Positive stories march 2014

Youth Voice: Positive Stories March 2014

Young people at the Equality4U campaigning event in February

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Youth Voice: Positive Stories A report by youth representatives and the workers that support them March 2014 Welcome to the March 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 content is split into two parts: 1. Positive activities stories from youth representatives, including Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs), Deputy Members of Youth Parliament (DMYPs), Youth Councillors, Young Mayors and Deputy Young Mayors 2. Update from support workers on the activities of the youth groups they work with and support.

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: www.byc.org.uk/uk-work/youthvoice The British Youth Council would like to thank all the workers and young people who took the time to promote and complete March’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 of England East Midlands London South East South West Yorkshire and Humber Northern Ireland

4 10 11 13 14 32 40

Support Worker’s Stories East of England Yorkshire and Humber East Midlands

46 47 53

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Young People’s Stories

East of England Hertfordshire Ahmed Al-Maadanli, 16, Member of Youth Parliament It's amazing how social networking can actually help to make everyone calm down!

One day I joined a Facebook group about my town called 'Everything Tring' to promote the work of the local youth council and UKYP. However, every Friday there seemed to be lots of people posting saying 'the youths are outside again, the police have been informed.’

Now to any person under the age of 18, this was a little ridiculous. So in my nature, I started to question whether this was the right thing to do or not and said my thoughts on the matter.

However some people didn't take kindly to my comments and started acting like 'teenagers'.

Week after week it would happen until...

Others started to open their eyes, and instead of saying how rubbish the youth were, started coming up with solutions for the ‘problem’. One very kind person agreed to hold a meeting round their house for young and old people to come along to and talk about their concerns, and yet again; another Facebook group was set up with the unusual title' Fun for kids, peace for adults'.

I wasn't able to go to the meeting personally but from what I've heard it was a great success.

They talked about issues on both sides and how they could resolve them and it helped break the stereotypes with each other.

It's finally great to see people interacting in their town as you can't call it a community without everyone working together.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Emma Flude, 16, Member of Youth Parliament After enjoying my time so much as an MYP last year, I decided to stand for re-election. When I found out that I had been voted in for a second term I couldn't have been happier!

Due to a change in the election process, Hertfordshire MYPs now represent their individual districts, as well as the county as a whole. This means that I am now an MYP for Hertfordshire representing for Three Rivers district.

Five issues were voted in as young people's priorities in Hertfordshire, which will be researched and consulted on to form the Herts1125 Young People's Manifesto 2014/15. The priority I will be focusing on, along with my fellow MYP Stephanie who was elected to represent Welwyn Hatfield district, is 'Cheaper bus fares for young people during the school holidays' and was voted for by 3258 young people.

I can't wait to get campaigning, and all I can say is, bring on this year!

Monica Yianni, 15, Member of Youth Parliament As my first official MYP outing in my village, I decided to go to the village meeting led by the parish council. This is a meeting where anyone from around the village can attend and all the chairs of the many organisations report things back to the committee. 2 major issues bought about at this meeting was the ongoing battle for or against the village church chimes and the amount of dog poo found around our village.

Many adults debated this for a long time but I’m very pleased and proud to say I also contributed to the discussion. I think its important more young people from the village should come to the village meetings for many reasons (this includes defending ourselves!!). I think after going to the meeting I have gained more of an understanding of how my village works, and hopefully this is a ‘baby step’ into working out how the whole of my district works!

Since being elected (amazing) as an MYP many teachers around my school have found it fun to pretend I’m someone very important! Just an example, recently I have not been able to do PE lessons as I have had a back operation however we had a inter form tug-of-war competition, one member of the lovely PE department shows a fabulous interest in my youth parliament work and is really supportive .

At the end of the tournament when the winner was announced the teacher says “and now to award the medals, Monica Yianni MYP” I had to shake everyone's hand and give them the medal

Youth Voice: Positive Stories in-between giggling! This was a really fun and memorable moment, hopefully one day I could be awarding real medals to awesome people, but the plastic ones to my friends isn't a bad deal!

Nia, 13, Member of Youth Parliament When I first saw an advertisement for the UK Youth Parliament on my school website, I knew it would be something I would be interested in doing, though I never thought five months on from the original hustings event, I would be a member of UKYP. The Announcement on the first of March was very exciting, and holding it in the County Chamber made all the difference. I attended the first meeting of UKYP at the University of Hertfordshire on Monday, and it was fantastic to start getting to know nine other people like me who wanted to make a difference or young people in Hertfordshire.

I am really looking forward to several things throughout the year, especially the 1125 where young people from all over Hertfordshire can come together to discuss and change youth issues for the better.

Suffolk Matthew Percy, 20, Youth Representative It was in 2010 I was first elected to the UK Youth Parliament in Suffolk at the age of 16 and it has been an honour and privilege to have been able to represent the young people of Suffolk and work on their behalf ever since. This is my overview of my time in office.

Getting Elected - Persistence and Enthusiasm is key Although 2010 was the year I was first elected as an MYP it wasn't the first time I had contact with the UK Youth Parliament as I first stood for election in 2009 (as can be seen by this picture on the BBC Suffolk website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/suffolk/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8538000/8538868.stm) when Suffolk County Council provided funding again after axing it a few years previously. When I first stood for election the Suffolk term of office was still set at a 1 year term, but the UK Youth Parliament rules enable the Local Education Authority to agree a 2 year term of office if requested by the MYPs and this is exactly what the 2009 cohort did, arguing that a one year term of office is not long enough to get stuff done.

Another difference with the 2010 elections when I was first elected is that the 2009 cohort ensured that the elections were put to a public vote of the Suffolk young people via an online

Youth Voice: Positive Stories election, in contrast to the 2009 elections where the vote was only open to young people attending the information session which, although, in my view, wasn't very democratic it was allowed in the UKYP rulebook at the time. What this all shows is that you should never give up on your dreams and aspirations as with persistence and plenty of enthusiasm it is possible to achieve almost anything.

When I stood in 2010 to a public vote I was fairly sure I would not win, although I never admitted this, as in 2009 when I was speaking to a room of 11 young people I couldn't even muster up enough support - so why on earth would I be able to muster up enough support from thousands of potential voters?

As someone on the Autistic Spectrum I have never found making friends easy, indeed when I was at school I was never exactly popular with my peers - having really only two true friends throughout my whole time at school and I didn't just do things because everyone else did - I was very much - and still am - a person of my own mind who enjoys an independent lifestyle and as I'm sure many will tell you - extremely stubborn in my ways.

This is why I was so shocked to have been elected, but I have been informed by some peers that it was the fact my enthusiasm, passion and knowledge shone through during my election campaign - overcoming a number of barriers, such as giving speeches to year group assemblies despite not being a natural communicator - partly as a result of my autism - and being extremely nervous. I think it's safe to say that my communication skills have improved a lot since then, and there are a number of people who I can thank for this, but it is also safe to say that they still leave a lot to be desired.

My First Term of Office (2010 - 2012) When I finally overcame the first challenge of getting elected by young people across Suffolk I made a pledge to myself - and I guess to young people in the county - to always do my best on behalf of the young people of Suffolk, to give my all at all times, to never give up and to actively take on board the views and concerns of the young people who elected me - whether they voted for me or not, or indeed regardless of whether they voted at all. I am proud to say that I have stuck by this pledge at all times and if I ever succeed in becoming a Cllr or MP I will continue to stick to this pledge.

To this end one of the first things I did as an MYP was set up an official Facebook profile that I would use to keep my constituents informed and engaged with my work and it's certainly worked, attracting the most 'friends'/followers of any MYP I have ever seen, at well over 1,000.

Many of these young people regularly debate the top political issues through my profile and I endeavour to raise their views with the appropriate people whenever possible. To this end I have built up good relations with many local Cllrs of all parties and with the Ipswich MP Ben Gummer.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories During my first term of office the UK Youth Parliament in Suffolk faced an uncertain future as mid-term, Suffolk County Council, in their wisdom, decided to axe the funding for the UK Youth Parliament with no consultation. However as a result of my pro-active and furious lobbying Suffolk County Council did a u-turn and I have since made it totally clear to those in control that anything less than active consultation with young people on youth issues will not be tolerated indeed anything less goes against the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and could also be argued to be going against parts of the Education Act. During my first term of office I was an extremely active campaigner for cheaper and more accessible public transport, although it was not until my 2nd term of office that this campaign saw some success, as well as campaigning to tackle homophobia among other issues.

It was also in my first term of office that I first featured in the media, doing an interview live on BBC Radio Suffolk with award-winning Mark Murphy (who his somewhat of a local celebrity) on his extremely popular week-day Breakfast show. I was extremely nervous during that interview and I think it showed but my passion also shone through and it wasn't too long before I was asked to do a 20 minute live interview with Rob Dunger on his popular weekend Breakfast show. You can read about that experience here: http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/2012/blog/matthew-percy-myp-suffolk-radio During my first term of office I was also extremely privileged to visit 10 Downing Street at the invitation of Suffolk Coastal MP Therese Coffey.

My Second Term of Office (2012 - 2014) In 2012 the elections for the UK Youth Parliament came around once again and I proudly, and successfully, stood for re-election. I am pleased to say that my 2nd term of office has been just as successful and exciting as the first - if not more so.

During this term of office I continued to receive requests for interview from BBC Radio Suffolk, speaking about votes at 16, public transport, university tuition fees and the 2011 riots to name a few and also got a few requests for quotes from Ipswich Star and East Anglian Daily Times although sadly their reporting on youth stories is still nowhere near up to scratch.

During this term of office I gave evidence live on BBC Parliament to a Youth Select Committee on public transport in 2012, successfully lobbied Suffolk County Council, along with my fellow MYPs, to introduce an Endeavour Card - similar to that of an oyster-card - which provides 16-19 year olds with a 25% discount on bus travel in the county and also successfully improved Ipswich Park and Ride service enabling a new stop to be introduced at Kesgrave High School and also hourly services to Suffolk One, a sixth-form college to on the South West outskirts of Ipswich.

As well as debating in the House of Commons (twice, in 2011 and 2014 - although was sadly never selected to speak) I also debated as part of the Commonwealth Youth Council in 2012 the

Youth Voice: Positive Stories merits of reducing carbon emissions in the House of Commons - on which I was the first speaker.

These are just some of my achievements during my time as an MYP since 2010. It has been a great privilege and honour and I will miss the job dearly.

Thank you to all my fellow MYPs, former and current, particularly Sam Kenward, who was a great friend, for all your support. Thank you also to Andy Fell who supported the Youth Parliament in Suffolk during my first term of office and to Amber Spearing who has supported my work and that of my fellow MYPs since.

Thank you also to all the young people across Suffolk who have shown their confidence and faith in me. I cannot thank you enough.

Natasha Graves, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month I attended 2 meetings in which I helped plan a youth engagement event for Suffolk.

The aim of the event will be to celebrate the work young people do in their community, and to raise awareness for the Suffolk Assembly of Youth, which has the aim to promote youth voice.

I also attended the BYC’s Equality4U convention in London in which I gained valuable campaigning skills which I brought back to my constituency. Following the event I created an online petition to help the Women’s Liberation movement, the petition asked for a wider variety of body shapes to be represented on online clothing websites.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

East Midlands Leicester Rahoul Naik, Youth Representative I decided to stand for election as I had an urge, an almost inner need to help the young people in my community as I saw they were becoming isolated and forgotten. Issues important to me include: Youth unemployment, youth engagement in politics and the youth services as a whole.

Personally, I felt that being a YPC member would allow me to understand the local government systems and to get closer to key decision makers to influence them.

Leicester city council’s youth participation team is one of the best in the country, fact. Their constant support and guidance allows any young person with an interest in helping their communities to flourish and engage. They also provide new youth councillors with training and material to aid them into their new roles and now also provide mentoring schemes from past youth councillors to share experiences.

When I got elected in 2012, I have been to several scrutiny meetings for Children and Young People’s Services and also Adult Social Care. I have been lucky enough to represent Leicester City in the UK Youth Parliament and the experiences I have gained from this such as sitting in the House of Commons and debating REAL issues have made my time as an MYP irreplaceable.

Furthermore, locally, I have attended numerous community ward meetings and youth centres to try and keep that constant contact with councillors and young people to try and be a catalyst for change as well as a crucial link in the chain. All of this again to try and reach my main objective of increasing youth participation.

To encourage young people to join and be part of the Youth Council, I would/have cited examples to demonstrate how much of a real influence youth councillors have on key decision makers in the council structure, such as meetings with the Mayor and some of his cabinet and also interviewing candidates for the position of Director of children’s services. Hardly any other authority allows for this much engagement and part of it is due to the backing and support of the participation team.

Finally, I would like to just say that my time as a youth councillor and MYP has been amazing and is irreplaceable and has changed me completely. I am now more outgoing, confident and mentally stronger than two years ago and even friendlier! It has given me so many opportunities people, of any age, do not get often and has allowed me to gain a network of contacts locally and nationally that I will never lose.

Thank you Leicester City Council. Thank you BYC.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

London Hammersmith and Fulham Fred Gill, 17, Youth Representative At the end of my term as MYP I was able to run a very productive handover meeting where myself and the new MYP and DMYP discussed what it means to be to be in UKYP and youth voice in general.

We also made a start on their campaign preparation with the MYP looking at Votes at 16 and how to engage to local youth council, for this we discussed how she can be part of the national campaign and she has now started to get the wheels in motion to get a Lord to adopt, as well as strategies to make the Borough Youth Forum more active with the run up to our first elected council in the Autumn.

For the Deputy we looked at how she can be involved in the C4L campaign and get in touch with MP's and schools/Academies and then looking at how to deliver on her other manifesto point to have better links with employers and young people. So I look forward to helping the new Member and Deputy member throughout the year on their campaigns.

Newham Saadia Sajid, 15, Youth Representative This year, as members of the Youth Select Committee we've been discussing the issue of 'Votes at 16', which was originally decided by the members of Youth Parliament. We met up for the first time back in February and since then; it's been non-stop commitment! During our action packed residential, we got to know each other and got on incredibly well, we all discussed what we want to gain from the experience and how exactly we were going to do that.

The next day of the residential, we took it a step further, and went to Portcullis House, to our committee room that we will use over the next couple of months whilst compiling a report with recommendations to the government. It was an astonishing experience, and we've all become the best of friends. We are now looking to gather people that we think would be beneficial to retrieve oral or written evidence from and we will start contacting certain individuals or

Youth Voice: Positive Stories organisations that we deem to be suitable, so that we can then scrutinise them live on television regarding Votes at 16. It has now been just over a month since we've began our committee work, and I can definitely say it has been an extremely positive experience so far and look forward to the future!

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

South East Reading Ellie Emberson, 15, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been great for Reading, locally and nationally. On a local note, we decided our campaigns in Reading Youth Cabinet for the 2014. We have decided to take forward the campaign "curriculum for life" with three campaigns beneath this, the three underplaying campaigns are: mental health, child abuse and Your Future, Your Way (this will cover careers advice and higher education).

On a national level, I have been pushing the votes at 16 campaign and have at present collected over 200 signatures from a variety audiences which show their support for the campaign. Not only we did we get support from the public but myself and Chair of Reading Youth Cabinet attended a full council meeting seeking the support of Reading Borough Councillors.

We set a motion and spoke in front of over 50 councillors; they then debated about votes at 16 and took a vote. Thirty three councillors voted for the motion (all councillors voted for except for the Conservative councillors) this meant the motion was passed and Reading Borough Council officially back the campaign votes at 16.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

South West Bristol Christy Nunns, 18, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Through my role as a member of UK Youth Parliament, I was recently accepted for the opportunity to attend the “European Youth Event” (EYE), hosted at the seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. The event is a chance to represent young people on an international level, along with around 5000 other representatives aged between 16 and 30.

The EYE will feature a variety of debates, speeches and workshops which allow attendees to experience the European Parliamentary system, and (at the event’s culmination) compile a set of recommendations on the views of young people, to inform the next term of MEPs. With a group of other youth representatives from the UK, I will be attending workshops, role plays and discussions on the role of the European Parliament, and the extent of its influence; personally, I will also be attending workshops on “Big Data” and the digital revolution, entrepreneurship in young people and youth unemployment, and votes at 16, to tie in with the national UKYP campaign.

It is a huge honour to be attending this event, and As a further part of my involvement in the event, I will also be running a campaign when I return, with the aim of increasing the turnout of young voters in Bristol.

Isobel Trout, 17, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Recently, the newly renamed Bristol City Youth Council spent a whole day team building and discussing and reorganising the structure and content of our campaigns. Last year 2013/14, we tried to focus on too many topics, but we have redesigned and designated our campaigns, to focus more people on fewer issues.

We also created detailed plans to make progress more achievable with distinct projects for set deadlines, to keep us all focused and motivated. I hope that this will mean our efforts can be more concentrates and more effective.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Theo Davies, 13, Member of Youth Parliament In the last month, several things have been happening within the Bristol City Youth Council.

Firstly, the name - many of the body felt 'council' better suited the format of the group than 'select committee'.

Also, the youth council held an enquiry regarding youth provision in the city, in a joint meeting with the Children and Young People's Services scrutiny committee. The resulting report will be presented to full council and to the mayor, with recommendations hopefully being implemented.

Furthermore, several councillors are trying to tighten links between the City Council and the Youth Council. Hopefully this will result in a greater mandate for the elected members. The other D/MYPs and I attended a youth parliament residential in Somerset, to allow us to build greater cohesion between youth representatives. We have several forthcoming meetings in which we hope to build upon our campaigns and in doing so, trying to make a difference for young people in my area.

Vishal, 15, Member of Youth Parliament My name is Vishal Mamgai. I am 15 years old. I represent east central Bristol as a MYP. In the last month have been part of the Bristol Youth Select Committee changing the name to BCYC (Bristol City Youth Council). We hope this will make the BCYC have more of an impact within the city.

I also met Craig Bolt who is director for children and young people service. We met him as part of the direct leadership team (DLT) which helps us stay in touch with decision makers and update each other on individual projects.

Finally I attended the UK youth parliament (UKYP) south west residential. I attend various workshops which included project planning for the coming year. We discussed a workshop on goals and target setting also developed skills on how to write monthly to youth voice, I have learnt lots of skills and met lots of fellow local MYPs.

Cornwall Tabitha Wethers, 16, Member of Youth Parliament My name is Tabitha Wethers and I'm the Member of Youth Parliament of East Cornwall! :) So getting past the damp, cold bedding and unfortunately terrible weather, I couldn't have asked for a more inspiring, phenomenal weekend. Not only did I get to see people from last year and have

Youth Voice: Positive Stories a real good catch up with what they have been doing, but I got to start a new manifesto with Cornwall and looked at our National/England campaign and meet the new D/MYP's who appear raring to go! Regional residential’s leave you with residential blues but looking back at the weekend that everyone else and I got to experience seems positively indescribable. Our manifesto for Cornwall seems achievable and I am so motivated to start working on the manifesto!

Well, saying that we have already started to work with the help of Fixers organisation who work with young people to raise awareness on issues which are personal to them but also appear effective in the media. They have a lot of success with the help of ITV and this attracted me a lot as we were able to take one of our manifesto points, homelessness in 16 - 19 year olds", and start working on a project with Fixers. This plan is set in stone to make a short film and it seems very likely to work with Fixers.

Carrying on with the residential, we were lucky enough to have professional ball room dancers come in for the evening and teach us a few things, and if I must say, the final outcome with UKYP Strictly was extraordinary. Although the majority of us didn't pick up all the steps and I often found myself crashing into others it was possibly one of the greatest amounts of enjoyment I have indulged in.

Saying our goodbyes was sad, but I am counting down the days in which we have a regional meeting. I walked away from the weekend having done a presentation about Make Your Mark, creating an interesting manifesto I am eager to start fully and adopting a lord who I have already emailed and waiting for a reply from!

Devon George Downs, 16, Member of Youth Parliament At present we are empowering young people to have a say in the current youth service review.

We are highly concerned of the county council's proposals not only as a financial burden on other services in the future but also the high level of human misery which we are sure that these changes will cause.

I have been a member of Devon Scouts for over eight years now and have been actively involved in the youth voluntary sector within East Devon. Considering the conversations which I have had with those within the voluntary and community sectors, there is an overwhelming consensus that they do not have the resources and in many cases experience to be able to provide a preventative, educating, specialist, core, open-access youth service.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Furthermore we are deeply worried that the majority of decision makers and senior managers have absolutely no idea of what the aim of open-access youth work is.

There are obvious examples of vast detachment, naivety and in some cases ignorance of what our youth service provides on a weekly basis.

Even though the council are proposing a more targeted service, young people who attend the special educational needs sessions led by individual council-run youth centres will be stripped of one of their only opportunities to try to live as much as a normal life as possible.

Despite retaining the youth parliament, local youth voice mechanisms such as the council-run youth panels will be dissolved and without a facilitating youth worker. This will greatly disable my personal role as a Member of Youth Parliament to improve the communities of not just young people but all citizens on a local level.

Although the proposal aims to support the youth voluntary sector, the Local Youth Network funding allocated to such organisations will be reduced and young people (who are nominated youth representatives from voluntary youth groups) will not have a say on how this money is spent. Therefore it is evident that by abolishing a publicly provided open-access provision, targeted youth work, youth voice and the third sector will all be severely damaged as a result.

As a preventative provision, Devon Youth Service's success cannot be measured unless we consider the social problems which it prevents. Devon and Cornwall Police agree with us on the fact that the proposed changes to the youth service will rip a hole in the fabric of our county's society.

I am actively working with Police and Community Support Officers in some of the most deprived areas in Devon. They reiterate that council-run youth centres greatly help the commendable work our emergency services.

On Saturday 29th March over 20 young activists from across Devon met in Exeter as representatives of their local Save Devon Youth Service campaign groups. The aim of the meeting

Youth Voice: Positive Stories was to network with isolated young activists in order to gain an insight into the dedicated campaign work young people have been participating in since the cuts were announced.

Hosted by George Downs MYP and Alfie Weaver, we participated in workshops throughout the day including how we can learn from each other and common goals for the future.

Every young activist was encouraged to organise a campaign day in their local village/town/city centres and turn up with as many of their fellow youth service users as possible to the final young person’s consultation event in Exeter on Friday 25th April.

The day included banner and t-shirt making and we all agreed that the consultation so far had not just been useless but insulting to all stakeholders, young or old. In particular the young people from Teignbridge highlighted to everyone else the inappropriate, confrontational and in some cases disgusting behaviour of county council representatives at the Newton Abbot young people’s consultation event on Thursday 20th March. We are facilitating young people to write formal complaints and demand an apology.

Melissa Beer, 19, Member of Youth Parliament I have attended a protest against the budget cuts to Devon youth service to protect the youth service. I have supported young people at a full county meeting to empower them to have a say about the youth service. I have attended a local meeting with the Devon UK Youth Parliament team to discuss the youth service review.

I have supported young people at a save the youth service event and did articles for the local papers on behalf of young people about the budget cuts. I am currently planning an event for young people and county councillors about the budget cuts to the youth service.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Olivia Welsh, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been really busy for me. First of all I went to the whole team meeting in Devon at county hall where I met my new DMYP, and help make a film to train adults (about why they should listen to young people). I then went outside to look at the protestors against the Devon youth service budget cuts. I met some really interesting people which really don't want their youth centre to be shut down.

After that I went to my local youth centre (Redrock) and talked with all the young people, senior members and the volunteers to see how the budget cuts would affect them and their local youth centre- it was an informal consultation. I had a lot of good feedback which I will be sharing at the next team meeting on the 10th April. Also this month I went to the regional residential where I met a lot of new young people, it was really good this year because I had the chance to run a session which my team from Devon. I then "adopted" Lord Strasburger.

I also got an award for getting over 1000 MAKE YOUR MARK ballot papers done by young people last year in October. This made me really happy and I also aim to double the amount of MAKE YOUR MARK ballot papers this year.

I was also given a certificate for going to the House of Commons last year. I was taught on the regional residential different tactics on how to run a consultation and I also learnt other ways to get the make your mark ballots to lots of different places. As well as all this I have been gathering general issues and problems which concern young people in my local constituency. I’m really looking forward to the next regional meeting.

Recently I have been involved in lots of the protest with young people about the cuts councillors are making to the youth service. I attended the whole team meeting in county hall and met the new member of my team. And have been collecting issues which concern young people in my constituency. I am currently preparing for the regional residential coming up next month, which i am very excited for- I cannot wait to meet all of the new members of youth parliament.

Dorset Grace van Zyl, 13, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Hello my name is Grace van Zyl. I am a newly elected DMYP for Dorset and my manifestos are: to campaign for a greener planet and cheaper sporting facilities for young people.

From the 21st to the 23rd of March I went on my first South West Regional residential! It was absolutely amazing because I've learnt about the fixers charity, the code of conduct, how to put

Youth Voice: Positive Stories my campaigns to action and met 32 other D/MYPs from across the South West. Of course of the weekend could have been a lot of talking and paperwork but each topic was introduced with an icebreaker which made everything informative and fun.

In the space of just three days I've extended my knowledge and understanding, made crucial bonds and have a wider understanding of how to encourage young people to get their views across.

James Jones, 13, Member of Youth Parliament Hello my name is James Jones. And I have been elected as a Member of Youth Parliament for a second term. Carrying the most amount of votes of 3390 from young people across Dorset.

My Manifesto points are: More Life Skills in schools as well as Positive Publicity for young people Over two weeks after being re-elected, I attended the South-West Regional Residential, It was really great, especially after the second term, knowing the elements and being able to communicate with new/old Member of Youth Parliament’s to develop my skills in debating, public speaking and more.

We worked together doing workshops & team building exercises such as: How to consult the/with Media. As well as creating the south-west regional manifestos. I have already started to campaign for my Manifesto points.

I am glad to say, that last week on Thursday 27th February. I was re-elected as a member of youth parliament for another term. And have already started my manifesto points for which I was campaigning upon: More life skills in schools as well as Positive publicity for young people. I am very happy to be re-elected by the young people of South west to represent them in the choices which effect their economy and lives.

Gloucestershire Callum Coles, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been very productive and has resulted in the development of my goals for the year ahead. I attended the regional convention in Minehead, where I met with my fellow MYP's and Deputies including those starting on their first year for UKYP. This meant I was able to give guidance to those just starting out on their campaign as well as learn about the other projects going on in the South West.

A particular point of interest for the weekend was attending a workshop with the fixers team. I learnt that they could not only provide guidance for campaigns but also help with resources to

Youth Voice: Positive Stories make a project happen. As a result of this I am going to develop a website compromising all of the opportunities for young people in my area and hopefully in the long run, it will be possible to gain reductions from businesses for young people.

As part of the 'Adopt a Lord' part of our National Votes at 16 campaign I have e-mailed the Lord Bichard to find out what he thinks about votes at 16. Although I am still awaiting a reply.

In addition to my UKYP work I am also standing for Student Union president at my college; I believe that gaining this position will enable me to extend my reach to young people and give more 11-18 year olds a voice.

James Bennion, 16, Member of Youth Parliament The most significant event of this year so far was the South West Regional Residential which fantastic! Apart from just having a great time, I have leant a lot to help me in role as an MYP such as how to write effective positive stories, increase chances of success on my manifesto policies etc.

One of the most important developments over the weekend was the influence of Fixers on a project my fellow MYPs in my local area and I are undertaking which is a website to convey all the opportunities be it sport, music or anything else available to young people in one easy place to find.

Hopefully, once the website is fully up and running, we as a local area aim to get business to place themselves in a special feature section with offers on to make certain activities cheaper and more accessible in the process. One major issue appears to be the awareness and accessibility of activities for young people; there are plenty of choice available, young people just don't about all of them.

Nathan Howarth, 15, Member of Youth Parliament I have been meeting with my head-teacher to discuss issues within the school and with students issues within the local area.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Havering Tolu Akingbade, 14, Member of Youth Parliament The beginning of this month, March, was actually the start of my term as a Member of Youth Parliament. After a long hard campaign to become a MYP, which consisted of visiting schools and youth clubs to get votes, I was eventually elected as the MYP of Havering.

This month I began to fulfil one of my pledges which is to bring the elderly and the youth together - I have began to plan an event where the elderly and youth get to swap a skill. This will help not only bring the elderly and the youth together but the community also.

Isles of Scilly Zoe Jenkins, 14, Member of Youth Parliament My name is Zoe Jenkins, I am 14 years old and live on the Isles of Scilly. I attend the Five Islands School, and it was through school that I became an MYP (on 7th March 2014). This year there was no need for voting as our school is so small (around 100 pupils in secondary), and there were only two of us standing , so we felt it would less like a popularity contest if we sat down and decided together who would be MYP and DMYP. Our top three issues for the Isles of Scilly are: 1. A shelter where youths can ‘hang out’. – This has been an ongoing problem on the islands and we need to create a simple shelter where youths can sit and keep dry.

2. To simplify the current college accommodation system. – Because we don’t have a college on the island, 16 year olds have to leave the island to go to college. The majority of students go to Truro and Penwith College, neither have boarding facilities, so, unless they have family in the area, a host family is the only option. I would like to look into getting a boarding house, as I feel this would immensely benefit the Isles of Scilly students.

3. To help existing clubs on the islands to develop. – Helping clubs to expand buy more equipment and go on more trips, would make a difference to out of school activities and more fun for the local young people.

On the 21st -23rd March 2014 and my DMYP attended the Regional Residential Meeting in Somerset. As well as making lots of amazing friends, I learned lots of new skills, such as; writing a press release and how to communicate with the young people in our area.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories There were also fun parts where we had a chance to get to know each other, these were; strictly UKYP, the icebreakers and stone painting. The workshop that I found by far the most helpful was the Fixers Project. They are an organization that can help young people (over 16) carry out and achieve a project for their local community. They were very interested in helping me with my issue of creating a shelter, and suggest some ideas (how put the idea across to our local council by creating a short video and petition) that I am going to carry out while getting into contact with them.

We are currently working on our first issue (crating a shelter where youths can ‘hang out’) because I want to get this resolved as quickly as possible, and it needs doing. With our youth worker me and my DMYP came up with lots of ideas about how it could be built and what it would look like.

We want to get the local community involved in this project, so we thought that for the inside walls we could let the GCSE Art student graffiti it, this would also protect it from damage because people would show respect for their friends artwork. To stop seating etc. being stolen and damaged, seating and lighting could be built into the walls.

On the 24th March 2014 I was interviewed by Radio Scilly; talking about our weekend at the Regional Residential Meeting, our role as youth parliament, and in depth about the youth shelter project we are working on.

This will give us publicity and let the island know what projects we’re working on and who we are. On Thursday 27th March I will be doing a school assembly with my DYMP, this will (like the radio interview) let everyone know what we got up to at the weekend and our plans for the youth shelter.

Plymouth Jon Cummings, 16, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Jon Cummings- Plymouth Between the 21st and the 23rd of March I attended the South West UKYP regional residential. This allowed me to meet my fellow MYP's and DMYP's and proved to be a great opportunity to share our experiences and the concerns of young people in our area.

I also took part in workshops and campaign training that not only helped me to develop my skills as a DMYP such as writing press releases, but gave me a clear sense of direction about what was expected of me in the year ahead. This in turn enabled me to develop my action plan further to fulfil my campaign pledges over the course of the year.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories I also had a meeting with Councillor Nicky Williams, the portfolio holder for Young people from Plymouth City Council. In this meeting we discussed ways in which the council can do more to help young people in Plymouth, specifically how she could help us fulfil our campaign pledges.

This was valuable in helping me to get the contacts I need to get the ball rolling on my campaigns and over the next month I will be working on those.

Finally, I have been working with Plymouth's youth Cabinet, which meets on Wednesdays in the Council House, to consult on a travel app with young people which is being made by the company Travel line. This will hopefully lead to easier, faster and more informed travel for the young people of Plymouth.

Somerset Cat, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been a busy one! I've done a range of things from local to regional! We had our monthly UKYPAG meeting which consists of youth councillors, D/MYP's, young carers and so on!

We covered a broad agenda; however this meeting contained an important consultation with Somerset's children trust about some actions and ideas they had. We had a really productive meeting and I think we've really had an impact for young people during the consultation! Locally, Martock Parish council have recognised the needs for young people and have decided to fund a new youth centre project.

It will be attached to other clubs and activities bringing our community together! It's at the baby stage of the project at the moment but I’m really excited about working towards the end product; a fabulous new purpose built centre! I then went, along with other D/MYP's, to the Regional residential that we go to annually!

It was fantastic, I learnt loads; for example, how to deliver effective workshops. It was nice for me, as an older member, being able to pass on my knowledge and experiences to younger and newer people to help with their campaigns! It was also a great chance for me to build upon my campaign, 'Bullying and Sex & Relationship awareness’ and I've got lots of motivation for my next term in office.

We finished off our residential with a D/MYP meeting to action plan what we are going to do in time for the next meeting. This, again, was a very productive meeting despite being extremely sleepy! Many Thanks for reading! Cat King, MYP for South Somerset.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Chelsea White, 14, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament On the 21st-23rd of March I attended the South West Regional Residential. This was a great experience to get to know as well as work alongside the new and already existing D/MYPs. I also learnt many things including expanding my knowledge on the code of conduct.

I also learnt presentation skills by presenting workshops, such as the code of conduct workshop; this was extremely helpful to me as this was something I wanted to improve on. During the residential, my MYP and I were able to work on our campaign 'employment for youth'. We were inspired by the presentation by Fixers and are now using them to help achieve several of our aims. Overall the weekend was amazing, meeting so many new people and also being able to improve many of my skills and I also adopted a lord!

Ellen Collard, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month I attended the South West regional residential. It was absolutely amazing! We attended workshops on things such as, Make Your Mark campaign planning, Fixers projects, and evaluating our year of being D/MYP'S and more! The weekend was full of laughter, hard work and lots of networking. Somerset had the opportunity to lead the workshop session on our code of conduct, which was such a good learning experience. This allowed us all to get some more vital experience for when we conduct more workshops on our own local campaigns.

Furthermore, I was lucky enough to be elected as the regional secretary for the South West, along with my fellow MYP Sam McCarthy, this is such an exciting opportunity to get the South West networking and communicating between regions, offering support to our PG Jess and also contacting local media about everything the South West are up to. I also attended our local D/MYP meeting, which consisted of some action planning for our next month ahead, it was a really great opportunity to talk about what we've all been doing.

Lastly, I attended our UK Youth Parliament Advisory Group meeting. This consisted of some consultation work with Somerset Children's Trust, this was a great opportunity to get our constituents voices heard on issues within the education system and topics such as healthy eating and sports education. It’s been a great month!

Eloise Chaplin, 15, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament I was unable to make the Somerset UKYP advisory group meeting on the 2nd of March because I had the dress rehearsal for a musical that I was in as part of my Performing arts GCSE at school. It was an amazing experience which my family and friends supported me with and really boosted my confidence which will defiantly be transferrable to public speaking.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories I also attended the South West regional residential! This was an amazing opportunity to network and make links with other MYP's and Deputies from all over our region. To both make connections with our local campaigns as an attempt to work together and also discus our plans for future campaigning in regards to the national agenda. We also had the incredible opportunity to meet an organisation called Fixers.

They've done some inspiring work with young people all over the UK to help them make a difference in their local area. We decided this would be a perfect chance to explain our campaign 'Young Volunteers, Stronger Communities' - and make progress on the plans for our workshop which will hopefully give young people all the options possible for their future.

We also had the chance to discuss the upcoming Youth Parliament events such 'Votes at 16' (the national Youth Parliament campaign for the following year), 'Adopt a Lord' (Where we choose a Lord to lobby in hope that they will agree to votes at 16, resulting in the bill being passed through the house of Lords in the future) and 'Make Your Mark' (the biggest democratic process which consults young people in the UK, to see which issues matter to them.) I can strongly say that I feel incredibly excited for the year ahead and I cannot wait to get started!

Thrinayani Ramakrishnan, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been very exciting for me as I went to the UK Youth Parliament south west regional residential which lasted for three days and picked up a whole range of skills for improving youth voice in my area as well as representing young people more effectively for my second term of office as a Member of UKYP. I have planned to create a video with my Deputy MYP and other MYP's in my constituency linking both our campaigns of employment for youth and volunteering, which we will produce with the help of the ITV Fixers project.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories I have also adopted a lord and aim to lobby my lord about the Votes at 16 campaign and also promote all the positive work that we do as young people.

I took part in a lot of team building activities at the regional residential and have got a lot of ideas for a skills workshop that I will be creating to present to schools in my local area.

I have been selected represent young people on the youth select committee for 2014 on votes at 16! I am very excited about this opportunity and have attended an induction in London to get a better idea about how to produce our report as the youth select committee which will be presenters to government.

I have been involved with a lot of work with this year’s youth select committee on Votes at 16. I attended an induction residential where we learnt about the people we should contact for the enquiry in the youth select committee rooms and how we should actually go about contacting these people we want to collect evidence from.

I have asked some young people to submit written evidence for the youth select committee and I am going to contact the children's commissioner for England - Dr Maggie Atkinson, if she would like to submit evidence as she as an incredibly strong advocate for the rights of the child.

Torbay Isaac Frewin, 17, Member of Youth Parliament 2014 is shaping up to be a good year for us in Torbay. In our first month with UKYP we have had the pleasure of meeting with Mayor Gordon Oliver, Michael Watson Managing Director of Stagecoach, Adrian Saunders MP, and local councillors. We have joined UKYP in the final stages of one of our main goals of lowering transport costs for young people and seen success!

Stagecoach have agreed to drop prices for some tickets, whilst freezing them on others and introducing a new ‘termrider’ ticket when normally they would have their normal price rise for April. We have worked hard joining forces with the Mayor and the Fixers charity and had a local success that Stagecoach say could be rolled out across the country if it works down here.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Wiltshire Aodhan Burnell, 15, Member of Youth Parliament On the weekend of the 21st March, the D/MYP's of the South West met at St Audrie's Bay, Somerset to discuss the year ahead for our region.

Representing our Local Authority of Wiltshire, the deputies and members of each constituency looked and reflected upon the work we had done over the past year. Whilst doing this, we agreed our authorities’ agenda and manifesto points for the coming year.

In doing this, we hope to continue to develop, improve and engage our work with decision makers. In turn providing our youth with the voice they deserve in Wiltshire, the South West and the United Kingdom. Over the coming months we plan on meeting regularly to build up our campaigns and strive to represent our youths.

Not only this, but after this weekend of networking and training I opted to 'Adopt A Lord' as part of BYC's scheme. Rt Hon. the Lord Janvrin of Chalford Hill is my selected Lord and I have already

Youth Voice: Positive Stories taken this chance to write to him. Hopefully this will allow an effective dialogue and he will potentially pledge his support to either one or even both of our campaigns.

Chloe Lintern, 15, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament My name is Chloe Lintern and his month has been a busy month in terms of youth voice. I was recently elected as DMYP for North Wiltshire and since then I have undertaken a variety of workshop/meetings relation to young people in Wiltshire. Before being elected I had been a member of Wiltshire Assembly of Youth for 5 years and this month I continued working of the work I had already started.

To begin with I ran, alongside Hayley, a consultation with my school council around how the council delivers positive activities in the future and this has been an ongoing consultation in which any young person can have a say about. This was a really positive meeting and the young people had a good input into what they want to see happen as well as having loads of questions about the services.

At the Wiltshire Assembly of Youth meeting there was many things to discuss on the agenda with one focus being on Sparksite, Wiltshire's young people's website, and how we can advertise and promote what we do as youth representatives. We decided at our local residential we will do a workshop on how to write successful blogs and use Sparksite more. The other main focus was around the Child health Strategy and we discussed as to what "Good health" and "bad health" consisted of and what should be included in the strategy which isn't written yet. We also had various updates from other members on boards that they have attended and workshops they have gone to listen to young people.

I fed back about the Stakeholder partnership meeting I attended during this month in which we spoke about emotional wellbeing and mental health and the commissioning strategy and refreshing ourselves with whether we had met the targets and objectives that we set out to do over 2011 to 2014. Alongside Sam and Kaylum we presented children and young people’s views and the 3 priorities that they have regarding EW and MH. Another big event in which I have attended as a Youth representative was the UKYP South West Regional residential. This was the weekend where every D/MYP in the south west met to discuss national campaigns as well as local and regional campaigns. I also attended many workshops on media training and how to write a good press release as well as how to run a successful consultation with young people.

Workers from Fixers project came in to talk to use about the work that they do and how they could help us with local campaigns. It was in this session where planning for a campaign around financial education started from and we hope this will develop over the next few months. I also

Youth Voice: Positive Stories adopted a lord in which I will write to monthly to tell her about the work I am doing as well as talking about the national campaign "Votes at 16".

Overall it has been a really busy month for youth voice in North Wiltshire with many other events happening and many young people talking about the change they want to see happen. Over the next month I will be continuing my hard work, working closely with Wiltshire Assembly Members regarding our agenda for action over the next few years. Feel free to follow me on twitter if you would like to contact me!! @DMYPChloeL

Courtney Pickering, 15, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Hi my name is Courtney Pickering and I am a Deputy Member of the Youth Parliament for East Wiltshire. I was elected February this year with 2728 votes.

On the 21st March I attended my first UK Youth Parliament South West Regional residential held at St Audries Bay,Somerset. I attended two workshops on the Saturday, one being about a consultation workshop where I learnt new skills and activities we can use with young people. This has given me a lot of needed confidence I can use when I return back to Wiltshire in my role of Deputy Member of Youth Parliament.

We also did a Fixers workshop where we planned our pitch for Fixers to help fund us. We were focusing on one of our key points being Money Education. We plan on producing a booklet with key information. I'm really looking forward to my term in office. Watch this space and follow my journey.

Jordan Green, 14, Member of Youth Parliament I am Jordan Green this is my second term but as a MYP as I was DMYP last year. I am 14 and I represent the young people in the surrounding area of Melksham also know as West Wiltshire.

I was invited to attend a regional residential to Minehead in Somerset on the 21st of March, so far we have as a group discussed the top 3 priorities for Wiltshire which was discovered through a survey, which included subjects based on; Things to do, Media and the way young people were being portrayed in local newspapers and general Media sources, Money-to do with how to manage it successfully and finally anti-bullying and how the teachers or school councillors deal with scenarios of bullying and how they communicate to the young person and if it is effective in anyway.

Soon after, we all consulted each other as a region to decide our top 3 priorities as the whole of south west. Whatever is the top one we will come up with plans/targets individually to campaign to gather young people’s own point of view whether they agree with the selection and how we

Youth Voice: Positive Stories are endorsing it. There has been a variety of consultations and workshops going on while on the residential. All of us have learned at least 2-3 new skills started at speaking skills all the way to confidence skills as well as social skills and much more.

I will brief an activity where we had some visitors from Fixers website is: http://www.fixers.org.uk/ and they came in, at first I had no idea who they were but after 10 minutes listening I understood what they are. They are an organisation that helps young people if they have an idea for campaigning they could go to one of the workers at Fixers and ask for help, they can provide anything even funding!

Young people that are reading are all benefitted from the sense that they can always get involved all they would have to do is if they want to contact Fixers, enter the website and email them. If they wanted to get involved with UKYP and get the experiences that I have gotten then they can send me an email through my address which is greenjordan26@gmail.com.I always check so I won’t leave anyone out. My quote of the whole weekend from what I learned was” A rubbish idea always escalates into the one of the most successful idea all through the word COMMUNICATION”. By this I mean that no-one should be afraid to say their idea as this is what we do, even if it a daft suggestion all you need the right contacts and in no time the idea will lead to bigger better things and solutions.

Kieran Mulvaney, 16, Member of Youth Parliament Hi, I am Kieran Mulvaney and I am a member of the UK Youth Parliament and represent north Wiltshire. This is my second term in office and I plan to represent more people’s views. On the 21st to 23rd of March I attended the UK Youth Parliament residential.

Here I worked with my local authority's Members and Deputy Members of the youth parliament; we also worked with other D/MYP's to come up with our regional manifesto. I worked on the Fixers project with Courtney Pickering (DMYP for east Wilts) and Chloe Lintern (DMYP for north Wilts) and we come up with a campaign for financial advice.

In Wiltshire I have been working on a Campaign that aims to put a zebra crossing and flashing speed limit signs by Hardenhuish Lane where two of the biggest secondary schools in Wiltshire are several people have been hit by a car on this road due to insufficient crossings. One young boy even lost his life. I believe it is essential that something is done about this. I am really looking forward to my term in office and cannot wait to represent young people’s views in the annual sitting in Lancaster and the debate in the House of Commons.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Yorkshire and Humber Barnsley Anton Dobson, 13, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Since I was elected as DMYP in Feburary/March I have been in meetings at school with youth councillors and our youth worker planning what were going to do and also doing drop in session for young people to get " their voices heard" later in the year also I am going on residentials later this month and next to train and do things to make Barnsley a better and safer place in to live in.

Thomas Yems, 17, Youth Councillor To kick of March with a bang, I helped to launch the NHS England Youth Forum on the stage at the NHS’s EXPO in Manchester on 3rd March. We introduced the Youth Forum and its purpose and then took part in a Q&A panel debate with a number of esteemed guests. Over the course of the two days, members of the Youth Forum were interviewed, photographed and generally sought out by members of the NHS community, in their quest to find out how we could help the NHS develop its service to young people.

We also found out that the Forum has seen its first change with a small but significant amendment to the guidelines, which now explicitly state that children and young people can in their own right give feedback and complain about the service that is provided to them.

Barnsley Youth Council has completed some productive work this month. This month’s work includes: plans to further our campaign about public transport fares for young people in Barnsley as a

Youth Voice: Positive Stories result of a previous consultation; plans to spread the work of ‘Incredible Edible’ and the Council’s initiative ‘Let’s grow’ in the creation of a youth led planting bed at Penistone Youth Hub. With regard to ‘Curriculum For Life’, we consulted with Bridgid from the local Clinical Commissioning Group on how to improve mental health services from the young people of Barnsley, which essentially came down to better access and publicity of services in schools. We are also holding review of PSHE (as part of ‘Review Your School’), which compares the views of teachers and pupils, this is ongoing and nearly half of schools have already completed the packs. We are also developing a PSHE toolkit for schools to use.

Furthermore, as a product from the ‘Make Your Mark’ campaign last Autumn, anti-bullying was voted the top priority by the young people of Barnsley. We are currently making progress on an anti-bullying charter and being able to award medals for schools with good anti-bullying policies.

Finally, we have also, at the request of the young people of Barnsley, begun to look at how young people can prove their age when buying age restricted products like DVDs or going to the cinema.

Leeds Charlotte Williams, Youth Representative So far, March has been an exciting month as I had my 11th birthday, but besides that, as Children’s Mayor I took part in ‘The Government Challenge’ to get more women and girls cycling.

We, (girls from other schools in Leeds and I) met two pairs of adults who explained to us that they were competing against each other to find ways to get more women and girls cycling. We answered lots of questions to help them with ideas for their competition pitch. It was fun!

I was also invited to meet with some Head teachers from schools in Lille, Leeds’ twin City in France. They don’t have a Children’s Mayor and were interested to find out more. With Kayleigh Thompson supporting me, I spoke to them about my manifesto and the way Leeds works.

This week I am taking part in the Road Safety Team’s Bikeability programme to make sure that I and the rest of my Year 6 class at school are confident and safe cyclists. We have played lots of games on our bikes to help support us and are going on a bike ride out of the school grounds tomorrow. It’s really good fun and I would recommend it to all children to help encourage them to cycle more.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Overall March has been a fun month and I have no doubt that the rest of the year will be the same.

Ciaran Morrison, Member of Youth Parliament On hearing the people of Leeds had elected me as one of their two deputy members of youth parliament I was thrilled and thankful my campaign had succeeded! I was really satisfied that my hard work had paid off and that I had the support and hence the legitimacy to be a DMYP. The title also of course is a pleasant perk but most importantly I was proud to have the opportunity to represent the views of the young people of Leeds and I now look forward to the opportunities I will have as a DMYP, including meeting new people nationwide and campaigning for the youth of the UK to help bring about and influence change.

My electoral manifesto regards University tuition fees and the financial pressures and burden the youth of the UK currently face. Young people face for example £27 000 for a three year degree before living and social costs yet they wish to be independent, they simply can’t without financial support from the bank or their parents which makes them feel worse, its unnecessary and unfair and I aim to at least influence change and tell counsellors and MP’s and civil servants the thoughts and worries of these people.

In my election campaign, my campaign motto/phrase was together we will influence change and together you and I will influence change!

John Wadsworth, Youth Representative This month the Leeds Youth Council has continued to progress with our campaigns and our mission ‘representing the voice of young people in Leeds’.

We have first and foremost been given an opportunity to organise the agenda for the Children’s Trust Board, the main decision making panel of Councillors, business people and public service officials for young people in Leeds; we have decided to use this opportunity to make sure that the priorities of young people are shared by key decision makers, alongside a number of other groups with whom we are closely linked, we have set about the task of preparing the key issues we would like to see get a hearing.

Our working groups have built up even more momentum over the last two meetings, with the safety working group carefully examining accident statistics as well as working alongside the City Council’s road safety team to examine the reasons behind the headline figures.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories We are of course eager to do everything we can to reduce the deaths of young people on our roads and have continued to make progress in the production of a video and document which will aid secondary schools in delivering effective road safety training.

Simultaneously, the disability working group has made the decision to target young people aged 9-13 in a bid to raise awareness of disability, an issue which they feel is often ignored in this key age bracket. They have continued to explore means of tackling this lack of awareness and are developing a ‘presentation pack’ to help professionals easily raise awareness of the issue.

In our continuing program of consultations, the Youth Council were asked at the beginning of March to gather the views of Young People in their area on the topic of ‘what I would change about Leeds’, this was in order to assist a local filmmaking group prepare a short film which will premiere at the Leeds Art Festival in July. Following this, Youth Councillors were asked to examine how apprenticeship schemes are delivered for themselves and their peers to provide guidance to Leeds’ apprenticeship team.

Katie Ward, 18, Youth Representative This month, I had the privilege of taking part in some filming for ITV on Votes at 16 and also featured on my college website! It was great to hear from a Youth Councillor in North East Lincs, doing some commendable work for ITV, especially spreading the word on Votes at 16.

Also I have been busy working with the Y&H Steering Group, who is working extremely hard to get Hollowford ready. With a variety of workshops available, it looks like a brilliant weekend!

Furthermore, I had the pleasure of travelling to Scunthorpe to meet with their Director of Children’s Services and find out some of the amazing work they have done and what their plan is for the next year. Hopefully, we will be seeing more from them this year. See you all at Hollowford!

Niamh and Miah, Youth Representatives We decided to join the Student LSCB so; we could improve our knowledge on safeguarding, do safeguarding training and have an impact on children and young people’s lives in Leeds. So far we have delivered a presentation, improved on communication and team building skills, conducted a survey and completed safeguarding training.

Furthermore, we are currently working on a campaign to raise awareness for child sexual exploitation (CSE). Overall we are enjoying working as a team and developing new skills. We have met new people and gained more knowledge – which has helped us with our studies.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Nicole Sabau, Member of Youth Parliament I am just so overjoyed I got it into the UKYP. At first I didn’t really think I would get in on the night I was really nervous and hardly thought anyone had voted. But when I found out the results I was over the moon, I was on cloud nine. Even know I find it hard to believe, that I got in.

My manifesto was based mainly on what I felt was most important. I didn’t want to talk about something that everyone was not passionate about. When I wrote my manifesto it came from the heart. Everything I wrote was what I saw fit to help young people, such as myself.

The intentional thought that came into my head when I was elected, was 'this is the start of something amazing''. I see the UKYP as a way of getting ahead in my future political career.

Shamim Miah, Member of Youth Parliament Representing my community, my family, my city has always been a dream of mine. To have been granted the opportunity to go on this great adventure of being an MYP Is an amazing, honourable thought. I have never been as optimistic about the future, as I know that being an MYP will allow me to meet new people and gain knowledge of their experiences and journeys which they have surpassed. Throughout these next two years I feel like it is my responsibility to voice and interact with the young people of today, to find out what is best for their life’s and to make a change for the better.

A law which is coming into play this academic year is that it has been made compulsory for 16-18 Year olds to stay in education.

Based on this my manifesto will focus on other educational options such as the vocational ways: Apprenticeships and BTECS and making the Year 11 students aware of these other educational choices. The reason I have chosen this is because I believe there is little help and guidance provided for students who decide not to study A-levels. After have completing a survey, 75% of my young audience (made up of politics students, youngsters attending youth clubs and the general public) chose this topic to be of most importance.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories I aim to make more local businesses to offer a wider range of apprenticeships, so they can see the benefits on their businesses and the young person .Also I aim to get more training providers to get involved with local business, so that they can work/mentor the young people in the community who may want to do apprenticeships, businesses can train them and give them life advice in that occupation.

Leeds Pathways and Leeds apprenticeship already support this idea of getting people into apprenticeships. There are many deprived inner city areas in Leeds which if more apprenticeships where based in may have significant effect for the better.

Apprenticeships give the ability for young people to earn while they learn, receive training on the job, gain qualifications and learn job specific skills. Many single parent families or first generation education families may not see the significance of going into education, and some children would rather go to work to offer income into the family.

However if the child went into college he/she would not get any income, now that EMA has been cut. Also some families in Leeds are weak financially, and if there child decides they go into college and would like to go to university, it is impossible to go to university because of fee’s which are just too high. Therefore Apprenticeships are much more financially beneficial as they save a lot of money and are an alternative way to receive a qualification. By earning a salary; young people’s families would get out of the poverty cycle and would keep them off the streets but at work. Ultimately lowering the unemployment rates.

In the future I look forward to representing the 180,000 youngsters throughout Leeds, and talking about their best interests to the people who can make the changes needed to make this city a better, safer place for the young people of tomorrow and the next generations of them to come.

Given that Leeds is already a Child Friendly City, I hope that this will work as a platform to prove that Leeds is the best city and the young people within it are the best there possibly can be. I look forward to building friendships with other MYPs from different constitutions and voicing our opinions to them. I hope to fulfil Britain’s promise to leave this generation better than its last.

Prosper Adam, Member of Youth Parliament It had always been a dream that one day, young people will be treated as equals in the work place and an individual’s age will not determine how much income they get.

In this day and age we have managed to do away with all forms of segregation and the next in line should be ageism. This was a forefront of my manifesto, most young people living in Leeds and outside of Leeds

Youth Voice: Positive Stories will agree with me that as young people a factor that limits us are people taken into account our ages when we apply for a job etc. As a young person I felt that I would be the best person to convey this issue as I felt really passionately about it.

I therefore put myself forward and hoped to be short-listed, writing my manifesto was not easy but I found it interesting and as a challenge. I had a lot of ideas of how I wanted to change the lives of young people and the opportunity had finally presented itself. This was a chance for me to actually do something.

The campaign for the voting age to be reduced to include 16 and 17 year old's even-though unsuccessful made young people aware of the importance of having a vote.

They would be part of major decision making like voting for MPs they felt could best represent them in parliament and ultimately the government of the day.

Campaigning was not that easy either but it gave me a chance to put all that theoretical knowledge from school to practice. I went into classrooms of my current school and in different schools and gave short speeches.

I was nervous but I was glad to be able to bring awareness to young people like myself who shared the same views and interests with me.

As I have been elected as a DMYP I am really looking forward to working with other MYPs and DMYPs and seeing what they would like to see change and their ideas of how to bring about these changes I am also anticipating.

The major campaigns we will be involved in both nationally and locally.

North Yorkshire Member of Youth Parliament This month has been a lovely month. Meeting the new Deputy Members of Youth Parliament was a great experience as they are all such a lovely bunch and I think we're going to get a lot done this year, the meeting at the national railway museum was a interesting twist. The meeting was productive and informative, if all meetings go that well this year we're on for a cracker.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Rotherham Toni Paxford, 14, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament We have started writing a constitution and are planning our next campaign.

Ashley Gregory, 15, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament Was elected as DMYP for Rotherham in February 2014 and came into office 1st March 2014. I have had previous experience at UKYP events when I stood in for the MYPs/DMYPs who were I'll at the time, so I attended the 2013 annual sitting in Leeds. I'm happy to now be an elected member of youth parliament and I can't wait to get campaigning with the other three elected members.

We have had two meeting so far, both of which we were introduced to UKYP and what the role involved; we have also begun to draw up a constitution for the Rotherham UKYP. All 4 of us are members of the Rotherham youth Cabinet and we aim to take any issues/opinions they fine onto a more national level.

Our main aims we wish to achieve are: 1) Setting up a sports league between schools in the Rotherham constituency 2) Reducing bullying and promoting peer mentoring schemes 3) Reducing car insurance price for young people 4) Lowering tuition fees 5) Making public transport affordable and safer to use

Sheffield Alex Vesuvio, 16, Member of Youth Parliament Hello, my name is Alex Vesuvio and I am the MYP for East Sheffield. I am a kind and caring person who likes to have a laugh so if you see me, feel free to talk to me about anything that is concerning you and hopefully I can change that for you.

During my term of office, I plan to change Sheffield for the better. I plan to do this by supporting the LGBT community in schools, promoting a greener Sheffield and making roads safer. I hope I have the backing of you to help me change Sheffield for the better.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Northern Ireland Belfast East Beth McDade, 17, Member of Youth Parliament So... I was re-elected to UKYP! Once again I'm thrilled with the prospect of this amazing opportunity once again to do something BIG and moreover, with a years experience behind me, I feel like I can really make a difference this year. So far this month, I met all of the new MYPs. It's weird to think that the old group are gone, but nonetheless I think that this year’s group are just as unique, determined and good craic!

This year, I am determined to achieve the goals which we didn't last year. These include votes at 16 and improved mental health awareness to reduce mental health stigma. Both of which I feel are highly important to our society today.

Yet, although I do have my own manifest issues which I was voted in on, I am excited and enthusiastic about hearing the issues of my constituents which I plan to take on and represent to those who have the power to change any grievances into issues of the past.

Therefore, for the next month I am going to dedicate myself to getting out there, making myself know, meeting with MLAs/ MPs and most importantly- meeting with my constituents to hear their grievances and take them on as my own.

Belfast North Member of Youth Parliament We had our induction meeting there recently and I feel as if it was very insightful. I got the chance to meet with the other elected reps and get to know about them. I briefed the group on my manifesto and how I hoped to achieve the goals set out in it. I have yet to do work but it won't be before long before I do.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Belfast South Perrie Mackeever, 16, Member of Youth Parliament I recently found out I have been elected by the youth in my consistency as their MYP representative.

My campaign is to increase the support network and help given to members of the youth who suffer from mental health illnesses. By increasing the awareness of the topic and getting people to talk about it more, I believe will be the first step in achieving my goal of making dealing with mental health illness a lot easier for the person suffering.

I would like to do this by opening up a space in which members of the youth who suffer from mental health illness can come, by themselves or with friends to interact with other people who go through the same thing as them so they realise they are not the only ones going through a mental health illness and are not alone.

During this month I have met with the other MYP's for Northern Ireland and discussed the roles and regulations of being a MYP. When we met up we all shared our campaign idea while giving each other constructive criticism and tips on how to work towards achieving our campaign.

East Londonderry Tiarnach Kelly, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month I attended the International Women's Day rally in Belfast with several other MYPs. As well as this we had our first UKYP meeting in Belfast where all the MYPs from each constituency got together to discuss their manifesto point and get advice on what to do next.

I also volunteered at the "Celebration of Youth" event in Portstewart where I got to experience firsthand the range of talents present in the area as well as hearing ideas and opinions from various young people on what would make the area much better and a more enjoyable place to live. I look forward to the next UKYP meeting and hearing opinions from more young people in the area next week.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Fermanagh & South Tyrone Hollie Morrison, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month I attended the MYP induction day. This is my first time as an MYP, and as I went to meet everyone, I was dreading it to be honest - but I soon got over it once I met everyone.

Everyone was really friendly and everyone got along. After a couple of Ice-breakers (which sounded awkward at first, but were actually really fun when we played them). We got to know each other, well, we were meant to, but I ended up in a debate ;) Then we went into the boardroom and talked about the goals and got introduced to what UKYP was, and what we did with them.

It was daunting at first, especially when we were told that after summer we were supposed to get 1200 ballots filled out for MYM. Turns out, it's not going to be as bad as I thought. After lunch we talked about our manifesto issues and all offered advice on each others.

All in all, I came out of that 5 hour meeting (getting up at 7am on a Saturday was not a fun experience) feeling like I could actually make some progress with my issues and with some new friends who I can talk to about anything and at anytime. I can't wait for the next meeting: D

Lagan Valley Ryan Simpson, 14, Member of Youth Parliament I have been recently elected by my constituents to represent them on a national stage. So far I have met with my own MP and the Health Minister of Northern Ireland, Edwin Poots.

I attended an inductions meeting with my fellow MYPs so discuss our campaign issues. My campaign issue is for more attention of cycling. EG; more cycle lanes and a functioning government department for cycling.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Newry & Armagh Conor Fegan, 18, Member of Youth Parliament After being successfully elected in February, I had the opportunity to meet fellow MYPs from NI at an induction meeting in Belfast, during which I was officially registered as the MYP for Newry and Armagh.

At the meeting I had the chance to learn about the work of the UKYP including the National Campaign, the 'Make your Mark Campaign' and the Annual Sittings.

We all had the opportunity to speak and debate about our chosen manifesto issues which was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

North Antrim Christopher Harkin, 16, Member of Youth Parliament I was elected and went to the first meeting for the UKYP. There we all met and discussed our campaign issues, and I introduced my campaign on increasing the number of children in Northern Ireland who have access to integrated education.

We also discussed carrying on campaigns from the previous year, and what our roles would involve over the coming year. I have begun to lobby MLA's in my constituency, telling them who I am and about my campaigns and ideas.

I look forward to continuing this over the coming months and hopefully making a real difference in some of the issues I feel passionately about.

South Down Member of Youth Parliament I was elected as MYP for South Down in mid February and from the first of the month it has been my role to represent young people in my constituency. Since then I have attended my first meeting, which was amazing!

Youth Voice: Positive Stories I met all my fellow Northern Irish MYPs who are all lovely! We discussed our own personal campaign ideas which were on our manifestos, as well as talking about the national campaign.

We were told of the upcoming events such as the annual sit!

Member of Youth Parliament I was elected as MYP in mid February and from the first of the month when I had taken up my role of representing young people I have attended my first meeting! This went great! I met all my fellow NI MYPs, and we were told about upcoming events and about the national campaign!

West Tyrone Michelle Hamilton, 16, Member of Youth Parliament In the first month in my role as MYP for West Tyrone, I have been attending Youth Parliament meetings and the induction day and discussing my main manifesto issue to begin my campaigning.

I have also taken part in a rally for International Women's day to begin campaigning and raising awareness as well as my manifesto issue. I have also been in contact with my Youth Council in which I am a member of and have made inquiries about having my campaign issue scheduled for our next meeting to get everyone involved and begin campaigning.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Wales Powys Jack Gillum, 17, Member of Youth Parliament

This month it was the youth select committee officially launched its call for evidence into its new inquiry which is about votes for 16 and 17 year olds in all public elections. I was chosen as the member of the youth select committee for Wales this year.

From being a member of the youth select committee my role has included discussing with other select committee members about the process and potential witnesses. I have also been in contact with potential witness about them providing evidence to the committee. I have also been publicising the call for evidence through many different streams. http://www.byc.org.uk/news/youth-select-committee-call-for-evidence-in-new-inquiry-intolowering-voting-age-to-16.aspx

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Support Worker’s Stories

East of England Hertfordshire Alex Ferguson, Support Worker The HertsUKYP election results are in…

Over the past three weeks, Youth Connexions has supported young people across the county in the elections for district members of Hertfordshire UK Youth Parliament (HertsUKYP). This is the first time each of the ten districts in the county will be represented by a young person elected by their peers in their locality.

Voting closed at midday on Friday 14th February with a final count of 9,300 young people casting their vote. The successful candidates were announced at County Hall on Saturday 1st March with Councillor Richard Roberts, Executive Member for Children’s Services, presenting the certificates.

The new district members of Youth Parliament (MYPS) for Hertfordshire are: Broxbourne Dacorum East Herts Hertsmere Stevenage St Albans Three Rivers North Herts Watford Welwyn Hatfield

Brandon, 15, The John Warner School Ahmed, 15, Tring School Nia, 12, Leventhorpe Academy Charlie, 15, Immanuel College, Bushey Casey, 17, Da Vinci Studio School Leah, 12, Loreto College Emma, 16, St Clement Dane Monica, 14, Knights Templar School Anand, 14, Watford Boys’ Grammar Stephanie, 15, Chancellor’s School

Congratulations to all the candidates who stood in the elections, to Ahmed and Emma in being re-elected by their peers for a second term and to those who are new to the role of representing young people in Hertfordshire.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Yorkshire and Humber Barnsley Karen Lovatt, Support Worker On Saturday 8th March, Barnsley’s Children in Care team, Independent Reviewing Officers, Fostering team & the Children's Rights Service all worked in partnership to ensure that Barnsley’s children & young people in care were given the opportunities to share their experience of their time in care and assist in the development of services. The consultation focused around Life Story, Reviews, Information Packs and what is Important to each child.

On the day 14 young people attended and provided a fantastic opportunity for professionals to hear their views on what works well and what is in need of a shake up.

The event was really successful and those who attended were able to speak openly. The information gathered on the day will help the teams to better understand what children & young people want in their life story books, reviews, information packs and most importantly what is important to those children & young people.

North Yorkshire James Parkes, Support Worker Takeover Week comes to North Yorkshire Here in North Yorkshire we have been inspired by the Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Day, an annual event held each November, and as a result decided to run a ‘Takeover Week’ within the county. The event was organised through the Children and Young People’s Service Voice, Influence and Participation group.

Over the February half term five young people from the Young People’s Council (Children in Care Council), North Yorkshire Youth Council and School Councils had the fantastic opportunity to ‘Takeover’ a variety of senior roles within local police and council services.

The feedback from both the young people and adults was very positive and we have included a summary of the comments within this report. We would like to thank North Yorkshire County

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Council Officers and Councillors and North Yorkshire Police for their participation and look forward to working with them in the future.

The following people were taken over: Pete Dwyer Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services North Yorkshire County Council I got involved with Takeover Week to demonstrate in a real way our true commitment to young people’s engagement.

The experience was really enjoyable and it was great to have conversations directly with young people. We had the opportunity to speak about lots of things from specific issues, work generally and what it’s like for care experienced young people. My young person attended the full North Yorkshire County Council meeting alongside the Directors, and also participated in another meeting regarding the council’s children and young people’s plan, which included an evaluation of child exploitation resources. I look forward to taking part again next year.

Simmone Colmer Chair of Young People’s Council Took over the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services post The experience was amazing; it’s great to get to know people and their job role. It’s an eye opener of what actually goes on behind the scenes. The best bit was having a conversation with Pete and being able to be open about my experiences of the care system. I also experienced a full council meeting and sat at the table with the Directors. The reason I got involved with Takeover Week was because it is a good way of gaining experience, especially shadowing Pete the Director of Children’s Services.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Zoe Bushby Member of the Young People’s Council Took over the role of Lead Member for Children and Young People’s Services I enjoyed the day, I would definitely do this again and if I could I would like to shadow Tony again to find out more about his role. I went to meetings about child exploitation and the children and young people’s plan.

I also had a guided tour of County Hall. I particularly enjoyed speaking directly to the decision makers and would encourage other people to get involved, it’s a great opportunity and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

County Councillor Tony Hall Lead Member for Children and Young People’s Services North Yorkshire County Council I have been a keen supporter of the Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Day and was keen for North Yorkshire to offer this opportunity to our young people. It was great to speak with Zoe and I was pleased she had the opportunity to look around County Hall and meet with fellow Councillors and Officers. I look forward to being involved in future Takeover Days.

Dave Jones Chief Constable North Yorkshire Police Takeover day was first mentioned to me during my visit to the North Yorkshire Youth Council meeting when I first started in my role; I considered it a great initiative and was happy to get involved. The day was a great opportunity for both parties.

The young people had the chance to spend time with myself and other senior officers in North Yorkshire Police including visits to the forensics department, communications unit and intelligence hubs. I was presented with challenging questions from both young people and I look forward to being involved with Takeover Week next year.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories Tim Massie Member of the Young People’s Council Took over the Chief Constable at North Yorkshire Police Takeover Week was really interesting and exciting. I thought the experience was a really rare opportunity to spend time with a senior figure; it was really fascinating.

I got to look at the police clothing and equipment in the warehouse, fingerprinting, looking at plans for the potential new Police Head Quarters, talked to the Chief Constable, and asked his opinions about a separate number for the police (e.g. 111 compared to 999).

The best bit for me was looking at the equipment used by the officers because I’d never been in contact with it before. It was a great opportunity and a really good way to spend some of my half term. I’m so glad I did it. If I could do it again I would like to go out in a patrol car; that would be fantastic!

Police Constable Sara Widdrington Police Youth Officers North Yorkshire Police We are eager for young people to have a positive attitude towards the police, and are keen to build their trust and confidence with the force. Getting involved with Takeover Week helped us to continue to improve our relationship with young people. We had a fantastic day with Colette incorporating Takeover Week in to a ‘Street Safety’ event which was held at The Street, Youth and Community Centre, Scarborough. Colette had the opportunity to spend time with dog handlers, police officers, PCSO’s and other specialists within the emergency services.

Colette Frame Filey Youth Councillor Took over the North Yorkshire Police Youth Officer I had an amazing day and would definitely do it again. I had the chance to spend time with the police, youth service and fire service; I really enjoyed working with the police dog handler. It has helped me to find out more about the police and it’s great to get involved with the community. I would be part of Takeover Week again if I have the chance.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

Sheffield Support Worker On Tuesday 4th March at Sheffield Town Hall, 6 UKYP members and 4 Youth Councillors were elected into Sheffield Youth Cabinet for the next year.

The evening was hosted by The Lord Mayor Cllr Vicky Priestley, Cllr Harry Harpham and Cllr Mazher Iqbal, they talked about the importance of young people’s involvement in the structures and organisations that make decisions about their lives.

Rosettes and certificates were also given to all the successful candidates who I'm really looking forward to working with and supporting in their campaigns.

We also said a big thank you and goodbye to the outgoing UKYP who gave a presentation of their achievements and successes throughout their two years, but it's certainly not the end of their involvement in Youth Voice work as two of them have become Young Advisors, two will continue in their local youth forum and one will stay as part of the PSHE young people’s review team!

The next stage is that 6 young people attend the Regional Induction weekend at Castleton which will be a great weekend, and then on 16th April the 10 new Youth Cabinet members will join the current members of the Youth Cabinet for a team building day. This will consist of workshops for them to get to know each other and plan the next year’s priorities, a lovely lunch and then bowling, I can't wait!

Chiwoniso Mukome, Support Worker North Youth Conference On the 7th of March the North Youth Forum were elated to host their annual North Youth Conference at St Mary’s Conference Centre. The conference is a youth-led event that brings young people from different schools in the North area of the city together and engages them in a series of fun, educational and informative workshops.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

The workshops are selected by young people based on what they perceive as issues in their community and would like to raise awareness on. The day consisted of the following workshops: Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation, Street Doctors and cementing Community Cohesion.

From these workshops young people learnt practical skills on how to save lives when needed the most; such as tending to a stab/gunshot wound, identifying features of exploitative friendships/relationships in contrast with the development of a healthy relationship and the essence of community cohesion-young people learnt that successful communities are built on strong social solidarity.

An interesting observation of the day was how young people put into practice what they had learnt in their workshops; for example students from Fir vale and Yewlands School designed a community cohesion poster and named it Yewvale.

The afternoon was filled with warm giggles as the motivational speaker immersed us in funny yet thought provoking poetry. The motivational speaker encouraged the young people to have high aspirations and reinforced this message by stating that everyone is destined for greatness but to achieve greatness one needs courage, determination and hard work.

The highlight of the day was having our very own X-Factor. I must say this activity was not included in the agenda. During our lunch break a few girls from Yewlands Technology College and Fir Vale School decided to entertain us with a singing contest. It was an entertainment well worth having as the girls’ sang immaculately. As an Involvement Worker, it fills me with great joy to see young people taking charge and organising their own activities.

Overall this was a successful day. It was fulfilling to see young people from different schools and cultural backgrounds working and coming together. From this event we have started brewing a joint potential piece of work with Yewlands Technology College and Fir Vale School.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories

East Midlands Leicester Albert Che, Support Worker Leicester City Council has a New Young People’s Council The Leicester City Young People’s Council seeks to give a voice to young people in Leicester at local level. Members of the Young People’s Council represent the needs and interests of Young people in Leicester by lobbying on their behalf and facilitating dialogue between young people and key decision makers thus, ensuring that young people’s views are taken into account in the decision making process.

March 2014 has just witnessed the election into office, of a new group of young people who will form the next Young people’s Council.

Fifty five young people stood for elections across all the areas of the city, using as their campaign base, various settings and establishments including schools and colleges, youth centres and youth projects, local libraries and adventure playgrounds.

Aspiring candidates registered their interest by submitting a manifesto. Some of the key messages emerging from the young people’s manifestos were: the pledge to listen to the voices of other young people, take their views seriously and advocate for change.

Others highlighted a strong desire to engage with decision makers and represent the views of their peers. Young people said they would like to see an improvement in transport for disabled young people while others wanted work experience to be reintroduced in schools.

The elections were held in various venues across the city to reflect candidate base. Every school/ college, Youth centre local libraries, training providers and adventure playgrounds offered to support by providing a polling station while many of them provided staff to help at the event.

Youth Voice: Positive Stories A record 9,681 young people took part in the elections. Of the fifty young people who stood, Forty candidates were elected and the four highest scoring candidates will represent Leicester at the UK Youth parliament.

Results were announced on the 8th of March at an official ceremony presided over by the City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and senior council officials. The candidates were sworn in on the 10 th of March at a ceremony presided over by Deputy Mayor Councillor Rory palmer.

The whole event was applauded and supported by the City Mayor, elected members of Leicester city council, particularly Councillor Vi Dempster, Assistant City mayor, cabinet lead for Children, Young people and schools Commission and other council officials.

These two days have offered Leicester’s newly elected YPC reps some insight into their roles and responsibilities as well as the exciting opportunities that await them in this role.