Youth Speaks

This competition is one of two public speaking competitions designed to encourage young people to develop their creative and presentation skills essential to the art of public speaking.

For this public speaking competition, Rotary Youth Speaks, a team of 3 young people take on the roles of Chairperson, Speaker and the third person giving a Vote of Thanks.  Participants are free to choose the topic they want to talk about. A pre-selected member of the audience will also ask them a question after the speaker has presented.

The Rotary Youth Speaks competition may be run over three different stages: club level, district and cluster. For 2024-25 there will be no national final.

Get a team together to show your debating skills and master the art of public speaking

Challenge your public speaking abilities and perform, persuade, and entertain the audience with your display of knowledge of a topic.

In teams of three, you will present structured arguments and rebuttals before taking a question from the audience.

Participants can select a topic that is important to them, allowing them to delve deep into research, formulate ideas, and expand their knowledge.

Taking part helps build self-confidence and develop public speaking skills, including how to keep an audience engaged.

Age Categories:

(ages as of 31st August 2024).

Competition Information:

If, as a school group etc  you are interested in participating in this competition next year, please contact your local Rotary club in the first instance. Clubs can be found via this website. Not every club participates, but they will direct you to a club that does.

Rotarians who need help or guidance to organise your club or area round, please contact the Mark Philpot - link below. It will be helpful to the organiser to have an early indication from clubs thinking of participating. Competition dates will be published here when known, but as a guide, club rounds need to run by mid January. The District round is generally around February or early March, followed by Region in March or April, and then RGBI in late April to early May. Dates vary slightly from one year to the next in an attempt to work around school holidays.

2024/25 Information:

It is intended that for the year 2024/25 Youth Speaks-A Debate will run again in the District. Many schools are keen to accept the opportunity to widen students’ skills by participating in the competition which promotes Public Speaking.

Simply, a team of three will act as Chairperson, a Proposer, and an Opposer of a meeting which debates a topic selected by the young people themselves. The ‘meeting’ lasts for 15 minutes and involves one question from the audience. Afterwards an adjudicator will provide feedback from a team of judges which is intended to enhance and develop the students’ expertise.

Clubs usually run a competition at local level, and the winner then competes against other teams in the District, (February)  from which a winner is selected to represent the District at Regional (March).

Schools and Clubs have the whole of the Autumn Term to prepare and participate. Interested teachers who are unaware of their local Club may contact the District Youth Speaks Co-ordinator for practical advice. Clubs wishing to take part may gain guidance in the same way.

The planned date for the District competition in 2025 will be posted here when known. February is the likely month, and Wrexham the likely venue. Please contact Mark Philpot for confirmation. We do not expect to run a Youth Speaks Cluster Final this year.

Resources for Rotarians:

Resource (public area):

Take a look at the Information Pack and the Rotary Youth Competition Guidelines for Rotarians for further details.

Contact Mark PhilPot for further information of this c