HYC February 2010

News February 2010

The newsletter of Haringey Youth Council

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New counc New HYC elected!

On the 14 January 2010 members of the Haringey Youth Council came together to vote for which young people will make up the new HYC cabinet. All the candidates put forward their campaign to convince the voters why they should be elected. The members of the HYC then cast their vote. Here are the winners!

Valerie Okoampah

Gerald Owuso

Female co-chair

Male co-chair

Funmi Abari

Rumare GilbertDillon

Isobel Obeng

Secretary

Treasurer

Environmental Champion

Alimamy Kanu

Akinboyewa

Geanette

Junior champion

Senior champion

There also exists a ‘shadow cabinet’ made of young people – more of what these guys do in the next issue of Exposure!

The co-chairs are the public face of the youth council; the treasurer provides financial reports; the secretary is in charge of the content of council meetings; the environmental champion deals with green matters, and the junior and senior champions represent their respective age groups in Haringey.

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wHYC ncillor Word on the Street

Back in December, over 100 Young people from across Haringey descended on the Bernie Grant Arts Centre to take part in Word on the Street, an event organised, produced and delivered by the councillors of the HYC. The audience quizzed a panel of three young people who sat next to influential adults including Director of Children’s Services, Exposure’s manager, and the Chief Executive of the Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health Trust, about issues affecting young people in Haringey – including mental health, domestic violence, gun & knife crime, young people’s relationships with the Police, and the portrayal of young people in the media.

Also shown at the event was a video made by the HYC councillors.

They went out to speak to the young people of Wood Green to get the ‘Word on the Street’ on issues important in their lives.

A giant ‘ideas board’ was also used at the event to capture the questions and suggestions from the discussion. Live performances by students from The Vale school, a young rapper, and local artist Crazy Harmonica closed the night out on an energetic high.

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Ques time Ques ?

Question time with David Lammy MP

Members of the HYC congregated to grill Tottenham MP and Government Minister for Higher Education, David Lammy.

HYC: Are exams the best way to measure ability or are there better ways to evaluate success?

David Lammy: It’s not an ‘either or’. The evidence suggests that coursework

and work beyond exams tends to favour girls, and so there are gender issues on how you balance education. It’s important to have a standard way of comparing students with other schools and other areas. But exams are not the only way to measure ability, and it’s really important to have coursework and other ways of testing ability.

HYC: Is the price of going to university too high?

David Lammy: No. There is no evidence to back it up. During a government debate in 2004, there were a lot of intelligent people that said that fees would put poorer students off going to university, and I was worried at the time. Four years on the demand for University is up ten percent across the country. In Tottenham the increase in young people going to university is 100%.

The student loan debt isn’t like a credit card debt with huge interest rates. And you don’t have to start paying the loan back until you are earning £15,000 a year; even then the repayments are only around £5 a week.

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estion e ? estion HYC: What have been the global and national implications of the conflict in Iraq, and why did you vote to go to war?

David Lammy: In this country the war was a divisive issue, one that split

those that did not believe in US and UK intervention (in Iraq) without a mandate from the UN with those that did. I have a constituency with a very large Kurdish population, a group of people who were gassed and tortured at Saddam Hussein’s order. I had representations that were pro getting rid of Hussein. No one wants to send people to war. I made my decision on the information available to me at the time. But Iraq has been the most divisive issue in my ten years of politics, but it is one that we must learn from and move beyond.

HYC: You say you want more young people from Haringey

to join the police force, but what is being done to increase trust between the police and young people?

David Lammy: All public authorities have issues with

trust; the police are not unique in this, and it saddens me.

How do we change this when people aren’t willing to join the force? It’s our responsibilities to stand up and say ‘I can make a difference here.’ Thank god that despite the headlines there are still teachers and social workers that want to come and work in Tottenham because they believe they can make a difference. Thank god Nelson Mandela didn’t just think ‘Ah forget it’. We all have a responsibility to say ‘we can make a positive difference.’

HYC: What is your opinion of the negative stereotyping of young people in the national media?

David Lammy: Some of the portrayal of young people in the media is

disgraceful, it fills me with sadness. 70% of the copy that is written about young men is negative. It has something to do with the (lack of) power young people have to counter these stories, because they aren’t journalists. The industry is also driven to sell negative news in order to sell newspapers, which takes away the space to report on the positive things young people are doing. However the rise of the internet, and the fact that people can blog, and that people are now going to many sources for their news, means that some of this terrible stereotyping can come to an end.

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Follo theC Lead Follow the co-leader

An interview with outgoing co-leader Funmi Abari : “It is not possible for someone to help everyone, but everyone can help someone”

How long was your spell as co-leader of the HYC, and what did the role entail?

Sadly, only one year. Each cabinet position has a yearly term.

The role entailed many responsibilities: chairing meetings, ensuring HYC members were attending. I also had to secure links between the youth council and the political leaders of Haringey.

What did you enjoy most about your time as co-leader?

It would have to be organising the Question Time event, Word on the Street. We had roughly 4-5 weeks to plan and deliver the event. In the end we succeeded in getting around 100 young people to attend the event, and that was on a Friday night! The young people grilled a panel of Haringey’s decision makers on important issues such as knife crime and youth in the media.

What were your special achievements of the last year?

The first would have to be making history by being a part of the first group of youth councillors to be allowed to use the House of Commons. I achieved a Jack Petchey ‘Young Achiever’ Award for this, and a sum of money was awarded to my college in my name.

I was also invited to host the London Child Poverty Awards at the Barbican. Additionally, I performed a presentation of one of the youth council’s events at the Barclay’s flagship store (in Piccadilly).

Many other opportunities have come my way as a result of being Co-Leader of the youth council!

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ow eCoader Tell us about your day at the House of Commons and the subsequent media spotlight!

I performed a speech about why tuition fees should not be abolished in the House of Commons, making history as the first non-elected Member of Parliament to speak in the House of Commons. The press really appreciated a young person doing something ‘good’ and the event was widely reported. I was contacted on numerous occasions for interviews and stories. The Guardian Newspaper had even compared my confidence to that of Margaret Thatcher and the Times newspaper suggested I be the first ethnic PM of the UK!

It was truly amazing, and the fact that a young person was the first non-elected member allowed to speak in the House of Commons was even better!

How have you benefited from being a HYC member?

Apart from all the amazing opportunities and achievements, I’ve gained some amazing skills that perhaps other people don’t have. I’ve had so many opportunities to improve my public speaking, leadership skills, organisation, mediation skills, presentation skills, personable skills, and these will give me an advantage in future.

Would you recommend becoming a member of the HYC to other young people?

I wouldn’t recommend it to young people who have no interest in being heard.

But for the rest of the young people (probably most of you) it would be a waste not to get involved with the HYC, especially if they believe that they are not a burden on society, but rather essential to enable progress.

It’s not about wearing a suit. It’s about speaking up for what you believe in and trying to make simple changes that contribute to something greater.

OTHER NEWS: HYC members have voted Health as their theme for 2010. A group of youth councillors are currently working with Young Minds on a mental health awareness campaign. Contact the HYC using the details on the back to find out more.

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News The Haringey Youth Council is open to all young people aged between 11-19 years who live or study in Haringey. You could be a voice for the young people of the borough. You can make positive changes, that benefit the people who live in Haringey, making it a safer, more enjoyable place to be.

Email: youthcouncil@haringey.gov.uk or visit www.youthspace/haringey.gov.uk to get involved or find out more.

Alternatively visit a HYC meeting at the Civic Centre in Wood Green to see for yourself what’s going on:

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HYC News was produced by Haringey Youth Council Media & Marketing Group with help from young people at Exposure.

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