Positive Stories July 2014

Youth Voice: Positive Stories July 2014

UK Youth Parliament Annual Sitting 2014

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Youth Voice: Positive Stories A report by youth representatives and the workers that support them July 2014 Welcome to the July 2014 edition of Positive Stories. Our format reflects part of our commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child Article 13 - Freedom of expression ‘Every child must be free to say what they think and to seek and receive all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law,’ (UNICEF UK).

The British Youth Council will share this report regionally and nationally, with local councillors and MPs, and certain media outlets, in order to raise the profile of the fantastic local work that we know is happening every day.

The case studies and stories of the work of young people in their local communities are reproduced here in their own words. If you would like to find out more about one of the projects you read about in this report, please email: mail@byc.org.uk The online survey remains open and we produce reports once a month, providing young people the opportunity to shout about the great work they have been doing in their local areas during the previous month. Previous reports are available online: http://www.byc.org.uk/ukwork/youth-voice The British Youth Council would like to thank all the workers and young people who took the time to promote and complete July’s survey and we look forward to hearing more from everyone over the coming months.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Contents Young People’s Stories East Midlands East of England London North East North West South East South West West Midlands Yorkshire and Humber Northern Ireland Wales Scotland

4 5 7 11 13 16 21 36 38 50 51 52

Support Worker Stories London North East Yorkshire and Humber

53 55 56

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Young People’s Stories

East Midlands Leicestershire Rina Roy, 17, Member of Youth Parliament It was a great honour to meet the MP for Loughborough, the area I live in and represent - Nicky Morgan. I would like to congratulate her on her new role as Education Secretary. We have met and agreed to work together to identify and highlight the issues which are of most interest to local young people, and work together to solve these problems and be successful. Being a MYP, is a great privilege to be able to listen to young people’s views and work together for a better future.

In November when I attend the UK Youth Parliament’s debates in the House of Commons, I will speak for the young people of Leicestershire and try my very best to influence decision makers for a positive change, taking on board what the young people have said in Loughborough.

My key areas of interest are local transports (cost), work experience, youth unemployment and higher education. I hope to go to youth clubs, schools and colleges and talk to young people and build effective campaigns which will benefit everyone.

At the moment I am working on the Votes at 16 campaign and preparing for the Make Your Mark ballot, which will be launched on 12th August 2014. I have been emailing schools and colleges in Charnwood Borough to encourage young people to become more involved in politics and democracy. I look forward working with Nicky Morgan, and very pleased to hear that all her support with UK Youth Parliament.

Nicky added: “I think one of the most important thing sitting Members of Parliament can do is to encourage the next generation of voters and hopefully future MPs to get involved in politics and make their views heard about the issues they care about. I am a great supporter of the UK Youth Parliament and wish Rina all the very best in representing all of her constituency. I hope local secondary schools will take part in the Make Your Mark ballot and I will work with Rina on the issues she identifies.”

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

East of England Hertfordshire Brandon Minichiello, 16, Member of Youth Parliament These last two weeks I have sat on the Youth Select Committee on Votes at 16. We have heard a variety of evidence from people like Professor Jonathan Tonge and Rt Hon Thomas Brake MP, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. It had been very interesting hearing evidence especially from elected Youth representatives on the second Friday. This evidence will help us form our report which will be launched later in the year followed by an official Government response later on in the Parliament.

Suffolk Liam Jackson, 18, Member of Youth Parliament To begin, I attended the local Waveney Youth Council at one of the local schools in the constituency. Here, I made good connections with the members of the council to give me a further indication of the issues the youth have in my local area I am representing. This meeting included plans for inviting the members of public down to a drop-in centre event later in the year to enhance the awareness of the youth in numerous ways.

Secondly, I went to another local school (Pakefield High) to participate in the Politics Leap day, which I supported a workshop on votes at 16, which saw pupils that were disenchanted with politics gain some progress to why voting is so important. This I see as a great success, and also helped push publicity about my role to the pupils who once otherwise didn't know about it. Joint surgeries with the local MP, Peter Aldous are being discussed and planned this month, which will hopefully be put in to motion soon.

Finally, the positive story of attending the UKYP annual sitting happened this month. Voting on motions that affected my constituents such as; voting against protecting farmland, which was seen as controversial, but the main priority for my constituents is to have security in a house at low prices, either for their family, or for themselves later in life. Another motion voted for was political education, which I had a mandate to uphold to my constituents.

Natasha Graves, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month I have been primarily focusing upon my manifesto policy regarding sustainable living and healthy eating. I have been doing this by working hard with my local community project; Incredible Edible, we have been regularly meeting at one of our sites and recently showed some primary school children

Youth Voice: Positive Stories around the site to help the engage with the production of sustainable, healthy food. I also sat on a youth panel to help the council hire a new Young Person's Health Ambassador.

I have also attended meetings with other young people and decision makers at Suffolk county Council regarding Suffolk's up and coming youth forum SAY, in which we have been talking over and planning a youth question time event. I also attended a youth panel meeting regarding 'Talent Match' a scheme which is set upon combatting youth unemployment, at this meeting I offered advice on how the scheme could better engage and help young people.

These last two weeks I have sat on the Youth Select Committee on Votes at 16. We have heard a variety of evidence from people like Professor Jonathan Tonge and Rt Hon Thomas Brake MP, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. It had been very interesting hearing evidence especially from elected Youth representatives on the second Friday. This evidence will help us form our report which will be launched later in the year followed by an official Government response later on in the Parliament.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

London Barnet Louise Hawkins, 14, Youth Councillor On Friday the 4th of July the UK Youth select committee had our last oral evidence session at the Houses of Commons. It went really well and I really enjoyed hearing both for and against views. Also Barnet press wrote an article about me being on the committee. http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11324445.Teenager_to_advise_MPs_on_voting_age/ http://www.barnettoday.co.uk/news.cfm?id=23187&headline=Pupil%20has%20the%20ear%20of%20the %20government http://www.barnet.gov.uk/news/article/539/barnet_young_citizen_sits_on_parliament_youth_select_co mmittee

Camden Hannah Morris, Member of Youth Parliament Last weekend, the 25th to 27th of July, I as the Youth MP of Camden attended the National United Kingdom Youth Parliament (UKYP) annual sitting at Lancaster University along with 300 other Youth MPs from across the UK. We listened to many motivational speeches from ex-Youth MP Kamal Hyman, the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, Dr. Maggie Atkinson, the Children's Commissioner for England and Caroline Criado-Perez a feminist campaigner who secured Jane Austen’s place on the British banknote.

In addition there were many interesting and educational workshops on media interviews, UKYP’s main campaign to allow Votes at 16 and the European Union. It was an amazing twitter crazy weekend consisting of tweet breaks and debates, helping us to help you.

Last week I had a meeting with the Chief of education in Camden, Martin Pratt. It was very successful and we proposed many of our ideas which he took on board and agreed to help and support us in anyways possible. He thought many of our ideas were achievable especially our careers event, which he thought of a new snappy name for and gave us many good contacts. The meeting as a whole was a great success and we have agreed to have more meetings termly.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Harrow Zak Wagman, 15, Member of Youth Parliament During the last month, I have been involved in a number of exciting events due to my position as Member of Youth Parliament, and a member of the Harrow Youth Parliament. At the beginning of the month, I was the guest host and presenter at the Harrow Cut Films Awards.

Cut Films is a charity that encourages young people not to smoke, through running a competition whereby young people produce videos about the dangers of smoking. Their Awards Ceremony took place in the Harrow Council Chamber, with the Mayor of Harrow in attendance. I hosted the event with Amanda Star, a DJ and Presenter for Bang Radio. Together, we announced nominees and special guests, and gave out the awards to the winners. Also during the evening, myself and another experienced HYP member gave a speech about the importance of the Youth Voice and Youth Social Action. At the end of the speech, I presented the ‘Young Judge’s Choice Award’, which was the film that I thought deserved to win. I had been a member of the judging panel, and provided scores, comments and feedback for all of the many great entries.

Over the course of the month, I have been promoting Make Your Mark. This has been, mainly, within HYP, where I have been promoting it and encouraging it during our weekly meetings. I am working with members in a plethora of different schools in Harrow, so that we should have at least 3 or 4 schools signed up, with many others taking part in other ways. In my old school, I have been speaking to a large number of people (the Head of Middle School, Head of Politics, Head of School Council and Deputy Head) and finally been told that I will be able to run a Make Your Mark ballot on a Friday morning, following an assembly. This will be to around 600 members of the Middle School, and will help both HYP and the UKYP to reach their targets of 10,000 and 1,000,000 respectively. Hopefully all of this will lead to more positive months in the near future!

On the weekend of 25th-27th July, I attended the UK Youth Parliament's Annual Sitting at the University of Lancaster. It was a chance for MYPs from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland to come together, and, above all, vote in the UKYP's manifesto.

The manifesto is developed through 'The Big Vote'. This was spread over the weekend, and saw MYPs debate issues selected and vote. The matters debated were all interesting and topical. I represented the views of young people in Harrow, and specifically from the Harrow Youth Parliament, and voted in all debates. I also gave a speech on why no action or legislation is needed to increase the number of female MPs. Another key part of the event is the keynote speakers. I heard three in action. There was the Rt Hon John Bercow MP, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Dr Maggie Atkinson, the Children's Commissioner for England and Caroline Criado-Perez, a renowned feminist campaigner.

The weekend also involved training sessions. I attended sessions on campaign management and media interviews, to further my skills. The weekend also played host to the annual UKYP Summer Party, a sitdown dinner and disco for all MYPs, which is always the social highlight of the UKYP year. Overall, it was a great, fun, interesting, empowering and all-round fantastic weekend!

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Hounslow Dunja Relić, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Now that exams are finally over I can completely focus on my campaign! It has been a bit hectic, trying to get everything together but it is all finally coming together. My DMYP, Kyle Kinsella and I have been working hard to set up our weekly surgeries in the constituency. This will enable us to be accessible and really engage with the young people in Hounslow.

Recently I did a weeks worth of work experience with the local MP, Mary MacLeod. Ms MacLeod has been very proactive about women in Parliament during her term so it was absolutely ideal to work with someone that had the same focus point as me.

After spending the week with Ms MacLeod, I have been put forward for the #YouthforChange event and the Girl Summit 2014 event in the upcoming weeks - both designed to ignite action around girls' rights and strengthen young people as leaders of the future. Both events I will be making notes on and tweeting throughout the event on my professional twitter page: @DunjaRelic_MYP. I also recently appeared on an online local newspaper website called 'Get West London,' where the reporter said he would like to say in touch with me in order to report the progress of my campaign in the near future.

My Youth Council team and I are finally finishing the general presentation which we will be presenting to all the schools across the borough addressing not only my campaign but the Youth Parliament, the youth council, votes at 16, curriculum for life and much more.

Kingston upon Thames Calum Paton, 16, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Achieving for Children (AFC) youth board consultation, working to set up a youth board to work along side AFC to get young people involved in all possible decision that might affect them in Kingston and Richmond. Police Panels and Safer neighbourhood committees, to get young people more deeply involved in their community issues and safety by getting members of the Kingston Youth Council to attend such meeting. Safeguarding project, working alongside 'Barnardos' to train young people to be capable of planning and running campaigns, projects and events.

NCS with The Challenge. Media training, used to create a film that raises awareness of a local community centre/charity, "vineyard community centre". Also design and implement a campaign to raise money for a local project.

Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Consultation surrounding the formation of an Achieving for Children youth board in Kingston and Richmond to ensure young peoples voices are heard, right at the heart of decision making. Opening stages

Youth Voice: Positive Stories of getting young people involved in local police panels and safer neighbourhood meetings, again ensuring young people are at the heart of vital decisions.

NCS with The Challenge, making a film to raise awareness and support a community centre. Work to support local community projects and needs.

Richmond upon Thames Jack Lewis, 17, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament The Richmond Youth Council (RYC) and the MYPs/DMYP of the borough have been up to a lot in the past months. The Emotional Health and Wellbeing (EHWB) team of the RYC are working very hard to prepare a workshop for young carers. To do this, we underwent facilitation training in May and have developed two draft workshops for both young carers and school pastoral managers and other relevant professionals. We ran a sample of the workshop to young carers back in May, but hope to get it polished off and ready for young carers as soon as possible.

For an update from the Risky Behaviour team, I have a report directly from one of it's members: "We have recently finished filming our first Risky Behaviour video, based on the use of illegal substances, and we are now in the process of editing it. We are also about to start writing the script for the next film."

For Physical Health, let me hand over to Joe: "We've begun filming at Twickenham studios and we have finished filming, now we're editing. IT'S BRILLIANT!! Our Movie is going to be Fab-ulous! #TWS #Positivity #YOLO #Progress #RYC. Myself and Justin have taken part in the planning of the eRichmond project. eRichmond will encourage the borough's young people to promote local charities of their choice using social media. The first session will be at Heatham House on 14th July, where the participants were given a briefing of the project and advice as to how to best go about promoting local charities of their choice.

I have also recently gained a place at the local Heads of Sixth Form Conference on 8th July. Here, I will be promoting the Curriculum for Life campaign and encourage the Sixth Forms to implement its demands for improved PSHE. The borough has recently completed a BYC Youth Voice Assessment, with the hope that this will improve our practice with regards to engaging young people.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

North East Northumberland Annabelle Cooper, 16, Member of Youth Parliament I attended the UK Youth Parliament’s Annual Sitting at Lancaster University on the 25th July. Since it was my first time meeting all the MYPs it was a nerve-wracking experience. However it was one I would never forget.

Over the course of the weekend I introduced myself to numerous people from all over the UK which I am certainly going to keep in touch with! It is impossible to choose only one highlight from the great experience, but probably standing above all else is the very inspirational and motivational speech from the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow MP. However also in contention is the UKYP Summer Party. Lively, crazy, and wild is definitely an understatement. Old classics such as Steps, Scissor Sisters, and the Cha Cha Slide made a comeback and dragged everyone up to the dance floor to have a wicked time. The work-shops conducted over the course of the weekend were certainly invaluable in giving a heads up for the future of campaign management and votes at 16. Not to mention the very productive ‘Big Vote’ which allowed MYPs to discuss policies and vote on which should become part of the BYC manifesto. I should also mention that we debated all 26 motions!

As Sunday marked the last day of UKYP14 I must admit tears were flying and many hugs were given. As a newly elected MYP my Youth Parliament family has expanded somewhat due to this weekend. There is only one more thing left to say, November can’t come quick enough!

South Tyneside Emma True, 15, Member of Youth Parliament I was elected to be the Member of Youth Parliament, (MYP) for South Tyneside in March 2014. I was made aware of the role by my business teacher as she had information of the election and claimed it was 'right up my street!'. I prepared a 2 minute speech about why I would be best for the role and so did 5 other candidates. The youth members of the chamber voted the same evening and I was privileged to be returned as the Member of Youth Parliament for my local authority.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories The first photograph is of myself and the Deputy Leader of South Tyneside Council, (Cllr Alan Kerr) and the second photograph is of myself, the Deputy Leader of South Tyneside Council, (Cllr Alan Kerr), Lead Member for Children, Young People and Families, (Cllr Joan Atkinson) and the other candidates

The first event I attended as MYP of South Tyneside was the 1st North East Regional Convention held in North Tyneside in May ‘14. It was very reassuring to meet other people in my position, also I became aware of other roles people had in their own parliaments which was very interesting to find out about. I attended various workshops about campaigns and the national sitting at Lancaster etc. It was inspiring to hear about so many different campaigns and people doing great things that I hope to become a part of.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

North West Bolton Gulwali Passarlay, 19, NHS Youth Forum Member During this month compared to others, it's fair to say I didn't do much activism or participation in events and conferences - due to the Holy month of Ramadan.

On the 2nd week of July I attended an event as part of NHS Youth Forum of which I am a member of at the BMA in London for a day. It was about 'Celebrating Positive Mental Heath'. This is because Mental Heath of our main priority at the NHSYF.The event was well planned

by BYC, NHS England and public Heath England - although the youth forum was the main organiser but we had a lot of support and help from the adults working with us.

Some of the NHYF members arrived the day before as we were travelling from a long distance and stay over in London for the event on Saturday.

Even thought I was fasting, and it was difficult to wake up early - the BYC staff were very supportive.

On the day we arrived early to organise everything and get ready for the event and welcoming of the young people and attendees. I was well impressed with our group and how we handle the whole day event. I participated in the workshop looking at education institutions and how they deal with the issue of mental health; some great statistics from the NUS and useful and informative talks on their research into students why, how and causes and consequences of mental health. Two of our youth form members were in every workshop to support the group. In the afternoon I took part in an interesting discussion/panel debate about what educational institutions such as school, universities and colleges are doing and should do. We heard from school nurses, Public Heath England and young people about their experiences which I thought was the best part of the day as people have some great ideas and solutions which we will hopefully publish in our NHSYF report; as well as take forward to the decision makers. Basically our first event was a success and I was proud of everyone. After this event the next day we worked on the findings and report - and discussed the feedbacks.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Another important meeting next day was the National Scrutiny Group NSG meeting with Rt Hon Nick Hurd MP - the Former Minister at the Cabinet Office. I had the opportunity to co- chair the meeting with a civil servant from cabinet office youth policy team, which I thought was a great experience as it was our last meeting with the minister. We discussed different topics, this time a bit unusual as we were advising more than scrutinising them. The Minister gave an update one year on - as youth policy was moved to cabinet office; achievements and challenges. Also we gave feedback and ask questions on Delivering Differently for Young People, interesting project which I hope will work, government giving money to local authorities to do things for young people differently and creatively. There was a talk from DfE official regarding pupil voice and the importance of representation of students in school, as well as a few other subject matters and the meeting took place in the HoC. After a busy weekend, and a good start to the week, I attended and participated my first APPG Youth Affairs AGM where we met Julie Hillings MP who is charing the group and some other MPs/policy makers interested in youth issues and we were discussing low cost of housing for young people. There were some very strong views from young people, who were passionate about the injustice done to young people by the system and wanted to ensure fairness. Experts gave their advice, it was all a very friendly and welcoming environment to discuss the issue and come up with solutions. The two hours wasn't enough for such topic of importance but hopefully we all learnt something new and are more knowledgeable about the issue, after leaving the committee room.

Finally in the same week, as part of the Children Society - Child Poverty Commission; we held an inquiry into cost of schooling and as I am a commissioner on the panel of young people we questioned experts on cost of school materials for children living in poverty, what help and support was available to them, how they find out about it and what can we do to reduce poverty in schools. We also looked at what more needs to be done by policy and decision makers together with educational institutions to create awareness about children experiencing financial difficulties.

Fortunately, I had the chance to chair half of the inquiry which I very much enjoyed, and of course there were three different inquiries during the week in parliament but ours was the last one. We were joined by a few MPs and Lords to support us in our evidence taking. We found some very useful and relevant information which will soon be published in a report, that way the schools know what they need to do for the children and young people living and experiencing poverty and also government and public involvement to help reduce this great injustice to our future generations.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories This was a chance for the Young Commissioners who took to Parliament to host our own inquiry into the cost of schooling, hearing evidence from experts about school materials, uniforms and lunches. This was the first important step in gathering evidence and information to uncover what the cost of school life really looks like for children and families in poverty.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

South East Brighton & Hove Thomas Soud, 16, Member of Youth Parliament During the past month I have worked on trying to progress with two main objectives in the Brighton and Hove Area. These objectives have been to establish Youth Representation in how the local authority runs the local state schools and colleges and to build a greater relationship with the schools and colleges in the area as an MYP. In establishing Youth Representation my aim was to meet with the Director of Children’s Services; Pinaki Ghoshal to find the best way to move forward with this goal. This has meant moving through a lot of challenges but with support they have finally been overcome and we have a letter being sent out to Pinaki this week.

There is a similar story with building a relationship with schools and colleges. However, we have just this week managed to send out a letter to all schools and colleges in the area who are involved with the local Youth Council informing them of UK Youth Parliament, our aims and the Make Your Mark Campaign, as well as our future plans to hold MYP Surgery Sessions in schools to further engage our constituents with the work we do.

Hopefully, all of these actions should allow real concrete change in the near future and improve the city of Brighton and Hove for Young People by starting solid communication between the UK Youth Parliament Members of Brighton and Hove and the Schools, Colleges and decision makers in the local area.

Kent Tamanna Miah, Youth Representative July has been very interesting month, slightly quieter than usual!

This month started off with me attending the National Citizen Service Youth Commissioning team residential in Leicester scrutinising the many bids and contracts received and deciding on the potential providers for the upcoming round of NCS programme delivery.

Followed by National Express Youth Promise launch event which was launched in The London Transport Museum, where our previous group planning session at National

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Express HQ was shown in the film along with messages of support. The National Express Youth Promise is a five-year promise to support young people via a series of initiatives, including an apprenticeship scheme, work experience and charity partnerships. This partnership is made up of the British Youth Council, The Scouts, The Princes Trust and children’s disability charity Whizz-Kidz.

The Promise is built around five core pledges made by National Express: - An ongoing commitment to deliver value travel - Working on a grassroots level with young people in the communities across the UK - Supporting young people into work and education - Delivering the most accessible public transport network possible - Providing platforms on which to showcase youth talent.

This is initiative is also backed by previous Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd and Tim Loughton previously Children’s Minister.

I am very pleased that National Express, is the only transport provider that is taking action on assisting young people with transport and being the only company that are following up on the Youth Select Committee's report on Transport and Young People. I am looking forward to being a part of the Youth Panel which will be created to continually engage with young people to help maintain regular dialogue around the issues affecting young person’s travel to ensure the coach operator stays on track. The launch video is here: http://vimeo.com/101397518 I was then invited to speak on BBC Radio Kent regarding my Fixers Racial Bullying Project to discuss my previous experiences and how schools are dealing with this today. My radio interview 22.7.14, 01.02.30 - 01.03.16 seconds radio link is available here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p022hq2g A week later after that interview, I was then randomly invited again to be interviewed by the breakfast presenter to talk more in detail of my past racial bullying experiences and discuss how the local authority and government need to take more action on this subject including how schools and local authorities aren't doing enough about this and how it isn't statutory to report it?! – a matter which I wasn’t too happy about! My Fixers Racial Bullying project also broadcasted again on ITV News Meridian 17th July broadcast here: http://bit.ly/1kCcrgT I also created a short video for Fixers to support them to gain more votes for the Big Lottery awards bit.ly/1tA1eQ2

Youth Voice: Positive Stories As trustee I attended a meeting for National Youth Agency, having consulted with the NYA youth board I presented my findings to the board on current young people’s issues and fed back youth board concerns, as well as discussing board items.

I then attended a lively All Party Parliamentary group on Youth affairs chaired by Julie Hilling on Housing and as usual bumped into many people I know from the youth sector – always a pleasure!

I was also invited to be a panel member for the flagship panel for Grow Wild at Kew Gardens to view presentations from potential bidders to win funding to transform their local areas.

Also I am a part of another Fixers project although on Mental Health as part of a Kent based organisation called SAFE where we spent the day filming a mental health short film showing young people in different mental health situations with Stag Youth Theatre! Had the chance to act as a school girl again! Again was another very hot day!  Then I attended the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services Youth Management board residential at Danburys Outdoor Centre in Essex. We did various activities such as teambuilding, games, planning the year ahead, safeguarding training, working in our subgroups eg. Mine being communications and much more! A funny weekend meeting enthusiastic young people!

I have also recently been recruited as Young Minds Vs Activist and attended a meeting on discussing their social media and potential campaigning and opportunities coming up in the year ahead!

Have been recently selected to represent British Youth Council for the Remembering Srebrenica programme and to convey the lessons of the horrific genocide back to young people in the UK. Thankyou’s for reading 

Oxfordshire Rowan Ibbotson, Member of Youth Parliament I was elected as a member of Youth Parliament in February. My campaign is to improve youth opportunities for young people and for them to take part in positive activities in their communities. This includes youth volunteering opportunities, sport and art activities and spaces for young people to socialise. Youth services, centres, activities and opportunities need to be suitable and available for all regardless of age, race, disabilities or other grounds. We are aware that some activities are already provided but are underused as young people are often unaware of them. I firstly created a survey asking

Youth Voice: Positive Stories the young people of Oxfordshire what they are looking for in youth clubs and were looking at the results of that survey and how to take it forward. I then took on the national campaign of Curriculum for life, setting it up in my own school as a 'guinea-pig' for other schools in Oxfordshire.

George Ginger, Youth Representative I was elected as an ambassador in February and I've met members of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Board and (OSCB) KingFisher Team, set up to tackle local issues around abuse and keeping children and young people safe in Oxfordshire. From our meetings, we are planning a Sounding Board on 13th August, where around 35 children and young will come and give us their views on the safety issues for them and what is the best way to communicate with children and young people generally on safeguarding issues. I'm facilitating and planning this Sounding Board with Kainat, another UKYP Ambassador, the Engagement Team, OSCB and Kingfisher Team. From this, we are setting up a new 'Children and Young People Safeguarding Group' which will meet often with heads of services, OSCB and Kingfisher Team to talk about current safeguarding issues and what more actions need putting in place to ensure children and young people are safe and protected in Oxfordshire.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Reading Ellie Emberson, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been a very busy month for myself with at least 3 meetings a week!

At the very beginning of July I was invited to attend the Youth Select Committees enquiry into Votes at 16 as I lobbied Reading Borough Council to pass the motion and thy now officially support lowering the voting age. I went to Parliament and spoke live on BBC Democracy Live alongside the Chair of the Reading Youth Cabinet. It was amazing and can be found on Parliament UK's YouTube Channel!

As well as this I was on BBC Berkshire twice this month. Once discussing lowering the voting age and another time discussing women in politics (or lack of). To add to all this I found out my local MP had been successful in seeking a room for myself and other Reading youth councillors in Parliament to host an event!! We shall be holding an event on October 23rd regarding political engagement. Reading students shall be invited and involved in learning more about how politics works, why it's important to vote and what it is like to be a politician. I very much look forward to it!

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

South West Bath and North East Somerset Edward Joseph, 17, Member of Youth Parliament After meeting Mary Berry and going to France for a week, I attended a local equalities meeting and gave helpful feedback to help promote E-Teams throughout B&NES. At the meeting we met a local worker who runs comic book creation workshops which teaches young people how to create a quick comic strip/comic book which raises awareness about issues and problems encountered by other young people with special educational needs and disabilities. The workshop will be run on the 11th Aug and those who wanted to sign up to the youth forum after my speech will attend this meeting.

Fiona Collier, 16, BANES Youth Forum Member After last years’ make your mark ballot, which was not accessible for young people with learning disabilities to read. We contacted the UKYP south west workers about this issue and have been successful in changing how it will be presented next time. This means that there will now be only 10 points instead of 15, the writing will bigger and there may also be the use of images so as to make it accessible to young people that have trouble reading.

I have also taken part in BANES' Young Parliament which allows young people from in BANES to come together and talk about changing things so as to help young people. This time the categories were Gender, Ethnicity, Poverty and State VS Private schools.

The winning group, Gender (which included myself) presented to the local councillors in Bath so that the views of young people were heard and could tell them what we wanted them to do. This included improving education about how discriminate sexist language, for both sexes, can be very harmful to some young people, as well as helping for equal opportunities for jobs.

Mocca Arape, 11, BANES Youth Forum Member One day, I visited slim bridge centre and heard about a charity called prickles hedgehog trust. I instantly fell in love with it. It was then and there that I decided to do something for the issue which I am passionate about. It was only a few weeks later when I was swimming with my mum, Claire, when it hit me that as I love swimming I should do a sponsored swim for the animal that I love, hedgehogs. That same night I drew up a form online to gain sponsors, and started the next day with the first few donors. It took me well over a month to get as many sponsors as I did and then when satisfied with the amount donated, I put the event into action.

I swam a whole 40 lengths, or in other terms a kilometre and I am only 11! After the event, I started collecting in my money. I had to miss a few sponsors but I still managed to raise ÂŁ125.00! I plan to give it

Youth Voice: Positive Stories to the centre and charity in the summer holidays and look forward to seeing the happy hedgehogs from prickles hedgehog trust.

Bristol Christy Nunns, 19, Youth Councillor As a member of the Bristol Shadow Safeguarding Children Board, I attended the annual conference of the Bristol Safeguarding Children Board this month (the 15th). The aim of the conference was to increase awareness of safeguarding issues, and learn from serious case reviews (i.e. cases which ended in a young fatality).

At the conference, I led a table discussion for all attendees based on four questions about self-harm, and along with my colleagues from the Bristol City Youth Council - assisted individual tables, by providing a young person's perspective on the issues discussed.

Rajni Mamgai, 18, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament In July 2014, I attended the Bristol Children and Young People Safeguarding Board's annual conference. As a co-chair of the shadow safeguarding board I played an active role in organising as well as delivering the conference. Many organisations and people who actively work with children and young people were invited to the conference. We had around 150 individuals attending the conference. The theme throughout the conference was based on self harm and reviews of the serious cases that question the work that is being done for children and young people's safety in the city.

I was responsible for the opening of the conference as well as being part of the question panel which was organised within the conference. Many other members of Bristol City Youth Council attended the conference and played an active part by delivering a workshop around self harm. As well as the conference, I have recently joined the Bristol BME youth forum.

The motto of the forum is to express diversity in a unique way. The youth forum is campaigning against the stereotypes that are aimed at BME young people and how this affects their daily experiences. Within this campaign, the youth forum is keen in creating a short film surrounding how people felt when they found out they were Black (in terms of BME). I joined the forum as an advisory individual but now very easily become a active member of the forum. I have only had two meetings with the forum. We as a forum have been successful in getting a better idea of how we would like the short film to be presented as well as what content the film will contain.

My next meeting with the forum is on 4th august where we will be doing further campaign work.

Lastly, as I am writing this update I am on my way to the annual sitting 2014 in Lancaster. I look forward to meeting new people and getting better understanding of what or how other young people of UK are working on their campaigns. I aimed to seek skills and enhance my knowledge of how to run successful campaigns in Bristol and the South west.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Cornwall Tabitha Wethers, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month I have been very successful in getting another 2 of the schools I emailed about Make Your Mark signed up! This was a great start to the month and I am now currently setting up basic resources for schools. I attended a meeting based around setting up online voting, the meeting was very successful and we hope to be transferring the voting system from paper, to online in the next few months.

I also attended the reference group meeting, we discussed time banking with some young people and in small groups, the young people and I designed/ crafted potential logos for the reference group which may also be used for other services too. I also attended the annual Young Carers Festival, as my last festival as a young carer (I hope to volunteer after I turn 18) I made the most of the activities available, I was lucky in being able to talk to some new and some old carers on their roles and it is great to see the services for young carers are slowly, but surely improving and it is also great news to hear that a lot of funding is still going into young carers projects across the UK!

Tia, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been a delightful time after finally finishing the stress of exams and finally summer is here.

This month as an MYP I have emailed a number of schools in my area regarding our Make Your Mark campaign, in which we need as many young people as possible to take part in.

Unfortunately none of the schools responded to my emails, yet I am confident that in September I will be able to get them on board and get the students participating, as well as my own school. I have also sent off another email to my adopted Lord, regarding the Votes at 16 campaign. This is the third email and as of yet, no response, but I remain optimistic and will continue to email! It has been a great month and I look forward to receiving our ballot papers!

Devon Beth Wakefield, 20, Children in Care Council Member This month we went to London to an event run by the Who Care's Trust called Listen Up! We did a stall to tell people about our Art Project. We got the chance to tell others about our work and the difference it has made. We also got the chance to meet Ben Bradshaw the MP for Exeter who came to see our project.

At the end of the event everyone voted for the most inspiring project and the most creative - we won the most creative project! We received a really nice glass trophy and four tickets for the London eye.

We shared this with the rest of our Children in Care Council at our meeting later on in the month and everyone was really chuffed. We also discussed the Children's Alliance; this is a new group Devon County Council is trying to set up. We gave our feedback on the idea.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories George Downs, 17, Member of Youth Parliament As part of the county wide campaign to prevent the disproportionate cuts to Devon Youth Service, over the last month I have worked with the charity, Fixers. On 10th July, three youth activists and I produced a mini-documentary to be aired on ITV West country in August. As part of the piece, I was filmed meeting with the portfolio holder for youth services, Devon County Councillor James McInnes.

From that meeting, it was confirmed that young people will be at the heart of the decision making that will allocate youth centres to voluntary and community groups, in order to get the right people for service users. Fixers have also enabled me to produce a short film which visually demonstrates the effect of youth service cuts on the wider community. It is currently being edited for final production.

In my role as the South West elected representative on the NHS England Youth Forum, I helped to organise a full day event on 12th July about Mental Health amongst young people which took place in the headquarters of the British Medical Association in Camden, London. The workshops ranged from Sexual Identity to Arts and Crafts which allowed young people express positive mental health.

On 14th July, I met with Rt Hon Nick Hurd MP - the Cabinet Office minister who (at the time) was responsible for national youth policy - along with the other National Scrutiny Group members. The topics included the future ambitions for the National Citizen Service and a grant available for local authorities to reform their youth services. On behalf of my local constituents, I raised the importance that effective consultations can have in bringing the views of young people to local decision makers - as shown in Devon Youth Service over last few months.

On 18th July, I represented the Save Devon Youth Service campaign at the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival near Dorchester, Dorset. I made a speech to festival-goers which was received well. The South West Community branch of Unite the Union asked me to attend, partly in return for the long-term funding for our campaign from the UK's largest trade union.

Over the weekend, 25th-27th July, I represented East & Mid Devon at the UK Youth Parliament Annual Sitting in Lancaster. As part of the Big Vote which forms new UKYP policy, I spoke in favour of the first motion advocating improved youth services, activities and opportunities - highlighting the devastating effects of youth service cuts. The motion was passed by a landslide majority. Other agenda items included inspirational speeches such as Rt Hon John Bercow MP.

Member of Youth Parliament This month I have been working on Devon's natural beauty campaign, and have managed to carry out the natural beauty workshop with a group of young people at Redrock Youth Centre in Dawlish. I have also supported some young people in their fight to keep Devon youth service open. Although Devon county council are not keeping all the youth centres, we have managed to keep at least one youth centre in each constituency open. In two days time I will be heading up to Lancaster for this years’ annual sitting.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Dorset Grace van Zyl, 13, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament So over the past month I have been writing to schools for make your mark, I went to my local youth council (DYCE), I am planning a meeting with Ian Bennett (head of the Max card which gives disabled, young carers and those in care discounts on sporting facilities) to help forward my manifesto- to campaign for cheaper sporting facilities and I got the opportunity to experience the awesome Annual Sitting!

After eight hours of travel, James Jones, Francesca Reed, I and our Youth workers finally arrived at the Lancaster University. Since the rest of the South West were stuck in two traffic jams our amazing Procedures Group representative (Jess Elms) had no region to give the opening registration talk to apart from ourselves so instead we joined York and Humber and met many new faces. Once the rest of the South West arrived everyone headed into the Great hall for the celebration of last year's achievements, opening ceremony featuring Nick Hurd MP and most amazing motivational speaker I have ever heard...

Kamal Hyman!

Later that evening I attended my first workshop about Mental Health. This workshop wasn't a boring lecture of list of stats and opinions but actually a dance workshop! We learnt the significance of it and even a dance routine that we would later use in a flash mob at dinner both startling everyone else and left us buzzing. After dinner itself we experienced a youth theatre performance of Romeo and Juliet and Q and A session of the cast from the Intermission Theatre in Education. This was incredible, inspiring and thought provoking as they changed the tragic death scene into Capulet letting the two romantics to live and love each other to prove that everyone has a choice in life.

The next day, after breakfast, a briefing was given explaining how a First World War Centenary Commemoration would be given at the House of Commons and a tribute to Paul Boskett, Memorial Speakers Cup. At 10:45 I got involved with my first workshop of the day- Campaign Management. I learnt loads of new ideas and techniques to help me with my own campaigns and those for UKYP. Not thinking that anything to top that, I was proven wrong straight away as soon as I heard the next key note speaker; Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.

At 14:00 it was time for the next workshop: Media Interviews. Oh my goodness it was amazing! Whilst being incredibly informative it was fantastically fun! As soon as that unfortunately ended we joined everyone in the great hall again to listen to the esteemed Dr Maggie Atkinson, Children's Commissioner for England.

Finally, at 16:30, the Big Vote session one started. With marvellous motions, dramatic debates and even two young people from the South West, Ellie James and Shannon Kowalski, passionately spoke about their own motions. After an exhilarating hour and a half session one drew to a close. The rest of the evening entailed a formal dinner and a rocking summer disco! With no frowns to be found, the day had been one of the best. The Big Vote session two rocketed of with bang with touching matters like: equal education, female representation in parliament and even human trafficking! This year we managed to vote on all the motions- an incredible feat!

Youth Voice: Positive Stories After a make your mark briefing and workshop in our regions, we listened to Caroline Criado-Perez, a freelance journalist and feminist campaigner. As James, Francesca and I had got the train up we had to leave slightly early to catch our return train. After an incredible weekend I am sure I shall never forget I want to say a massive thank you Dawn Ball- my Youth worker, Jess Elms, all the PGs and BYC staff and to everyone that made this event possible. I would definitely recommend the Annual Sitting and would love to go again!

Imogen Freeman, 12, Dorset Youth Council Member As part of my campaign which was for- more onsite councillors, so that young people could have somebody to talk to about any issues they might have. By running a small club with six friends we were able to have an insight into what onsite councillors had to do. Our club was for year 5's twice a week and we named it f.l.e.c, which stands for: friendship lonely emotional care. Our club was for year 5's to come and talk to us with any problems and after we would; advice, call in the person the problem was with and talk it out, or report to a teacher if it was too serious for us o sort out. So far we have made good progress and the yr 5’s are more aware of how to speak to people and how to act in situations. We also hope to continue our club next year.

As well as us sorting out arguments we boosted their confidence. We did this by running activities- like a talent show. We let the year 5's pick a talent the then performed with no judgment and positive compliments this in turn made them feel more self assured. To get the club known we did a few assemblies. As a result of doing assemblies for our first meeting we got 23 people. We kept a book of who came and this helped us keep organised and the whole group informed. Teachers have been very supportive and thankful for what we have done for them.

James Jones, 13, Member of Youth Parliament Friday 25th to Sunday 27th, me and majority of MYP’s throughout the country, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland attended the 14th Youth Parliament Annual sitting in Lancaster. It is one way where the PG’s and Youth participation Workers help encourage and teach new MYP’s new things. This annual sitting like many- gave us amazing opportunities, workshops and most crucially we all got to debate in the Big Vote sessions: Debate on the topics that we as MYP’s said to be most important and vote upon which should be updated into the UK Youth Parliament Make Your Mark Ballot Papers. All of which creates positive publicity for young people allowing them to vote upon what we debate on in House of Commons, as well as raise awareness and motivate young people across the country.

There were many workshops, which I could enlist myself with. But I chose ‘Votes @ 16’, ‘Campaign Management’ & ‘Media Interviews’. Firstly with ‘Votes @ 16’ we were given a insight to the past campaigns and success in work i.e. The Adopt a Lord campaign. Which got MYP’s to email Lords to agree on the petition to lower votes to 16. A great workshop and where I worked together with new/old MYP’s.

We worked on the campaigns next steps: Team debates and ideas.

The second workshop was ‘Campaign Management’. Where it helps new MYP’s get ideas to build upon their manifestos as well as help older MYP’s to also build upon their campaigns with more experience. The

Youth Voice: Positive Stories workshop had shown me the major in and outs of campaigns and how to measure success. I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop. On ‘Media Studies’ we worked on how to prepare you for any interviews and how to react when contacted. This worked into our national manifesto, with group interactions we worked on media headline and tough interview questions. To summarize, the workshops were very informative and motivating.

With workshops finished, great motivational speakers visited us. Which have a connection with young people. For example there was Rt Hon John Bercow, Dr Maggie Atkinson (Children’s Commissioner for England), Kamal Hayman (Mr Aim a Little Higher) and Caroline Criado-Perez (Freelance journalist and feminist campaigner). Kamal Hyman, once an MYP of Peterborough until 2012. Now a travelling entrepreneur with the drive to teach young peoples’ how to harness their leadership skills in all areas of life. He is the director of his own business. Kamal is a motivational orator who aims to inspire young people to want more for themselves and set their standards higher than before (Mr Aim a Little Higher).

Throughout the month I have been very busy with my school studies and that of being ill and missing two meetings. With the school holidays upon us I have now more free time to get more work done for my manifest and other additional Parliament work. Also on 25th of July I shall be attending the 14th Annual Sitting which is in Lancaster. Where most D/MYP's come together to work on the national debate and future matters. learn lots of new skills i.e. debating and its topics…

Owen, 12, Member of Youth Parliament I attended my DYCE meeting and we spoke about bullying and how affective it can be to peoples’ lives we

also had ITV fixers attend our DYCE meeting to help us start our campaign with them about bullying.

Gloucestershire Callum Coles, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month I have worked on the National Campaign and have written to 9 schools in my area to try and get them to sign up for 'Make your Mark ballots'. In addition to this I have been working on a fixers project and compiling lists of all the activities it is possible to do in Gloucestershire, which will in turn be used to produce a website for young people in my constituency. I am looking forward to attending the Annual Sitting at the end of July and hope I will gain a lot from this experience.

James Bennion, 17, Member of Youth Parliament With the annual sitting coming up, there will be much to discuss during and after the sitting. It is a shame I cannot attend but very much look forward to hearing about all the exciting topics that will be discussed and all the other events taking place.

On a local basis, the research for the WhatWhenWhereGlos website for young people is well underway.

One thing for sure is there definitely a great deal of research to be done! However, it is all for a good aim of conveying the vast array of opportunities for young people. The main portion of my UKYP time at the

Youth Voice: Positive Stories moment is researching for the content of the website ready to put on. If anything, the large extent of research needed highlights the wide range of activities available in Gloucestershire alone.

Plymouth Chloe, Plymouth Youth Cabinet Member Some people came in to talk to us about making travel easier for young people via a travel app. We helped to design an app that would allow you to track where you bus is so you know what time it would arrive.

Daniel Christopher, 18, Plymouth Youth Cabinet Member Three members of the youth cabinet went on an interview panel for the chair of the Plymouth Safe Guarding Board. We interviewed three candidates and gave our thoughts as young people to the main adult interview panel.

Holly, Plymouth Youth Cabinet Member Recently with the Plymouth Youth Cabinet we had a visit from the Eddystone Trust, all about sexual health which mainly focused on HIV and Aids. It was really interesting and I learnt a lot of new things that I didn’t know before

Katherine Newnham, 15, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been particularly busy to me due to different commitments in school like controlled assessments and last minute planning for year 11. Despite this I have contacted the Fixer’s charity and made them aware of my campaign, and I will be meeting them to discuss how they can help me achieve my goal. Today I arrived at the annual sitting after a very long (10 hour) coach journey here to Lancaster university and since being here I have already gained a lot of motivation to make a change in my constituency and also, met a lot of fellow MYP's. I am very much looking forward to getting to know people over the weekend and gaining new skills :)

Matt Green, 16, Plymouth Youth Cabinet Member It was really good to be involved in the History centre consultation. It was nice to have our voices heard.

Sarah Staples, 17, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament During the past month I have been really busy with UKYP work. I was luckily enough to attend the Youth for Change conference at the Department for International Development. The event, hosted by Justine Greening, was a lead in event to the Girl Summit. At this event I was fortunate enough to spend time in the media room, attend a speed mentoring session with Julian Smith MP, take part in a session with the TEDx Euston team and finally a session run by Vital Voices and Justine Greening about women in politics.

At this event I discussed UKYP with other young women from both the UK and abroad. I was also fortunate

Youth Voice: Positive Stories to spend a day's work experience with my MP, Alison Seabeck. I got to shadow her during a day's work as an MP in the constituency, including sitting in on a meeting and using my UKYP knowledge and experience to contribute as well as meeting Mary Creagh MP as she was in Plymouth as part of her role as Shadow Transport Secretary.

Poole Francesca Reed, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Simply being told you have potential is not enough, we as young people must always strive to achieve our potential and exceed it', this is just one of the inspiring and motivating things I took from the United Kingdom Youth Parliament's 2014 Annual Sitting which took place this month at Lancaster University.

Throughout the weekend I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and drive which young people from all over the country have, particularly when it came to debating issues which affect young people such as funding for youth services, tackling obesity, sexual health screening , increased coverage of female sports and many more. One of the most powerful issues which I felt was debated was that of fighting for greater participation of young people in democracy.

Many governments and committees have consulted young people on policy effecting them but to what extent are young people really listened to, is consulting merely a way for governments and politicians to tick a box? To make sure they can't be questioned? Do we as young people really feel we are being listened to? After all being consulted is a very different thing to actually being listened to. As a result of this one of the new motions which is to be added to the United Kingdom Youth Parliament's manifesto is that there should be a youth democracy with legislative powers; the powers to directly affect legislation affecting us. The Annual Sitting was a fantastic opportunity for the voice of young people to be heard and gave the Members of Youth Parliament the chance to develop new skills to better represent the young people in their constituencies and I feel more determined than ever to ensure young people are taken seriously by the government and really listened to. I am proud to be part of such a diverse, inclusive and empowering organisation!

This month myself and my deputy Thomas Rowledge have written to all the local schools in our constituency regarding the Make Your Mark Campaign enabling young people to have their say on a national scale. We have already got 6 schools signed up and are hoping that number will increase! With regards to one of our local priorities; mental health, we have had a meeting with CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and have subsequently secured the opportunity to run a workshop at our Annual youth conference on the subject, particularly around reducing stigma with the support of CAMHS.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Somerset Cat King, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Hello! This month has been an exciting one. Currently really pushing towards my ITV Fixers project around Relationships. It looks like we'll be producing a lesson plan as well as materials on identifying healthy and unhealthy relationships, which I and many other young people believe, isn't taught at all or not well within our schools at present.

Locally I am looking forward to contributing to the new youth centre project, which should greatly help the youth in our area. And now we begin the countdown to the annual sitting, which will be my final one.

So I am very excited yet emotional as they're so amazing. Why do we have to get old?

Many Thanks, Cat King.

Ellen Collard, 17, Member of Youth Parliament My deputy and I received a lovely email from our local Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mount Stevens. She described our work as “selfless campaigns for the benefit of local people."

Also this month I attended a meeting in which we allocated funding to local young people to undertake positive activities through the 'Youth Bank' system in Somerset. I've also worked on our ideas for our Fixers project on promoting volunteering.

Eloise Chaplin, 16, Member of Youth Parliament -

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I’ve written to every school in the area that I represent about getting involved with Make Your Mark and signing up to take part in September when it launches so that they are all aware of the concept and will be ready to get started after the summer.

I have contacted Heathfield (my local school) about reviewing the ‘Curriculum for Life’ progress after they signed the pledge last year. Hopefully the citizenship coordinator will be open to meeting with us in the near future to talk about what has changed and any further improvements that can be made.

I filled out the South West survey where I’ve updated my progress on all of the national/regional campaigns and Make Your Mark.

I attended the Somerset UKYPAG this month day where we discussed possible Fixers projects which could take place soon in every constituency within Somerset, ours will focus on promoting volunteering which we will finalise at the next D/MYP meeting and our meeting with Jodie. Cat, The MYP for South Somerset asked for her advice on the workshop that she is currently trialling as part of her campaign focussing on relationships of young people. Since this meeting I’ve also sent her my personal experiences of relationships which she and I feel could help steer particular activities in a different direction that young people could find more beneficial. We also took part in a Youth Voice Vehicle consultation from the BYC wherein we gave our opinion on how Youth Parliament/Youth Voice is run in Somerset. It was a really productive meeting and I’m glad that I will be able to fully commit now that my GCSE’s are over.

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I’ve taken part in a discussion about how Somerset are going to hold the next elections for the new D/MYP’s on an UKYPAG Facebook group and we’ve collectively had some really cost effective and efficient ways to do this and almost everybody got involved!

I researched young people’s rights in the workplace for our local ukyp campaign to promote youth volunteering and with the results I have created a pledge for business to sign up to, consequently declaring their dedication to creating the right environment for young volunteers.

We are hoping that this will decrease a perception of volunteering being viewed as too dangerous for young people.

I and the MYP for this area have arranged a meeting with Rebecca Pow, prospective MP for Taunton Deane, to explain our roles in youth parliament and how she can help us with our local campaign.

I’ve written a letter to the lord I was assigned for the ‘Votes at 16’ campaign to promote the idea to him once again as he has failed to reply to my emails.

I finalised our report which my member will need to through and once she has we can circulate it to let everyone aware of how we’re doing.

Eva Blake, 13, Member of Youth Parliament I began youth parliament wanting to make an impact, even just the smallest one, in a way I feel I have and these are the things I feel I have taken part in and made an impact: body workshop, by doing just a small amount of editing, I still took part, going out into Exeter to look around the shop seeing what sizes they put on display and they're main sizes, I feel I made an impact there by going into as many shops as I could and checking out all the racks and also all of the games, talks and discussions, even just taking part in the smallest way makes an impact on the people around you.

Eve Anderson, 14, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament This month has been busy as every weekend this month I have been away from Home. This has meant I have been very tired and also missing a lot of Somerset standard, youth council and house council meetings. However to make up for this I have been to France with Frome youth Council. This was for a quadripartite. We spent 4 days talking about project ERASMUS (learning about each other) and also getting to know our twinned towns. This was a great experience and one which I hope to repeat when the quadripartite comes to Frome.

Thrinayani Ramakrishnan, 16, Member of Youth Parliament I attended the monthly UK Youth parliament advisory group meeting that we have as a local authority, to discuss how to progress our local campaigns and take action to achieve the aims the we have set out as MYP's I made great progress in this month’s meeting as I fed back to the group about my youth select committee experience, talked about my interview with BBC radio 5 and also worked with my DMYP on signing schools up for the make your mark ballot and our skills workshop.

My campaign is about employment for youth and getting young people the skills needed to stand out in the employment market so to strive towards this, I have created a skills workshop to present to young

Youth Voice: Positive Stories people in the local area to help the gain confidence about getting work and also to help them recognise what their workplace rights are.

I am a member of the Youth Select Committee 2014 on votes at 16 and attend the two evidence sessions we had where we question MP's, young people, youth groups and ministers on what their view on votes at 16 is and produce a document which is presented to government. I believe that I have represented young people a lot being on this committee and show what we are taking steps to decide whether votes at 16 is possible.

I also had an interview for BBC Radio 4 where I talked the Youth select Committee and what we are trying to achieve. I was also filmed taking about the youth select committee, my role as an MYP and the House of Commons experience which will be shown in a documentary about youth engaging at the world youth event in Strasbourg.

Swindon Deputy Member of Youth Parliament On the 4th of July I attended a PHSE conference which helps highlight the importance of PHSE, which helps with the curriculum for life program. I also gave a speech about my campaign, as well incorporating Ellie's views, who unfortunately could not attend. Said speech was met very positively by the attendants.

Torbay Isaac Frewin, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month in Torbay we have been busy as usual, and have been mainly focused on finalising and sorting our Torbay Youth Discount Card. As we are creating this exciting new scheme in partnership with the Torbay Discount Card, this month has involved plenty of meetings. From all these meetings we have now much closer to a summer launch day, with card and poster designs decided upon, business on board, advertising in the pipeline, and financial arrangements being made. Our launch date will now very likely be sometime in August, with us at Torbay Youth Parliament hosting an official unveiling of the scheme in Paignton town centre.

However, it hasn't all been just about the discount card; over the course of July, we have also been busy sorting and planning meetings and consolations for our local Curriculum for Life campaign, which we hope to have finished by the end of this year.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Sam McCarthy, 17, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament -

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Met with the leader of the Torbay discount card (Rob Hayler) to finalise design of the Torbay youth discount card as well as posters, canvassing and leaflets Met with local councillors and discussed the need for added links between youth groups as well as a permanent seat upon council to be in effect so as to allow real young people to actually have a vote Curriculum for life consultation completed Schools signed up for make your mark Now holiday time yayayaya

Wiltshire Charles McGrath, 18, Youth Councillor This month, I have primarily been focused on the next stages of the Salisbury Student Union's 'Change in Our Hands' campaign. I have arranged to meet with the Operations Manager, Andrew Sherrington, to discuss ways in which the quality and cost of local public transport can be made more accessible for young people. Our main point of focus will be how the Salisbury Reds, the local bus service, can make the same effort to accommodate for young people who use public transport regularly, for example for travelling to school, that the First bus service in north Wiltshire have through organising a consultation with young people and subsequently reducing fares to accommodate for those use the service often.

Another suggestion that the SSU will put forward is a frequent travellers' discount card, which would allow young people (namely school students) who use the bus every day to receive discounts according to how much they use the service. This would ultimately benefit both the passenger and the bus service itself, with those receiving larger discounts being very frequent passengers and thus not having too great an impact on revenue as a whole.

Furthermore, I will be attending a meeting with the local Youth Advisory Group in the coming days to discuss the future of these groups and the interaction between young people and Wiltshire Council.

Hopefully the meeting will determine how we fit into the new structure being introduced from September and whether our services will still be maintained to a good and acceptable standard despite the costcutting measures put in place by the Council in terms of youth services.

Finally, the Wiltshire Assembly of Youth have begun preparing for the UK Youth Parliament's 'Make Your Mark' campaign by advertising the campaign at the Teenage Market held in Salisbury on Sunday 13th July.

Courtney Pickering, the current Member of the Youth Parliament for East Wiltshire, and I also managed to secure advertising placements in a number of local shops and businesses in Salisbury to be used when the campaign begins in late August, so South Wiltshire appears to be prepared for the campaign and allowing as many young people as possible to sign up and have their voice heard.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Chloe Lintern, 15, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Having the summer off after finishing my exams has given me the time to focus solely on just Youth Voice work. I started the month by attending the Studentvoice conference and participating in two workshops, one by Model Westminster about voting and another around do schools break our human rights. I also participated in a policy cafe which will help shape the direction of Studentvoice for the next year. At the end of the day there were the elections for the national executive for the upcoming year. Two young people stood in the South West, including myself and I was lucky enough to be elected as the South West National Executive member for the next year.

I have also been working hard on Make your mark and luckily the deadline was extended meaning I had more time to persuade schools to sign up and that it would be an amazing thing for their school to be part of. The works in Wiltshire behind make your mark I feel really proud of! Hopefully it'll all pay off and we'll reach our target.

On the 10th July (which seems a while away now!) I attended a Wiltshire Assembly Meeting where we took part various activities. We began by updating each other on the various boards and groups we visited over the last month so we have an idea of what's happening over the county. We had updated on lots of board including Wiltshire Youth Disabled Group, Any Youth Advisory groups we may have been to as well as updated from our LGBT groups and the stonewall conference they visited this month. Splitting into the South, North and West we worked on make your mark to ensure we get the best result available to us.

After tea/dinner we worked on the agenda for action and what we pledge to do over the next 4 years. We needed to work on the final wording of our points as well as the design and design features that we would like the agenda to look like. The steering group also explained the concept of the app and leaflet that they had thought of to finish the final point of planning. We then slowly moved onto looking at social media and how young people use social media and why the use it as well as the negatives and positives of using it. We then looked at how vulnerable young people can be protected more online.

To finish the night we looked at our summer outing and what we would like to do in August, many ideas were thought of and the final idea is still to be finalised. This has been a busy month, with an Area Board meeting on Thursday 24th July where we will be looking at the new community campus which is soon to fully open. I have training residential for StudentVoice on the 28th to 30th July in the outskirts of London with the other national executives. On the 31st July it's my birthday and so I will be celebrating that! :)

Courtney Pickering, 15, Member of Youth Parliament This month I have been very busy and I have been making sure that I am doing as much as possible to enable young people to be able to take part in Make Your Mark. This month I attended the Teenage Market in Salisbury. Myself and another young person walked around the market and spoke to all organisations about taking part in our campaign. We received an amazing result and had several groups agreeing to take part. We had a group called the Rose Gale Trust sign up who fund young people for life changing projects. Myself and the other young person were so pleased with our results we are going to go to the next Teenage Market in October.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Kieran Mulvaney, 16, Member of Youth Parliament and Youth Councillor This month I have just finished off the preparations for make your mark in September. I have emailed local decision makers and kept them up to date with what I have been doing in the local area. It was recently announced they I would be receiving a Chippenham town Civic Award for the work I do with the UKYP and WAY, and also the volunteering and the time I put into the Air Training Corps. I will be presented this award by the town’s mayor Councillor John Scragg on Civic Sunday. I have also been preparing for the annual sitting and making sure I have an idea of things I would like to say and take part in.

Jordan Green, 14, Member of Youth Parliament This month I have attended a WAY meeting, we discussed how agenda are for action could be changed so more young people would take interest and would read it. We also spoke about our new website that will be launched soon; this was made by the young people in WAY. Next week in the 25th I will attending the yearly Annual sitting, this is when all MYPs across the UK and Ireland meet in one place, this year is Lancaster, and we through the course of 2 days do a lot of training on how to be a successful MYP and how we can go about contacting schools for our first time.

For UKYP west Wiltshire have been contacting schools asking for their support for MYM (Make your Mark) so far we have been successful and have managed to gain loads of support. Therefore, at the end of the summer holidays myself and Lee (my deputy) will be visiting the schools as we said and collect as many votes as we can to decide our next UKYP campaign for the next year. Our target is 7000.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

West Midlands Staffordshire Megan Collins, 15, Member of Youth Parliament Staffordshire Members of Youth Parliament spent the weekend of the 25th - 27th of July in Lancaster for the UKYP Annual Sitting. Joining over 400 representatives from around the UK, the five members represented the young people of Staffordshire in workshops and debating topical issues to go into the manifesto with the needs of their constituents as their priority.

James commented: “I had an absolutely fantastic weekend and have been so inspired by speeches from John Bercow and particularly Dr Maggie Atkinson”.

Also during the weekend, MYPs prepared for the upcoming launch of Make Your Mark which is targeted to reach 1 million completed ballot papers.

Clarke said: “I think the workshops I attended and planning sessions run this weekend have helped dramatically for me to reach my target number of ballots to collect - I hope we can build on the successes of last year to make 2014 even better.”

On the Saturday 12th July, four representatives from Staffordshire's Youth Action Kouncil attended the first NHS Youth Forum| conference in London. The forum was called ‘Celebrating Positive Young Mental Health’ and YAK were joined by other young people from around the country and key national health figures.

The day began with an opening speech from Dr Radha Modgil, a qualified GP who is best known for her work on Channel Four's 'The Sex Education Show' and 'The Surgery with Aled' on Radio 1, as well as her role as columnist and speaker at many medical conferences for charities Mind| and Cancer Research|, which she supports.

Dr Radha commented: "It was a real pleasure meeting representatives from YAK to see the amazing work they do; I hope from today the message of how important young people’s mental health is can be reiterated".

The young people got to choose from a huge variety of workshop sessions throughout the day ranging from panel debates, art and physical therapeutic sessions to showcase best practice from across the country, and celebrate positive mental health.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories YAK representative Adam Barr from Newcastle said: "Today was brilliant; the sessions were great and created many opportunities, particularly in the Mindful workshop which I attended - I look forward to working with them in the future".

YAK were also filmed by The Reporter's Academy where they had a chance to share their thoughts on the event. The day ended with a final evaluation and a pledge from all on how they would act on their experiences on the day.

YAK representative Chelsea Stones from Stafford concluded that: "The turnout for today's event has been very positive and I believe people have learnt a great deal I feel very inspired".

One of the suggestions for taking the message back to Staffordshire is holding a similar event for young people in Staffordshire on World Mental Health Day on October 10th, look out for more information!

Warwickshire Agatha Hunt, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Members of Youth Parliament for Warwickshire and members of the county youth forum (VOX) who are also elected gave a presentation to full council today. (1st July) It is unprecedented for Warwickshire Youth Parliament to give a presentation to the full Warwickshire County Council. The presentation included information about MYPs and VOX Members, an opportunity for councillors to ask questions and young people had lunch with some councillors.

We look forward to them coming to join us in our meetings in the near future, as we continue to build on this very important relationship.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Yorkshire and Humber Barnsley Pegah Moulana, 17, Member of Youth Parliament By being invited to the Youth Select Committee Oral Evidence gathering in London, enabled me to represent the views of my region and share useful information's for the young people due to Votes at 16.

This experience was fantastic as I had the opportunity to share my points of views on reasons why I found reducing the voting age would benefit the youth in our society.

Thomas Yems, 18, Youth Councillor Barnsley Youth Council has produced an Anti-Bullying Charter Mark which will be piloted by a number of schools in the next academic year. I attended a meeting with the heads of the secondary schools in Barnsley, who suggested some improvements to the scheme.

In addition the Youth Council has advertised its ‘Pot of Gold’ scheme, which allows young people to bid for funds to help projects that benefit young people in the local area. Each project has a maximum bid of £500, with a total pot of £5,000. The successful bids are decided upon by a selection of young people, including Youth Councillors, Children in Care Councillors, Peer Inspectors etc.

Doncaster Ben Watson, Youth Representative I was asked if I wanted to be involved in an interview panel for a new worker for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Team. As I am now just 16 I thought this would be a really good opportunity to learn about interviews especially as I am going to be looking for a job soon myself. I had to attend a training session and learn about questioning and body language techniques etc. I was quite nervous as I was the only young person on the interview panel with two adults. Although, I would definitely do this again as it gave me some really good tips of how to interview well and I’m sure once I get back off my holiday it will help me to get a job.

Charlie Lavemai-Goldsbrough, Youth Councillor On Monday 14th July, 8 members of the Youth Council including myself attended a health event where professionals from all across the borough in fields surrounding health came together to discuss plans for a new integrated health service. This service - Project³ - will combine three areas of health services regarding sexual health, drugs and alcohol in order to create a more integrated service that could work

Youth Voice: Positive Stories more effectively with young people. During the day, we had presentations on the aims of Project³ and also considered different scenarios where people would use the new service that Project³ would provide.

Overall, the day was very interesting as it allowed the Youth Council to present their ideas and express the views of other young people, of how to make the service better by asking questions relating to the project.

Such as, whether more or different services like the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services need to be integrated in order to create a better service for young people. It was interesting to know that the health professionals wanted to hear the opinions of the Youth Council (representative of as many diverse young people as possible) having already done consultations on this subject. This shows how our borough is taking more steps in order to make sure that young people are having more of a say in developing young people’s services.

Georgia Wren, Member of Youth Parliament I was invited to deliver a workshop at our last regional convention (Yorkshire & Humber) in Huddersfield, I was asked to share good practice with other local authorities, so I planned my workshop around the Doncaster Anti-Bullying Charter Mark I have been involved with.

In Doncaster we developed the Charter Mark and young people from School Councils, Doncaster Youth Council and UK Youth Parliament were involved. The Charter Mark has been designed and set up to help children, young people, parents and professionals in the prevention and management of bullying. The Charter Mark aims to aid everyone in preventing and decreasing bullying in schools and children’s settings.

It also evidences what your school has in place and how it aims to address bullying.

I feel really passionate about preventing bullying; I am a mentor in School and believe that this Charter Mark raises awareness and helps to decrease bullying. Already another authority (Barnsley) have started to put together their Anti- Bullying Charter Mark based on Doncaster’s Model and hopefully other local authorities will follow suit after taking part in my workshop!

Really pleased to write that Doncaster has had it first Children and Families Strategic Board Meeting, professionals representing Services / Organisation from across the Borough were all invited to attend the first meeting at the end of May, members of the Doncaster Youth Council were contacted and also invited to attend as partners on the Board.. The Board has the senior partnership responsibility for policy, strategy and achievement in services for children, young people and their families. This is a fantastic opportunity for young people to have an input into some of the work and help drive improvements for Doncaster’s Children, Young People and Families. ………Watch this space………

Keiran Bennett, Youth Councillor We (Youth Council) have made some progress this month on one of our 3 priorities, namely priority 2 Disability Awareness. We had a meeting last week to start planning a consultation event for young people with disabilities. Disability Awareness is an important issue for the Youth Council and we want to raise awareness of some of the issues young people face with disabilities. We are holding this event to provide the opportunity for young people with disabilities to come together and meet the Youth Council and to talk about issues that are important to them. I have been busy designing a flyer that will help promote the

Youth Voice: Positive Stories event and writing an information letter that will go out to all parents/carers/guardians so that they understand what we aim to achieve and support young people to come along. The event will be held in August so look out for my update in the next edition (Aug) of positive stories!

Kirklees Moz, 17, Our Voice Crew Member Our Voice supported by Kirklees IYCE Team, has helped make the new Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing (KNH) Furniture Pack Contract. We designed an activity to ask young tenants about what thy think of the current packs and offer their suggestions to improve them. KNH have listened to young people and put all of their suggestions in the new contract, which has gone out to tender. KNH also asked us to help redesign the information they send to young people about their furniture pack and tenancy. We changed 3 booklets into 2 sides of A4 with the help of their designer. These are now being used instead of the old ones.

Leeds Alex Stawiska, Youth Councillor I joined the Leeds Youth Council at first to get a place in my school student council. At first I didn’t really understand what it was for, however after a few meetings I realised that the LYC gets involved in a lot of things around Leeds like debating about cycling laws, talking to Councillors and helping set up our own website etc.

The experience has allowed me to meet many new people and interact with others. I feel my group skills have improved greatly with the experience and I look forward to future meetings.

I think that many young people could also benefit from joining the Leeds Youth Council and give young people a voice around Leeds and other areas.

Amy Kitchingman, Youth Councillor Me and my school council have recently organised a ‘yellow’ week to raise money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and draw attention to the Tour de France’s Grand Depart in Leeds. There was a variety of activities, including yellow buns and lemon drizzle cake on sale and a completion to with a gift voucher as a prize. We also sold Yorkshire Air Ambulance merchandise to both students and staff. Even these simple fundraising activities required extensive communication and organisation, and a number of stressful debates! We managed to raise just over £200, meaning lives can be saved thanks to our contribution from the student body and the school. We also managed to publicise a historic event in our city and make sure every pupil knew what was going to be on their doorstep.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Bethany Rodley, Youth Representative Over the past few weeks my school council has been creating, working on, rehearsing and delivering an assembly to encourage pupils in our school to improve their attitude to learning. We have delivered this assembly to all years throughout the school, and I had my own slide to present. Overall the presentation took around 5 to 1- minutes. It was a good experience and improved my confidence in speaking in front of my peers.

We also took the opportunity to promote and advertise our upcoming charity event to raise money for cancer research. This will be held towards the end of June, and we want to get as many donations as possible.

This month I have been part of two charity events in my school, the first one was ‘pink day’. We raised over £1000 for cancer research UK and set up stall in the LRC and other students gave a donation to play the games. The second one was a maths fun day, again there was lots of mini stalls for students to take part in. We donated the money raised to Joseph Littlewhites Journey. Both events were fun to be part of and raised money for important charities.

Ben Harper, Youth Councillor I went to the Children’s Trust Board on the 3rd June 2014, we (the Leeds Youth Council), Have a Voice and the UKYP ran the meeting. We told the members about our groups, and what our main campaigns are.

Charlotte Williams, Young Mayor Yay its July, the time of sunshine and Ice Lollies.

I’ve had a really exciting month. It started with a para-trouper abseiling down the front of the Leeds Town Hall and presenting a flag to the Lord Mayor and me to open the Armed Forces Day events in Leeds. It was a chilly day and bit rainy but still good fun. There were lots of free craft activities run by Breeze Leeds, a huge missile launcher and many more army vehicles. I got to have a go on the climbing wall which was tricky and I was privileged to watch the parade of past and present servicemen and women, who saluted the Mayor and me as they marched past. The final part of the day was the traditional Drum Head service and we were all waiting for the Spitfires to fly by but it didn’t happen, I think because of the rain.

On the first of July I attended the Leeds School Cycle Challenge at Temple Newsam. 50 primary schools took part in lots of races, watched by Christian Prudhomme (Head of the Tour de France Committee), Bernard Hinault (multiple Tour de France winner), Chris Boardman (Olympian and Tour de France Winner) and many more special guests. I got to meet and have my photo taken with them all and it was up to Bernard and me to start the yellow jersey race. It was a fantastic day, really hot and busy and I presented some awards at the end of the day. It was really good fun.

The best bit of the month was when my mum and I had VIP tickets to the Grand Depart. We had a fab view of the start line, firstly from the Art Gallery roof, then we got to go down to where all the cyclists were signing before walking up the middle of the road, in front of thousands of people, to the start line.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories The Lord Mayor and I stood on the start line with all of the cyclists behind us. I got to speak to Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome. The Mayor and I waved the flag to start the race and watched the riders cycle past. It was so exciting and an amazing sight that I won’t forget.

Last week I said goodbye to my primary school after a great Leavers Play and meal, three friends and I had a sleepover to celebrate. I’ve already been on holiday for a week, having awesome water fights and enjoying the sun. I hope you all do too.

Chazelle & Janine, Cupboard Youth Group Members We have been part of the Cupboard Youth Group for over 3 years. We started doing the teenage health project a year old with 8 other young people. We called the project Teen Time Travellers, this is because we were looking at past teenage health issues and issues today. We decided to look at sexual health, disease and working conditions.

We worked with the Thackeray Medical Museum, who helped us with our research but we also visited other places such as the National Coal Mining Museum and Armley Mills. We did some workshops to help increase our skills, which were blogging, photography and presentation. We also made questionnaires and interviewed people at the Holbeck Elderly Aid to learn about their experiences.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories We have really enjoyed doing this project, and going to the Market Place and City Wise and meeting the youth workers. It has made us realise how much stuff we have to help us which older people didn’t have.

Our celebration event was amazing because we met each other’s families and everyone was really proud of us.

Visit our blog at: www.teentimetravellers.com

Colin McDonnell, Youth Representative On the 30th May 2014 I organised a workshop at the Apple Store in Leeds Trinity Centre, the workshop was about switch control. All of us turned up at 11am on the day, in attendance was Nathan who has just started to use switch control, Rebecca who has never used any apple device but was interested in using them in the future, and James who has a son that might need the technology in the future when his condition progresses.

James Tolley, who works at the Apple store, did a talk on the different accessible feature on the iOS7. Then I did a presentation demonstrating what switch control can really do. The member of staff couldn’t believe how much it could actually do, the different benefits that the iPhone accessibility feature are for people with a lack of motor skills and how practical it is to use.

After the demonstration the people that attended had the opportunity to actually have a go on the equipment and see for themselves what the benefits really are.

I thought that overall the workshop was successful, however there were a few things the apple member of staff didn’t know so hopefully he will be able to give feedback on the workshop and apply his new knowledge to future workshops that he may be involved in.

Ella Goulding, School Councillor So this past school year has bought round quite a change at Lawnswood High school. A new system was introduced in order to give the students a bigger say, more responsibility and some flashy red ties.

At Lawnswood School, it is believed that by giving students the opportunity to be resourceful, creative and assertive, the transition into the wider working community will be a successful one. Students were able to

Youth Voice: Positive Stories create and lead on projects through six different strands; Mentoring, Teaching, Digital Pioneering, Ambassadorial, Enrichment and School Operations. Their six pathways were presented to the school and every student was given the chance to volunteer in one of them. Year 11’s were given a bigger opportunity in which they could be interviewed for the head spot as directors of each pathway, to oversee all projects run and develop their leadership skills.

I myself was interviewed to be the director of the Mentoring pathway. Thankfully I was given one of the head positions and it was then my responsibility to make something of it and shoe everyone what we, as students could do. My first port of call, in September 2013, was finding a respectable team who would offer creative ideas and give their all to the pathway. I was lucky enough to recruit some brilliant minds and we began coming up with ideas straight away. From volunteering at breakfast club, starting our own lunchtime club for the new year sevens, to creating and running our own Anti-Bullying campaign #LAB (Lawnswood Against Bullying), it was a year well spent for something that was newly introduced.

It was strange to see how many people were interested in becoming part of the student leadership program, and even though this year wasn’t brilliant for all pathways, I believe that after a few years of implementing it within our school, the already wiling students will make it something great, allowing everybody who passes through Lawnswood to gain confidence, leadership skills and memories that will stay with them throughout their life.

Emily Radford, Youth Representative Members of the Road Safety Working Group arrived at Allerton Grange High School on Monday 7th July at the early start of 9:30 am. After the introductions were out of the way, we headed over to the entrance of the school to begin filming our Road Safety video aimed at 15-19 year olds. Our actress Megan, worked with our makeup artist Alex, to look as if she was just leaving college. We began filming shots of Megan working home from college with members of our working group playing extras.

The storyline follows 'Laura' working home from school texting her friend about an up and coming party and what to wear. We filmed short pieces following Laura; with members of the Leeds Youth Council playing extras in the back ground. At one point Laura is so immersed in her texting conversation she bumps into two girls. This was an interesting scene to film as Megan and I had to slam into each other 20 times before the producer was happy with the results.

After lunch we started working with the cars, and prepared for the 'accident' scene. It was really interesting working with the makeup artist watching her make over Megan into a victim of a car accident, lying on the floor with blood everywhere.

While the day was really enjoyable for everyone who attended the message behind what we are filming is really impacting. Later in the month we will continue to work with Fixes to produce a small clip that will be shown on ITV news in August. We hope that with media coverage and through links in schools and the police force we will be able to reduce the amount of young people dying on the roads every year due to pedestrian carelessness.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Just remember when you're crossing the road, put your mobile away and give the road your full attention, you never know it might just save your life.

Francis Edwards, Youth Councillor As a result of my work as a voluntary worker, PR Officer for Leeds Youth Council and a member of the Police & Crime Advisory Group (amongst other things), I was nominated by my Head Teacher to receive the Diana Award. The award is for young people who have had a positive effect on other young people. I recently heard that after being nominated for this award, I have in fact won the award. This is something I am very proud of.

Joe Hill, Youth Councillor I joined the Leeds Youth Council over a year ago as I am interested in social issues and think that as a young person with additional needs I could represent young people who have less of a voice in the city.

Since becoming a member of the Leeds Youth Council I have attended a range of events where I have been able to express my view.

During February a group of young people from Abbey Grange School in Leeds took part in Fairtrade fortnight. They raised awareness by conducting an assembly and running a stall selling Fairtrade products.

Overall we raised a reasonable sum and awareness about Fairtrade.

John Wadsworth, Youth Councillor I was happy to participate in the Leeds Youth Council’s ‘adopt a councillor’ programme and was pleased to see a fair number of City Councillors eager to engage with young people in their wards.

Meanwhile, in my own school the uniform is increasingly becoming a controversial issues, as a school council we have sought to find a compromise and ensure students are satisfied.

Finally, it was a great experience to help with the filming of the hard-hitting road safety campaign video, once the final editing is complete we hope to begin distributing this to young people in school.

Josh Nasey, School Councillor Just over a year ago now a student from my school, Cockburn High School, sadly passed away from a brain haemorrhage. The school council, which I am involved in, decided to set up the ‘Kyle Asquith Foundation’.

Our aim at the start of the charity was to raise £5,000, since then we have smashed that target by doing fund raising events such as fun runs, football matches, dodge ball, non-uniform days and the sales of charity bands. Our new target is now £10,000.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Josie Lee, Youth Councillor At school I helped organise the ‘Tour de Lawnswood’ whilst the Tour de France was in Yorkshire. Pupils at school encouraged others to ride their bikes to school in exchange for a yellow token, the tokens went towards free water and cereal bar. We had about 60 students who cycled to school! This was a great way for the school council to address healthy lifestyles.

Leanne Avery, Youth Representative I am currently working alongside my school to create ‘Moving Out Boxes’ for the homeless in Leeds. These are boxes filled with things such as cups, cutlery and bed covers, as on a recent trip to St George’s Crypt they told us of their biggest problem, which is when the homeless want to move out they simply don’t have the basic necessities to live. We hope to have 500 boxes by the beginning of July.

Miriam Razzaque, Youth Councillor In my school council we have been trying out new ways to reward students and congratulate them on their success in school and out of school with more than just a certificate and a ‘well done’.

We have bought in a new merit reward system, this system encourages students to earn merits and at the end of term they get a prize (the more merits you earn the better the prize will be). Also, we have a reward presentation evening at the end of the school year which is for students who go the extra mile at school and are rewarded for it with a glass plaque and certificate of achievement presented by the head of year. The school council feel is important to recognise and value everyone’s efforts.

Minhaz Abedin, Member of Youth Parliament Positive stories are all about showcasing our pride in the things we did yesterday. What Leeds are doing is bringing pride into tomorrow. With the planning of our "political awareness" day well underway, our cross hairs are set on November. This is a month of fairy tales for UKYP because Leeds plan on adding to the guest list, that includes events such as the House of Commons, with the "political awareness" day.

Yes - it may be about preparing for the future but it's essential to be proud of the past because it is critical to recognise success for any progression to happen. Ciaran, DMYP, has attended his first Have a Voice Council meeting, working alongside all sectors of our diverse, young person community.

Shamim, MYP, continues to strive within his representative role in the LYC, sharing the voice of Leeds in a room of current and future decision makers.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories More presently, UKYP are teaming up with LYC for the coming of Breeze's annual events across Leeds.

Breeze is a platform of young people from across the region, coming together to share their passion and voice as well as being recognised by their communities that so proudly on-look their talents.

This piece is not only a "coming soon" message of what's to come for UKYP Leeds, but a piece that recognises the local young people that work every day to bring positive change to our lives as people, not just young people.

Nadia Saeed, Youth Councillor I have been part of the Leeds youth Council for 2 years, during my time as a youth councillor I have been working with the disability awareness group in which we have been working to remove prejudice against people with disabilities.

Outside of the Leeds Youth Council I represent my form group in my sixth form committee by voicing the views of my peers. Being a part of the Leeds Youth Council has allowed me to push myself to get more involved and has helped me make friends with others around Leeds. The Leeds Youth Council is a great opportunity to make a different and gain the confidence to voice your opinion.

This summer I am volunteering with the Leeds Youth Council at the Breeze festival. I am also active in the Disability awareness Group. Being a part of the LYC and having these great opportunities helps me make a difference in my local area. At school I have been active in my sixth form committee by helping to organise events and fundraisers.

Polly Foster, Youth Councillor Tour de Lawnswood, my schools way of bringing the Tour de France to us. It gegan with teaching every form about the Tour de France, then every morning at 7.45am myself and some other students would set up our stall with an official yellow bike. The whole pint was to give out tokens to students who cycled to school, these tokens could then be redeemed for free water and a cereal bar which were supplied by a local store. We got over 60- puopils cycling the Tour De LAnswood.

Sam Slater, School Councillor I attended Leeds Grammar School and was elected by my form to stand as their year group Councillor.

Shortly after I was also elected to be the Chairperson of our year group School Council and the Year 8 representative for the whole school council, representing over 200 pupils voices to the principal.

This has helped me boost my confidence to go for the UK Youth Parliament, which I narrowly missed out on this year. My narrow loss has encouraged me to stand again in 2016 and seek more support from my school, something which I felt I was lacking this time round.

In conjunction with my School Council and the Board of Governors, the Grammar School at Leeds Scout Troop is building a campsite on the school land in order to assist people in completing activities such as

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Duke of Edinburgh, Yorkshire Challenge etc. This addition is a great way of young people influencing decisions and helping people to progress in life.

Theo Bennett, Youth Councillor I was one of many people in Leeds to contribute to the making of ‘What I would Change’, a short film which voices issues and dreams of young people which is to premiere as part of the Breeze Arts Festival at the end of July. Because I am a member of the Leeds Youth Council I was able to help gather views from other LYC members that were used to make the film. I also participated as an actor in the film.

Zara Arshad, Youth Councillor I have been part of the Leeds Youth Council for 2 years and I am also part of the disability awareness group. I joined the Leeds Youth Council to gain experiences and get more involved in the city that I live in.

After joining I have become more confident in sharing my thoughts and ideas and have gained awareness of issues in Leeds.

I took part in a public speaking course which was made available to me through the Youth Council. It enabled me to be more confident when speaking in front of a large group of people and how to keep the audience’s attention during a presentation. This training helped me present speeches to my school and school council about the Youth Council and how helped me become a more active Youth Council member.

Rotherham Ashley Gregory, 15, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament The main highlight personally for myself was the joint residential between the Rotherham Youth Cabinet, UKYP Rotherham & the Looked After Children's Council in Rotherham. The residential was an overnight stay at Habershon House in Filey. I'm sure that everyone had a brilliant time meeting new and old faces; not to mention the lovely weather to accompany. Myself and Oliver Blake (Rotherham Youth Cabinet) shall be attending Rotherham MP Sarah Champion's Summer School event next week between Monday and Friday. he event will aim to give young people the opportunity to engage in politics and find out the day to day work that an MP does. Both of us are very much looking forward to attending. The Youth Cabinet and UKYP will also have the opportunity to do a presentation on the Friday to others attending the event - we hope to inform young people of our work and how they can get involved. Hannah Kong MYP and Dale Riahi MYP will both be attending this years annual sitting in Lancaster - hope they have a brilliant time and can't wait to hear what they've got up to!

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Sheffield Adil Mohammed, 12, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament In the past month I have done lots of things. One is the Y & H Campaigns Day in Huddersfield where we took part in various workshops and learnt lots of campaign techniques. also me and a couple of others from Sheffield delivered a workshop and showed people from the region some PSHE peer review techniques we are using when we go round schools in Sheffield.

The workshop I enjoyed the most was the Road and Transport because everyone in my group worked well and we won a PRIZE! Another thing I have done is that our S.P.I.N (Sheffield Peer Improvement Network) group went into Westfield School in the South East of Sheffield to peer review PSHE. We worked with two groups of Yr8s and 9s, 24 young people in total. I enjoyed the whole day as I knew that we were helping to improve PSHE in the school.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Northern Ireland East Antrim Sophie McVea, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month I have begun to develop a consultation for young people in my area in order to find out what they feel would help prevent anti-social behaviour as one of the issues I ran on was related to support for young offenders and prevention. In the past I've found that my MLAs are often vague in their responses or don't respond to my emails at all, so hopefully by going to them with the opinions of many young people they will have to take the issue more seriously. I've also written to my Lord, Lord Morrow for the Votes at 16 campaign and am currently awaiting a reply.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Wales Powys Jack Gillum, 17, Member of Youth Parliament The Youth Select Committee which this year is focusing on votes at 16 has held their second evidence session on the 4th July. At the second and final evidence session we heard evidence from a wide range of witnesses such as the Electoral Commission, young people, the Parliamentary Education Service, Professor Andrew Russell, Rt Hon Tom Brake MP - Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and Andrew Slaughter MP. During this evidence session we heard some really interesting evidence both strongly for and strongly against votes @ 16. I am sure that all this evidence will be valuable to help us come up with recommendations for our report to the Government.

Swansea Alexandra Atkins, Swansea, Youth Representative on Funky Dragon Over the last month I have been getting individuals and organisations to sign the petition to protect funky dragon. Without funky dragon and the work we do young people’s voices will not be hear. Funky dragon as dramatically changed my life. It has boosted my raised my confidence to a very high level. It has also helped me learn how to communicate with young people and people in authority. Finally it has helped me obtain transferable skills which has now made me become a youth worker.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Scotland Edinburgh and Lothians Martyna Napierska, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Since the annual sitting in Lancaster which completely blew me away with the intensity of new people I have met, and the experiences I had, I began to be truly inspired to do something myself. So today, I have met the passionate Daniel McKenzie and spoke about involving young people in project making all over the United Kingdom ! Our cooperation will definitely grow and we've got some exciting plans for Edinburgh so keep your eyes open for us, UKYP! I am looking forward to spending some more fantastic time with inspiring people and hope that this will be one of the best times I've had.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Support Worker Stories

London Wandsworth Antonia Dixey, Support Worker Wandsworth Youth Council So much for a relaxing summer, this month the Wandsworth Youth Council are on it like a youth voice car bonnet!

Some of our youth voice escapades include: 1. Youth Opportunity Fund – We had 26 YOF applications in the last round asking for £75,660!

Young people are asking for funding for music, key skills, celebration events, residentials and sport tournaments this summer. Shortlisting was hard, but we did fund £23,423 of youth projects this round.

Round 4’s deadline is fast approaching (22 September), so young people in Wandsworth starting filling out those applications! Check out last year’s YOF report here: http://tinyurl.com/LBW-YOF2013 2. BYC Celebrating Positive Young Mental Health Conference – We participated in a NHS Youth Forum meeting to help break down mental health stigma across the country. We participated in a number of activities including: mind mapping exercises, sticky glue, cut outs to grilling mental health experts. We all helped create tools and recommendations for mental health professional of the future. This leads on from our CAMHS mental health inspection in April. We are looking forward to proposing our mental health motion at the BYC Annual Council meeting in September!

Our CAMHS inspection results here: http://tinyurl.com/LBW-CAMHSConsultation 3. Staff Training - we are continuing to expand our professional portfolio for training Wandsworth staff. This includes: introduction to youth participation, creative methods of delivery, building a culture of youth participation and teaching Heads of Service how to use social media. #watchthisspace

Youth Voice: Positive Stories 4. Youth Service Tender – we met with the organisations who are interested in tendering for Wandsworth Youth Service. We love that they asked us how we would be involved in the contract decision and monitoring. They loved that we had consulted with 4800 young people on what they think are the most important things for a youth service to deliver. Check out our consultation results: http://tinyurl.com/LBW-YSConsultation 5. Peer Research - we’ve been working to create a Wansdworth Safeuarding Children’s Board consultation and engagement project. The Board are prioritising their strategy for the next two years. Our results will feed into their planning and help young people feel safer in Wandsworth!

We are: i.

Consulting with 1000 young people ii.

Running focus groups across the borough iii.

Making a short film on our findings iv.

Writing an opinion sheet and longer report for decision makers v.

Presenting our finding to schools, colleges, youth groups and the senior decision makers.

Follow us @WBCYouthCouncil (Twitter) or @Wandsworth Youth Council (Facebook).

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

North East South Tyneside Alex D’Ambrosie, Support Worker From the 27th May to 1st June 2014, 32 young people took part in an International Youth Exchange that was organised by South Tyneside Council.

Four groups of 8 young people each came from South Tyneside Council’s 2 twintowns of Epinay-sur-seine in France and Wuppertal in Germany. A group from San Salvatore in Italy also took part due to a recent link that has been formed as a result of their Abbey kindly loaning us a copy of the Codex Amiatinus, which is the oldest bible in the World and was originally produced in South Tyneside during the 8th century. The remaining 8 young people came from South Tyneside Council’s formal consultative groups, which consist of the; Young People’s Parliament, Children in Care Council and Friends Against Bullies / Junior Local Safeguarding Children’s Board.

All young people and supporting staff were firstly welcomed at South Shields Town Hall during a civic event, which was supported by the Mayor, (Cllr Ernest Gibson) and Deputy Leader, (Cllr Alan Kerr).

Everyone then travelled across to the borough’s Thurston Outdoor Education Centre in the Lake District to spend the rest of the week taking part in adventurous and cultural activities.

Feedback from all involved was extremely positive with our colleagues from Wuppertal stating that they found the experience; “consistently superb!”.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Yorkshire and Humber Leeds Harnek Panesar, Support Worker Foster Carer Awards Leeds Social Care held an awards ceremony for Foster Carers on 14th July 2014 at the: Northern Ballet Centre; Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre. Over forty carers attended the glittering event with their families. Steve Walker Deputy Director of Children's Services compered the evening.

Along with the presentation of long service awards to carers; there was performances delivered by ‘Dazl Dance’ troop and young people from both the Northern Centre and the ‘First Floor’.

There was also an excellent act from a young magician, Sebastian Walton who wowed the audience with his trickery!

Peter, Katie and Liam helped out on the evening with a range of responsibilities from running the registration desk at the beginning of the evening, assisting with ushering people into the auditorium, sitting with the technical operator in the box, assisting with refreshments and also handed out certificates for the ‘Supporting Arts Development’ category.

They had also initially been involved in consultations with the planning committee for the event, in giving their opinions about the event; and gave their input for the shortlisting panel deciding category nominees and overall winners.

Liam: “I was extremely impressed with the carer who looked after the children with disabilities and the commitment she has taken; I feel she really deserved the award” Peter: “I really enjoyed presenting the award, it was a really good evening, I enjoyed helping out in the technical box!”

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Rotherham Sarah Bellamy, Support Worker RESIDENTIAL Young people from Rotherham's Youth Voice Vehicles had a joint residential to Haberson House in Filey.

Young people from Rotherham Youth Cabinet, UKYP and Looked After Childrens Council took part in a range of team building activities and also spent time planning their new manifestos, campaigns and research.

POLAND PRESENTATION Young people from Youth Cabinet gave a presentation about their experiences during their recent visit to Poland as part of their Anti Fascism work. The visit was a joint trip with Rotherham LGBT young people.

Audience members included Elected members, young people's families, RMBC officers and IYSS staff.

They heard about the group's visit to Auchwitz, Schindler's Factory and the Jewish Quarter, plus experiences of Polish Culture. They also spoke about their visit to Beth Shalom in Nottinghamshire and they raised money to sponsor a rose and plaque in the Garden there on behalf of Rotherham.

SELF HARM WORK Youth Cabinet featured in the local Rotherham Press, where a positive article was printed about their research and recommendations in regard to access to services for young people who need support around Self Harm.

EXAM STRESS CAMPAIGN Young people have been emailing the Secretary of State for Education around the impact of Exams and the stress this is causing to young people. They have received some responses but are continuing to try to seek some clear response. Following the recent re-shuffle, they aim to re-commence their communication with the new Minister for Education, Nicki Morgan.

MANIFESTO FOR 2015 Young people are currently drawing up their new Manifesto for the next year and will be launching this at an event in October.

ANNUAL SITTING Rotherham MYPs had a fabulous time at the recent Annual Sitting in Lancaster.

Thank you for your submissions this month, we look forward to reading more positive stories next month.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Also we have The Youth on Board (YOB) Awards which is an exclusively youth-led rolling award scheme that recognises innovative and exciting youth participation, both from young people and the projects and organisations that support them.

Deadline for submissions is quarterly.

To apply see more on: http://www.byc.org.uk/training-services/youth-on-board-awards.aspx