2025 Independent Living Awards – Young Leader Award for Independent Living

December 17, 2025

The 2025 winner of the Young Leader Award for Independent Living is Annalea Pudan-Sproule.

Annalea is a 19-year-old woman residing in Adam’s Cove, having moved to NL in 2019 as a tween to Carbonear. She was diagnosed with autism and ADHD just before she turned 18, having traumatic brain injury and TMJ issues since the age of 9, suffering from migraines for the majority of her life. Without support for her IEP or impactful academic accommodation until after high school graduation, she has made her way to post-secondary, attending Tyndale University in her second year of the Biblical Studies and Theology program.

Her leadership started with her participation with Girl Guides as the former co-chair and chair of the local Girl Guides of Canada Provincial youth forum Newfoundland and Labrador. She won their National Change Maker Award in 2023 and moved up to the National Girl Guide Committee to engage with topics raised by youth forums from all provinces and territories.

Annalea is involved with the Newfoundland and Labrador Youth Parliament. She has participated in numerous pageants in the province, using her public speaking opportunity to talk about intersectionality, placemaking and harm reduction, advocating for persons with disabilities and those impacted by racism by sharing her lived experience of discrimination to give visibility and testimony to the invisible barriers she faced during marginalization in this province.

She aspires to be a part of rural communities exploring religious studies with a desire to serve the residents and wanting to involve herself in politics for this province and achieve equitable representation as a person of colour with disability. That is why she continues to advocate the need to identify and challenge systemic gaps as they happen to read the pulse and manifest change, evolving in real time with the needs of the people, especially youth with disabilities living in rural communities.

(The Young Leader Award for Independent Living is for a young person with a disability, under 30 years of age, who has raised awareness and shown outstanding leadership in promoting full inclusion of people with disabilities in NL.)