Koreo Prize winners announced with competition back for 2018
Melanie May | 9 February 2018 | News
The winners of the first Koreo Prize have been announced, with the winning submission a project on honour killings.
The Koreo Prize launched last year and asked young people under the age of 27 to choose one of six social issues aligned with the UN’s Global Goals and to bring it to life through a story or series of stories in any media. The competition aimed to generate fresh perspectives on the issues of gender equality, social mobility, community resilience, food security, and social housing & wellbeing.
More than 100 teams from across the UK entered with six finalists awarded for their contributions. Finalist projects included a critical review of the UK’s approach to honour based crime, an exploration of social mobility through intergenerational interviews in London’s Afro-Caribbean communities and a project outlining the consequences of ignoring the UK’s social housing crisis.
The winner, 19-year-old law student Felicity Abraham (a pseudonym) from London, received £5,000 for her project on honour killings. The five runners-up were awarded mentoring and speaking opportunities at global conferences.
Participants were judged on their ability to tell a compelling story that provided real insight and considered a social issue from different perspectives. There were no restrictions on the media each project could use and final submissions included documentaries, social media campaigns, photography, poetry and plays.
The prize was judged by experts in cross-sector social change, with the awards designed to encourage participants to continue to focus on their project long term. Judges included Caroline Mason, CEO of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, John Upton, Managing Director of Leon, Judith Grant, Associate Director of Health and Wellbeing at Mace Group, and Indy Johar, co-founder of Architecture00 and Dark Matter Labs.
John Upton, Managing Director of Leon, said:
“I was both privileged and humbled to be a judge for the Koreo Prize. The creativity, granularity and passion with which all of the finalists took on their challenge was amazing. Their output, both individually and collectively, made me realise just how positive we should be about the future, and how our next generation of young people can and will make a real difference to society.”
Judith Grant, Associate Director of Health and Wellbeing at Mace Group, said:
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“The prize was an outstanding opportunity for young people to showcase their exceptional understanding of, and solutions to, the UK’s most pressing issues.
“At only 19, Felicity Abraham has shown us where the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals can be developed further and how the UK can address this when outlining the national strategy to implement the goals by 2030.”
The Koreo Prize is running again this year and is now open for entries with a focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals at work for people of all ages.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.