Here's a little bit about the organisations behind the award - I'm sure you know them - but why do they want to support you?

Bernard Matthews Farms

Bernard Matthews Farms is a proud supporter of the young people of Norfolk and Suffolk, which is why we want to show both our admiration and appreciation through this award scheme. Our ambition with these Awards is to celebrate their commitment and achievement and to tell the region all about the young people we share our community with, as well as rewarding their efforts with a special prize.

To read more about our local community work, developing young people and their entrepreneurial spirit, please click here.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award

Many thousands of young people in the UK today are failing to achieve their potential, held back by lack of opportunity, disability, exclusion, low expectations or lack of confidence. Youth charity The Duke of Edinburgh's Award inspires over 275,000 young people a year to develop skills, fitness, compassion and initiative and gives young people of every background the opportunity to succeed. The result is the world's leading achievement award for young people, recognised by employers and universities alike.

Last year close to 2,000 young people started their DofE in Norfolk and Suffolk with 1000 achieving a Bronze or Silver Award and over 100 a Gold Award. The DofE works with young people in schools and colleges, special schools, youth groups, voluntary organizations as well as youth offending teams.

As a charity the DofE relies on donations and needs to raise over £100,000 every week to continue to develop and reach more young people across the UK. To find out more see www.dofe.org.

EDP

"The EDP likes to look for the positive side of life so it's great that, in supporting the Bernard Matthews Youth Award for another year, we're able to help provide some 'good press' for our youngsters. There are so many great stories out there, whether it's for sacrifices made, remarkable achievements or selfless acts, and this is a great opportunity to give some recognition to someone who really deserves it." Peter Waters, EDP Editor

Open

OPEN is a safe drug and alcohol free city centre venue created exclusively for young people which opened in 2009.The new £12m venue is owned and run by The OPEN Youth Trust, a registered charity with a history of providing positive support to young people in Norwich and Norfolk since 2004.As well as providing free access to comfortable and vibrant spaces for young people, the venue offers state of the art training and leisure facilities, a growing programme of activities and events and easy access to information on health issues, careers, training and personal development, provided by a range of voluntary and statutory agencies. So there's no excuse - pop in and see us at OPEN.

Judges

The judging panel is made up of representatives from Bernard Matthews Farms, the EDP and The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. This panel will look at your award entry and decide on the finalists and winners for each award based on how well each entry fits with each category criteria.

Importantly, the judging panel will also take a good look at what you would do if you won the £1,000 funding. We want to ensure we can achieve as many dreams and ambitions with this prize as possible, so please have a careful think about how this reward can really make a difference.

Remember the judge's decision is final - which is no bad thing if you're a winner!