accredited from any engagement point or level and enables them to progress to higher levels of responsibility and engagement
•  It is flexible and allow for diverse activities to be accredited and recognised; including personal and group work.
• It can be incorporated easily into existing activities and allows young people’s achievements to be celebrated by  nationally recognised ASDAN certification.
• It easily enables the achievement of soft and hard outcomes to be capture and impact to clearly be evidence