Young Commonwealth Competitions

As you know, the RCS has a rich history of celebrating the literary and creative talents of the Commonwealth's brightest young people through the Commonwealth Essay Competition and Vision Awards. Our branches' enthusiastic participation in and promotion of these competitions makes them particularly special.

In order to increase their reach, impact and efficiency in 2010, the RCS is working to consolidate both awards into an overarching framework called the 'Young Commonwealth Competitions'. As well as writing and film-making categories, we hope to include other modes of expression such as photography and musical composition. All the categories will be focused on the Commonwealth Day theme, which will mean that the award-winning work produced can be used in the worldwide celebration of the theme next year.

Funding permitting, we hope to launch the Young Commonwealth Competitions in January 2010. This means that the start and end dates for the Essay Competition and Vision Awards will be later than normal.

More detailed information, including the revised timeframes, will be sent to branches with the results of the 2009 Essay Competition in July.

For more information, contact Alice Kawoya: alice.kawoya@thercs.org