Skip to main content
Logo

The Birch Awards 2023

Every year children and young people across the UK do amazing things to make sure everyone has a place to call home.

This summer, we’re inviting young people of all ages to support Crisis by taking part in the Birch Awards. Together, we’ll work towards ending homelessness for good.

 

The challenge has three stages:

1. Learn more - complete one of our activities for young people to learn more about homelessness and why the work Crisis does is so important 

2. Take action - fundraising in an amazing way to support Crisis – whether it’s a bake sale, step challenge, or one of our other fundraising ideas, there’s so many ways you can take action to help end homelessness

3. Tell the world - raising awareness is a key part of ending homelessness. Write a letter to someone – a family member, friend, neighbour or even your local MP – to tell them why ending homelessness is so important

 

Everyone who completes the Birch Awards will receive a certificate and medal, as well as an invite to our virtual celebration event on Friday 25th August with Crisis CEO Matt Downie, Crisis members and other Birch Award participants. We’d love for you to join us!

Let us know that you’re taking part today and we’ll send you information and resources to get started with your challenge!

 

Step 1: Learn more

We should all have a safe place to call home.

Homelessness is a problem that affects all of us in society, but we can all play our part in solving it.

To complete step 1 of the challenge, choose one of the Crisis learning activities for young people, which are great to do with friends or family. 

Choose activity

 

Need some inspiration?

One of our favourite activities is 'What does home mean to you?'

Think about all the different things that make you feel at home - this could be your family, a pet, your room or your favourite food. You can draw, write a poem, create something or make a collage of photos of what home means to you.

Step 2: Take action

There are lots of ways for you to get involved in Crisis' work to end homelessness for good and to help people who are experiencing it. Everyone can play their part and make a difference.

Fundraising is a really important way to ensure that people experiencing homelessness get all the support they need.

To complete step 2, why not organiser your own fundraising challenge - bake sales are always popular, or you could take on a step challenge with your friends, class or by yourself and get sponsored. We've got lots of ideas here!

Whether you raise £1 or £100, every penny raised will make such a difference.

Set up your fundraising page

 

Supporter star Thomas ⭐

Thomas is one of our young supporters. He’s been fundraising for Crisis for three years! Thomas became passionate about helping people experiencing homelessness after speaking to a man named Dean who was forced into homelessness after his mum passed away.

So far Thomas has raised over £3,500 for Crisis! 

Step 3: Tell the world

Raising awareness is a key part of helping other people understand why ending homelessness matters so much, and what they can do to play their part. We know that we can end homelessness, but we need to work together to achieve this goal. 

To complete step 3 and finish your Birch Award challenge, we want you to shout about what you've been doing to support Crisis. Why not write a letter to your local MP, a friend or a family member to tell them why having a home is so important and how everyone can make a difference. Check out these tips for writing a letter to your MP.

Top tips for writing to your MP

 

For younger challengers

You could also print off and colour in this activity, and display it at school or in your window at home to let people know what you're doing.

 

For schools and groups

If you’re taking part as a school or group, you could raise even more awareness by holding an assembly or exhibition and inviting others to attend. Let us know if this is something you’re planning, and we’d be more than happy to help.

About the Birch Awards

The Birch Awards are named in memory of passionate and inspiring Crisis staff member, Rosie Birch. The Awards happen every year to celebrate young people who want to go above and beyond to end homelessness.

The Birch Awards also honour Crisis supporter Emma Kelty. Emma was a brave Crisis supporter, who did amazing challenges to raise awareness about homelessness.

Be brave and inspiring like Rosie and Emma and take action today. 

 

FAQs

The Birch Awards are named in memory of passionate and inspiring Crisis staff member, Rosie Birch, to recognise and celebrate young people who go above and beyond to end homelessness. 

This year’s challenge asks young people to complete 3 steps, centred around raising awareness and taking action to support those experiencing homelessness. This can be done in school groups, youth groups, in families, with friends or solo! Once the challenge is complete, we’ll send out a certificate, medal and invite to our celebration event at the end of the summer holidays.

The activities we have suggested are best suited for primary aged children but can be easily adapted to suit young people of any age! If you're supporting an older child to get involved in the challenge, check out our other activities or get in touch at youth@crisis.org.uk for some ideas.

To let us know you’re supporting a young person to take part, you can sign up here. This will need to be completed by a parent, guardian, teacher, group leader or other family member who is over 18.

After signing up there are 3 steps to complete the Birch Award challenge: 

  1. Learn more
  2. Take action
  3. Tell the world 

On this webpage, we’ve got suggestions of how to complete each section, but there are plenty of other activities to choose from – or get in touch with us via youth@crisis.org.uk if you’ve got other ideas you’d like to try! 

We’ll send a Birch Awards certificate and medal at the end of August to everyone who signs up. We’ll use the address you provide when you register, please get in touch at youth@crisis.org.uk if you need to change the address.

Absolutely! Completing the Birch Awards as a class or other youth group is a great way to come together and learn more about homelessness. The activities can be completed alone or in a group, and the class could even put on an exhibition or assembly to share what they have learnt while completing the challenge. If you have any questions about how your school or class can get involved, please reach out at youth@crisis.org.uk.

The celebration event takes place at the end of August and brings together all the young people who have taken part in this year’s Birch Awards. Everyone will receive an email invite ahead of the event with more details and a link to join. We’ll be joined at the event by Crisis CEO Matt Downie MBE. It’s a chance for us to come together and celebrate the incredible achievements of young people for Crisis.

A little bit! Last year we asked for nominations for young people who had already done something to support Crisis. This time, we’d like to encourage everyone to get involved and take part – whether they’ve supported Crisis before or not.

We have plenty of resources to support you in whatever you’re planning! We’ve got a number of activities for children and young people that can help with Step 1 and 3 and lots of fundraising ideas and resources to support you in whatever you’re planning for Step 2. 

Our friendly team are also happy to help with any questions you might have – get in touch with us via youth@crisis.org.uk.

Social media shareables

Use these resources to let people know you're taking part in the Birch Awards challenge. Simply click on the image you'd like to download then right click to save it to your computer.

If you need any help downloading these resources, get in touch at youth@crisis.org.uk and we'd be happy to send them to you via email!

   

 

;