District 1180 Youth Service

As a District we have a fabulous range of activities for children and young people to enjoy.  They are the foundations of our communities, and the Rotarians of our future, so a priority for our clubs.

The Rotary Youth Competitions and Programmes booklet is available to order via the Rotary GB&I online shop. This high-quality, 24-page booklet covers all of the competitions and programmes we offer for young people, and is the perfect promotional item for clubs and districts to use when approaching schools, youth organisations and other groups.

Activities available are:

• Nominating a young person for Rotary Young Citizen Award, Rotary Young Citizen Peacemaker Award, Rotary Young Citizen Sporting Hero Award or Rotary Young Citizen Environmentalist Award;
• Sponsoring a young person aged 16-18 to attend the District's annual Rotary Youth Leadership Award course in August each year;
• Sponsoring a young person age 16-18 to attend the Rotary Creative Writing Course;
• Sponsoring a young person age 16-18 to attend a Rotary Youth Exchange camp;
• Set up a Rotakids group for children aged 7-12 with your local primary schools  or community organisation, or Interact groups for young people aged 12-18 with your local secondary school or community organisation; or
• Run a Junior or Senior Rotary Technology Tournament day to challenge groups of young people to demonstrate their STEM skills, maybe at your local primary or secondary; or
• Arrange or participate in a Rotary Children's Fun Day; or
• Sponsor a child to attend the District's Creative Writing Course and the National Writing Centre for Wales; 
• Donate towards Rotary Christmas Toy Boxes for children in refuge; or
• Sponsoring a young person aged 14-18 to complete the Developing Future Leaders Course.

There is a District Lead for all these activities who can advise and support you.  Each has its own page shown to the side or bottom of this page, for you to click into for further information and to contact the District lead for that activity.

There are also a range of competitions you could run with local schools and clubs.  You would work with them to have pupils from the schools compete to reach the District final, possibly progressing to the Cluster Final and National Final.  Again each has its own District lead, and page giving further information at the side or bottom of this page.  Each competition page has links to the guidelines and promotional documentation, giving everything a Rotary club needs to know about offering these competitions to young people in their community. Each competition aims to encourage and celebrate the talents of our young people.

The competitions are:

• Rotary Young Artist
• Rotary Young Chef
• Rotary Young Musician
• Rotary Young Photographer
• Rotary Young Writer
• Rotary Young Welsh Writer
• Rotary Youth Speaks
• Rotary Youth Speaks: A Debate

2025-26 Rotary Youth Competitions

THEME 24/25 for non face to face competitions = Happiness in Nature

DATES

• Deadline for submissions of district winners for the non face to face competitions to Rotary GB&I for national final = 30th April 2026

• National finals for Rotary Young Citizen, Rotary Young Chef and Rotary Young Musician will be held in our District, at The Grange Senior School on Saturday 26th April 2026.

• Date for determination of age eligibility will be 31st August 2025

Ensure you are using the current information and materials, available in the public and members’ area, including guidelines and entry forms. All entrants must go through a Rotary club. You will find direct links for each competition within the competitions district page (click on the competition name above or in images to the right or below this section). 

Remember to welcome all enquiries you receive and respond promptly. If you are not running a competition yourself, put them in touch with your District Youth Lead.

Clubs and Districts all play a vital role in reaching out to youngsters, so make use of your District Youth Leads, get involved with your schools and youth groups and share your stories of success with the resource group.

You can always contact me, Hannah Graham, as District Youth Lead if you have any questions, at youthservices1180@icloud.com.

You can find further information on all Youth Activities on the Rotary Great Britain and Ireland website https://www.rotarygbi.org/get-involved/young-people/. For each specific activity page linked on this page there is a link to the relevant Rotary GB&I page for more information on that activity.