Youth for Sustainability

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COMPETITION VISION
To engage Canadian youth (25 and under) in designing and taking actions towards a hopeful, sustainable future.

HOW THE COMPETITION WORKS
• Submit your idea from May 14, 2010- October 31, 2010
• Get your friends and colleagues to vote for your project until October 31, 2010. The
longer your project is posted, the longer you have to get votes!
• The top 20 ideas will move to a Judging phase, where our team of impartial judges will score each one, and the highest ranked ideas will be funded.
• Winners will be announced by November 30, 2010.

Click Here for Downloadable Flyers.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR IDEA
We're looking for ideas that will:
• address a specific need for youth
• build in education to influence behavioral changes and reduce our carbon consumption
• have a positive impact beyond one community

Before we post your idea on the web for public voting, there are certain aspects we'll consider to ensure it qualifies for the Y4S competition.

1. Tell us your idea:
We encourage you to be creative and have fun with your submission while also being practical and realistic. Submit a short video (90 sec max) explaining your project (overview, who's involved, timeframe), and answer these questions in the text box provided during the entry process:

• Why do you think this project is important for creating a hopeful, sustainable future?
• How do you know your project will be successful?
• What is your plan of action to achieve your impact goals? (Please take only one paragraph for this).
• What is your estimated budget and timeframe? (see below for more details)

Remember, people will vote for your idea based on your ability to describe it. The final judging will also be based on practicality - winning projects will have our team of judges convinced that it is organized and has a clear plan for implementation.

(If an idea is submitted as part of a team effort, the person whose email address is tied to the submission is considered the "team captain.")

2. Estimate the cost:
We need you to estimate how much your idea will cost to implement. Please select the range of anticipated costs for your idea:

• Small Scale: Under $1,500
• Medium Scale: $1,500 - $5,000
• Large Scale: $5,000 - $10,000.

3. Promote your idea:
We want to ensure that it isn't a popularity contest, but we encourage you to promote your idea by asking family, friends, colleagues and neighbours to vote for it. You can generate even more votes by posting it on Facebook, Twitter, and all your favourite online communities.

Click Here for Downloadable Flyers.

COMMITMENT IF YOUR IDEA IS SELECTED
Once the winners are selected and notified, we will send you a 'commitment' document to sign so that we understand your timeframe, the monthly goals you plan to achieve and who you will collaborate with along the way.

Since the goal of this competition is to create tangible change in our communities and educate people along the way, we want to hear your stories and learn from your successes and challenges. As a winner, you will be required to submit monthly blog entries about your project following the start of your implementation phase. Spiral Table™ may provide some mentorship for certain projects.