Community minded youngsters were nominated for a host of reasons, from helping vulnerable people, raising money for charities and being excellent community ambassadors - and the winner was announced at a ceremony hosted by the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor Phil Page.
As ever, the judges had the difficult task of whittling down the shortlist to 8 nominees and then choosing a winner - which proved harder than ever before - with the judges eventually deciding on 2 winners to jointly share the coveted prize.
Millie Betteridge, aged 15 and Taranveer Khangura, aged 17 were crowned winners of the prestigious award at this year's awards ceremony yesterday (Thursday 5 July).
Millie was nominated for the award by Andrew Scragg from the Wolverhampton Youth Council for her hard work with the Youth Council on the 'Make Your Mark' vote - ensuring that young people's voices and opinions from across the city are heard. She also played a key role in the design of a commissioning model for school nurses.
Taranveer, whose sister accepted her award as she unfortunately couldn't attend the awards ceremony was nominated by Rebecca Brett, a teacher at Wolverhampton Girls' High School, after raising vast amounts of money for various charities and working with fellow pupils to reduce cultural prejudice in her local community.
Millie said: "I am really honoured to have won this award and I am very touched to even have been nominated.
"I want to take this opportunity and utilise it to continue my work - I am hoping that I can visit primary schools and encourage younger children to also have their say on issues that matter."
Roger Timbrell, who chairs the organising committee as member of the city's Rotary Clubs said: "I firstly would like to congratulate Millie and Taranveer on winning this year's Wolverhampton Young Citizen of the Year Award.
"This year was probably the closest it has been in terms of choosing a winner and although we had to choose two in the end, all eight finalists should be extremely proud of the work they have done to be nominated."
Councillor Phil Page, Mayor of Wolverhampton said: "Young people are this city's future and it is fantastic that we have an awards ceremony to recognise their achievements.
"I would like to congratulate every single one of the finalists for their hard work and efforts which make our wonderful city an even better place"
For more information on this year's finalists and why they were nominated, please visit Type=links;Linkid=10569;Title=Wolverhampton Young Citizen Awards;Target=_blank;.
- released: Friday 6 July, 2018