Raising levels of awareness about the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Award Lopa Kunvardia

Why I wanted to do this research By helping and supporting others through my work as a school counsellor I hope that I am showing a quality the late Princess showed in her lifetime. Receiving the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Award was one of the most honourable moments in my life. It is vital that everyone is aware of this award so that young people’s achievements are appreciated. I was curious to find out just how much awareness of the award there was in key constituencies involved in education and employment.

My research questions To what extent are different age groups aware of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Award? How did people find out about the award if they were aware of it? What suggestions do members of these age groups have for publicising and/or raising awareness of the award further?

My research methodology To answer my research questions I decided to develop a questionnaire that could be given to young people and adults in my school. I sampled 20 people (10 males and 10 females) from 8 age groups giving me a total sample of 160 people. This sample included twenty teachers and other adults. For ethical reasons the questionnaire was anonymous. I was also careful to brief everyone I approached about the purpose of the research and what use I would be making of the data so that they could give me their informed consent to participate. I gave out the questionnaires during lunch breaks and form periods and made sure that I had exactly 10 males and 10 females in each age group.

The Questionnaire There were 11 questions in total. I piloted the questionnaire to make sure that none of the questions were biased or ambiguous. The first two questions asked for factual information (age and gender). I used a mixture of structured and semi-structured questions that would give me both quantitative and qualitative data. There were 3 multiple choice questions, 4 Yes/No questions and 2 open-ended questions that asked people for their ideas about how awareness of the award could be raised.

Levels of awareness of the Award in different age groups

Awareness of the Award This data shows that only the year- old age group and 18+ (adult) age group were fully or considerably aware of the award. It also shows that year-olds and 18 year-olds are least aware of the award. Overall, 81 (51%) of people in my sample of 160 were not aware of the award at all.

Gender differences Unlike James’ findings there were no real differences in awareness between males and females even in the Yr. 10 group.

Where people found out about the award initially

Some interesting findings As the last figure shows - most people who were aware of the Award found out about it from school or family and friends rather than from the media. Only 4 people were Award holders, 3 females and 1 male 97% of the sample thought that key organisations involved with young people ought to be informed about the Award 97% of the sample thought that awareness of the Award should be raised 96% thought that the main reason awareness should be raised was because people simply do not know about the Award. People in my sample knew more about other Awards as the next figure shows.

Awareness of other awards compared with Diana Award

Compared with the Diana Award: year olds don’t know much about any of the awards available to young people. Nearly everyone except the year-old age group knows about the Duke of Edinburgh award. Most people over 16 know about the Prince’s Trust. Most year olds also know about the Youth Award Scheme. In general adults and people over 18 know about these awards although awareness of the Diana Award is lower than that of the D of E and Prince’s Trust.

Why people felt awareness should be raised When I asked why people thought awareness of the award should/should not be raised only 5 people thought that it should not be raised. One person thought that it was not important, one person thought that it was a waste of taxpayers’ money. The overwhelming majority, however, thought awareness should be raised because people did not know about it. The next figure shows how they thought this should be done. 92% of yr.. olds suggested a poster campaign. They also suggested the Internet (65%) and TV (60%). Most people in the other age groups suggested TV (78%) and the Internet (67%). The figure shows the data for all age groups combined.

Publicising the Diana Award

Some conclusions & recommendations Awareness of the Diana Award was low compare to other awards. Hardly any year olds knew about it; only 54% of year-olds and 35 % of 18 year-olds had heard about it. There is a considerable awareness gap. Young people will not try for the award if they do not know about it. Managers of the Award need to publicise the award more widely. There is a particular need to raise awareness of the Award amongst younger teenagers. Most people heard about the award through school or friends and family. This kind of local publicity only seems to reach about 50% of the constituency I sampled. The findings suggest that the award should be publicised in different ways to younger and older age groups. A poster campaign would attract the attention of younger teenagers. A combined TV and Internet campaign would raise awareness with older teenagers and adults.

And finally: Thank you for listening to my presentation.