COVID-19 Update - Award USA
The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award equips young people for life. This program provides participants with the resilience, adaptability, and problem-solving skills to be successful in any challenging situation, as well as the community and cultural awareness to be good global citizens. We find ourselves relying on these same competencies and values as we address the implications of the continued spread of COVID-19.
The welfare of our participants and adults helping to deliver the Award has always been our top priority. As such, we are making the following changes to our programming and support in the coming months:
Award Guild 2020: For over a year, we have been planning for a physical convening of our Award Coordinators and Leaders in Chicago for our biennial Award Guild, where we would come together to network, share best practices, and activate growth of the Award in the United States. We have made the decision to cancel our upcoming Award Guild in Chicago from April 23-24. Your safety is our number one priority, and we cannot advise travel or group meetings at this time. We plan to host an in-person Award Guild again in Spring 2021. Refunds will be provided later this month to those that registered.
We will be hosting an Online Award Guild on April 23 for all our Award Coordinators and Leaders to participate in remotely and free of charge! The agenda will be shortened but we hope to still provide a meaningful opportunity to achieve many of our original goals with focused sessions. We will be in touch with more information soon and hope to see you there.
Spring 2020 Training: Our training at Florida Sea Base from April 1-2 is also cancelled. Registration fees will be rolled over to the future training that attendees elect to attend. Currently, we have a summer training scheduled to take place in Oakland, CA from June 16-17. Additional training dates and locations will be shared as soon as they are confirmed.
Supporting Your Participants: We are also here to help you provide continued Award Delivery and Programming. We are committed to providing our young people support to help them achieve their personalized goals as they cope with the uncertainties and anxiety of the situation. The International Award Foundation has provided the following suggestions to continue progress of The Award among young people. The team at Award USA is happy to connect by phone or Zoom to walk you through questions about planning and reworking Adventurous Journeys, helping participants creatively work on their activities while social distancing, or any additional support you may need. We have put together recommendations and resources for Award Leaders and Participants that can be found here.
We know you are facing a myriad of challenges. We appreciate your commitment in making a difference in the lives of the young people you serve and want to help you in any way we can. Award USA remains open with all staff currently working remotely. We thank you for your continued support and understanding during this challenging time.