The downpour of rain that descended on South Yorkshire on Sunday 29 November 2009 was not enough to dampen the spirits of everyone attending the annual Lifestyle Volunteers Prize Giving Ceremony.

The annual event – the highlight of the Lifestyle Volunteers calendar – took place at the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham. Lifestyle Volunteers is an initiative co-ordinated by the Community Safety Department that has been successfully running for more than 15 years, during which time thousands of young people have taken part in positive activities for the benefit of their local communities.

Launched in April each year, Lifestyle Volunteers encourages two or more young people, in school years 6-11, to complete a project with the support of either one or two adult volunteers. Projects are then submitted to Community Safety for judging at the end of September.

Each year the themes for projects vary but they are always based around safety and in line with South Yorkshire Police objectives. The themes for this years projects were:

- Keeping healthy – specifically drugs and alcohol awareness and sports activities
- Community Safety – anti-vandalism projects, fire safety, preventing antisocial behaviour and preventing vehicle crime
- Staying Safe – personal safety, internet and road safety, and anti-bullying
- Knife crime awareness – the dangers of carrying knives.

This year first prize was awarded to the team "Auntie Blades" for their excellent work around knife crime issues. The group of girls from Rotherham wanted to raise awareness of knives and blades and intervene with young people at an early age. The team visited shopping centres in the summer holidays to speak to young people and their parents as well as visiting school pupils, youth centres and youth groups.

Doncaster team "Active is the Way Forward" received second prize for their project. These Doncaster schoolgirls decided to promote a healthy message to the younger generation by encouraging them to stay healthy, keep off the streets and out of trouble.

The "Kek Crew" from Barnsley were received third prize for their excellent work around improving road safety during school hours in Kexborough. They raised money through car boot sales and summer fairs to buy and hand out high visibility baseball caps to primary school children for use during dark mornings and nights.

This year’s High Sheriff prize was received by Sheffield team "Silver Surfers". The group of girls engaged with people over 50-years-old to help them gain confidence in using computers and basic knowledge of the internet. The team held six two-hour ICT sessions in the ICT suite at Tapton School over the summer holiday period as well as a number of fund-raising activities.

Sheffield District was awarded the Martin Davies trophy for the district submitting the most completed projects this year.

Chief Inspector Paul Varley of Community Safety Department said: "This year we had over 400 young people taking part in Lifestyle Projects. All of them deserve credit for giving something back to their local communities and projecting a positive image of young people.

"Judging the winners was no easy task, as standards were so high, but each of the prize-winners submitted a fantastic project and the teams fully deserved their awards."

For more information on Lifestyle Volunteers visit the website http://www.lifestylevolunteers.co.uk/ or contact Community Safety.

The picture shows winning team "Auntie Blades" pictured with their adult volunteer Sharon Hancock and ACC Andy Holt