Youth Voice: Positive Stories (December 2014)

Youth Voice: Positive Stories December 2014

Convention 3, Yorkshire and Humber

Youth Voice: Positive Stories A report by youth representatives and the workers that support them December 2014

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

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

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

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Contents Young People’s Stories East Midlands East of England

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London

12

North East

17

North West

18

South East

19

South West

25

West Midlands

34

Yorkshire and Humber

38

Northern Ireland

48

Scotland

49

Support Worker Stories East Midlands

50

East of England

53

North West

56

South East

57

West Midlands

58

Yorkshire and Humber

59

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Young People’s Stories

East Midlands Leicestershire Daria Eckert, 14, Member of Youth Parliament I have had a reasonably productive month. I loved the convention and our Leicestershire residential with the Leicestershire County Youth Council (CYCLe). I learned lots about campaigns and left knowing exactly what to do next. I felt unpowered and supported but also passionate for our campaigns. I have in the meantime emailed my MP Edward Garnier (he has not replied yet) and done a dear Santa with my local youth council (Oadby and Wigston Youth Council) and they have now been posted.

Portia Berry-Kilby, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month I attended the UKYP Convention 3 in Birmingham. It was great to celebrate everyone's achievements with Make Your Mark, as well as being briefed on the Living Wage Campaign. As part of Leicestershire Youth Council, we twinned it with our training residential.

We further prepared for the campaigns and coming day of action. After this residential, I got confirmation from my MP to meet in January to discuss the living wage and arguments both for and against it. Furthermore, I have been invited to go and talk to a group of local Brownies about the work I do. Hopefully, it will encourage them to be more active in their local communities and discover the influence they, as individuals, can have even at such a young age!

Rina Roy, 18, Member of Youth Parliament This month has been fantastic, with lots of different opportunities, from shadowing Nicky Morgan, the UKYP convention, our County Youth Council (CYCLe) residential, getting an award for "Outstanding Role Model 2014" and being invited to the 750th anniversary event marking the start of De Montfort’s Parliament.

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Shadowing Nicky Morgan was an amazing educational opportunity for me. It enabled me to see first hand just how much is involved in being an MP, and that was only for one day, in addition to the major responsibilities she has as government Cabinet member.

We also had our CYCLE residential at Moria Youth hostel, where we worked on issues and campaigns over the two days, including the new living wage and mental health campaigns. We also completed some mystery shopper training and are taking part in mystery shopping services in our area. On the Saturday we went to the BYC convention in Birmingham, where we had to choose different workshops. These included learning more about UKYP and BYC, mental health, forums, workshops and many more. The day was full of fun and learning from each other and bringing ideas forward. It was quite emotional because it was the last convention of the year, and some MYPs were stepping down, so it was upsetting to say goodbye to many great young people who have worked really hard this year and were inspiring to many other young people.

After the convention we headed back to the Moria Youth hostel and put ideas together what steps we were going to take next. We also started writing letters to MPs about supporting us with the campaigns. I have a meeting with Nicky Morgan on 9th January and I will be meeting her and discussing the new campaigns and what she has to say, which I am very excited about and looking forward to. I had an amazing time with the youth council and learnt a lot from the residential. Thank you to my great Youth Workers for the great opportunity.

This month I have also been awarded "Outstanding Role Model 2014" from the community, which was unexpected. It was a proud moment, I was really happy that the community can see what I am doing and support me. This has given me more motivation to do well and be a good MYP and carry on doing good for my community locally and nationally. I have also been invited to 750th anniversary of De Montfort Parliament on the 22nd January, with the speakers of the House of Commons and House of Lords. I am thrilled to be invited, and very excited to be in London again so soon. This month has been very busy and wonderful.

Sian Vincent, 14, Member of Youth Parliament This month I went to BYC's 3rd and final convention for this year during a residential trip with my county youth council (CYCLe). I learned a lot about public speaking and found out about new ways of getting involved with British Youth Council. Things are currently being arranged to set up a Youth Voice (youth council) for my area (North West Leicestershire) and I am now not only a media rep for when we went to the House of Commons, but also for CYCLe. I have a presentation being prepared including interviews and transcripts from the House of Commons debate 2014, soon to be shared and emailed to BYC. Finally, I have done my 'Dear Santa' photo and am trying to get people who I know involved.

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Lincolnshire George Baker, 15, Member of Youth Parliament I have had meetings with 2 schools talking about UKYP what it is and how individuals can make a difference. I have spoken to multiple young people who have needed to use local mental health services in the past, asking them what they think needs changing. I have sent letters to the Leader of the council and local cllr as well as a local MP hoping to organise meeting to discuss the mental health feedback and talk about the living wage and if they can be doing anything to help. I have also made a UKYP living wage promotional video for Lincolnshire use as well as completing the 'I want the living wage because..' Sheets which were then added to various Twitter feeds. I was also a key speaker in the recent House of Lords debate on behalf of UKYP.

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East of England Hertfordshire Member of Youth Parliament In the last week of November I made the decision to quit my job. As a 16 year old I appreciate jobs are few and far between however I felt it was effecting my school work and I didn't think I had a very healthy work and life balance. What stressed me out most of all was the fast pace of the job, also I didn't feel comfortable in the environment. Everyone who works there are lovely people and always said school work comes first, but I think they forgot my age, and what language or implications is or is not appropriate. For example the language used. So I ask this, is there a high rate of youth unemployment because bosses simply don't know how to 'deal' with young people? Or maybe because young people don't feel comfortable in employment? I know I didn't.

Nia, 13, Member of Youth Parliament On the 6th December I attended the third BYC convention of the year in Pimlico. I took a workshop on passing on to our following MYP's, in which we also reflected on everything that we had done in the past year. It was great to see everything we had done collated into one place, it shows that all the work we have done has paid off. It was fantastic to see everybody again, since the Annual Sitting in July. I met a lot of old friends as well as new ones, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout the day.

Monica, 16, Member of Youth Parliament At the end of last month I enjoyed a great opportunity to meet with my local MP, Sir Oliver Heald QC MP, at school along with some other students. I was thrilled to hear he had enjoyed reading the Herts 1125 manifesto and seemed very aware of who we are and what we do. The group focused the discussion quite heavily on transport, as we find this is a problem to and from school. We also spoke about how he had got into politics and his plans for the future. I really enjoyed his visit and hope to speak with him again soon.

Emma, 16, Member of Youth Parliament On Saturday 29th November, Chorleywood Youth Council, with the support of Youth Connexions, held CASA Rocks, which is a music event for young people in the local area that we have been planning for several months.

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Three bands and one soloist performed, all competing for a recording studio session at Youth Point in Watford, provided by Youth Connexions. The Rickmansworth National Citizens Service group also came and sold cakes to raise money for the homeless, and all the leftover refreshments went to the local food bank.

It was a really enjoyable evening, and although we didn't have as many young people attending as we would've liked, it ran really smoothly and we feel that with a new advertising strategy, we could hold the event again with a much bigger audience.

Overall, we were really pleased with how it went, and hope that next time we can organise another event that is even bigger and better!

Stephanie, 16, Member of Youth Parliament Our planet is the only place in the entire universe in which we were meant to be. We were given this beautiful place to call our own, and with this privilege comes responsibility, something abused by our kind.

As a result of our negligence, we have put the beautiful creatures with which we share our planet at risk. Encroachment of land for our own concrete habitats, as well as fuel to provide the energy for our selfish desires has left these creatures vulnerable to extinction. Our actions are inexcusable.

Virunga is Africa's oldest National Park, home to a wealth of the worlds most extraordinary species of wildlife as well as a treasured world heritage location. WWF is fighting to secure its future, by keeping it free from oil exploration.

The campaign was a huge success, involving over 760,000 British people as well as a Draw the line campaign in which I participated. The day was phenomenal. Inspiration flowed as people dedicated to the best future possible United against the treacherous deeds which so nearly became reality. Whilst the campaign was indeed won, the struggle continues to educate and spread the word of the importance of our planets heritage sites.

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I urge you to familiarise yourselves with the beauty of Virunga, and then to imagine the damage, death and destruction which our selfish desires could have caused. I hope that this will be enough to inspire you to get involved in the salvage of out magnificent home.

Brandon, 16, Member of Youth Parliament In Broxbourne we are holding a weeks’ worth of events to celebrate young people and their achievements. It will start with the official opening in the white water Olympic centre and will conclude with and awards ceremony. The week will take place from the 23rd to the 28th February and will include guest speakers, disability sports, arts projects and young people’s debates.

Ahmed, 16, Member of Youth Parliament Earlier this month we had the greatest opportunity given to us. We were invited to attend a Herts Leader’s meeting where the chief executive of Herts County Council, leaders of the council, deputy PCC and leaders of all ten district councils in the county gathered to listen to our presentation about the Herts1125 Young People’s Manifesto. We have never been invited before and so was a real honour to present the work of Herts1125. Those who attended were genuinely interested in the work we'd done, asking lots of questions particularly around mental health and linking our working into the Herts Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). They wanted to get involved even more which is a triumph for us as many local representatives don't go out of their way to get involved. It shows how people are inspired by even the smallest of actions and

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as young people we can make a change, we just have to make the first step and start the ball rolling.

Norfolk Annie Baldwin, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month the Norfolk MYP’s have been working very hard, with a particular focus on gaining more support from our local authority in order to progress with some of the Make Your Mark issues. Kieran Buxton and I presented a report to the Norfolk County Council Children Services Committee, outlining both the national and local results from the Mark Your Mark ballot, but also the way in councillors could best support the Youth Parliament in order to make progress in Norfolk. The report was well received, with particular interest in improving mental health services in Norfolk and also the inconsistency of work experience for young people across the county. The councillors also expressed support for the Youth Parliament, with many encouraging regular meetings and communication between Norfolk Youth Parliament and the Children Services Committee.

Norfolk MYP’s were also invited to attend a Q&A session with Ed Miliband in Great Yarmouth.

Although the primary aim of the day was for the Labour Party to outline their immigration policy, Ed Miliband was very open to questions, spending over an hour answering questions from the public. Three Norfolk MYP’s, including myself, were lucky enough to ask a question, which meant that as a group we were able to ask about the living wage, mental health services and work experience. The questions were well received, with positive answers all round.

Particularly noteworthy was the commitment to increasing the minimum wage for under 18’s, as the increase in the national minimum wage is often discussed, but the wage for under 18’s is regularly ignored. Ed Miliband said that although the under 18 minimum wage would be lower than the national minimum wage in order to provided an incentive to employ young people, the rise would still be in line with any other minimum wage increase. The day was a very exciting opportunity for anyone who was able to attend and one that will not be forgotten quickly.

Peterborough Georgie, 16, Youth Councillor I joined the Youth Council in September. Since then, I have had many exciting opportunities including the chance to train and run for the role of Youth MP in Peterborough and scrutinize the first half of the Peterborough City budget proposal with Councillor John Holdich and Gilian Beasley on behalf of the youth. These opportunities have opened my eyes to the input young people have regarding local and national politics- a specific interest of mine. In addition to this, 10

our Youth Council have worked together to form campaigns about current issues affecting young people- mental health and earning the living wage. Now that these plans are in place, I hope that the Youth Council will be able to carry out these campaigns effectively and bring benefit to the youth of Peterborough.

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London Barnet Louise, 16, Youth Councillor This month I have been working on my project Build! From Bullying and I created a survey and I have been working on anti bullying work shops to run in primary schools around Barnet. The link to my survey is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZDT725Y

Hackney Ife Grillo, 16, Member of Youth Parliament and British Youth Council Vice Chair of Campaigns and Communications In Hackney, we have been focusing on the raise the wage campaign by organising meeting with our MP's and our council.

I have been coordinating a group of going people across London to help with voter registration and that's going well, we currently have signed up 68 young poeple. I also spoke at the Challenge Your Mine conference that happened on the 29th which was to do with aspirations and goals and how to achieve them.

Harrow Zak Wagman, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month I attended Convention 3 in Pimlico, with a group of youth reps from the Harrow Youth Parliament. As usual with BYC Conventions, it was a great day. Despite being slightly late, we were in time to hear a fantastic keynote speaker speak about the work that Spirit of 2012 does, and how to follow your ambitions. During the course of the day, I was lucky enough to be involved in a consultation on democracy and voting; a session for London MYPs about the House of Commons Sitting and the new national campaign (#RaiseTheWage); hear from three fantastic ex-youth reps about what they are doing now; and be part of a session on how to continue with Votes at 16. I also had the chance to catch up with other MYPs I had not seen for

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a while, and overall it was a very good day, and I hope to be able to attend BYC events over the next year again.

Hounslow Dunja Relic, Member of Youth Parliament Convention 3 - the last time some of us would be all together. Me? I got my first taste of being the new Procedures Group member for London. I arrived at 9am and was instantly welcomed into the hustle and bustle of the exclusive team that helps plan the Convention before the big day. It was quiet a surreal experience, being on the other side of the spectrum.

I am not gonna lie, but I was a bit over whelmed by the whole experience but it definitely opened up my eyes to the huge responsibility I would be taking up as PG for London. By the end I felt as though I was running around like a headless chicken and I definitely feel like my nerves got the best of me when I was due to present the afternoon part of the day with Saadia (who did a wonderfully graceful job).

The convention also brilliantly launched our next national campaign: the living wage. I feel as though we have already made progress with various MYPs around London booking meetings with their local MPs (I am still waiting to hear back from mine).

Not only Convention 3, but I had the great privilege of representing the UK Youth Parliament, on ITV News. In the Chanel Isle, Jersey are interested in setting up their own UK Youth Parliament as they realise the importance of young people to participate in politics, and I had the easy job of talking about how amazing we are!

Redbridge Ailish Farrell, 16, Youth Councillor In 2013 young people from Redbridge debated several issues. Redbridge Council allocated the Youth Council and Young Cabinet ÂŁ100K Priorities Fund to spend on the top issues identified from our debate.

Unemployment was voted as one of the priorities in our Youth Debate in 2013. Employment is a concern for young people; work experience was also voted as the top issue in Redbridge in the recent British Youth Council Make Your Mark vote.

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A year on in December 2014, supported by the Priorities Fund, we held an 'Inspiring Your Future' event. The event was developed by a core group; headed by two Young Cabinet Members and included young people and professionals. As young people, we have experienced many career events that are uninspiring and dull. Young people are usually bombarded with information and often come out feeling in a worse position than when they went in. We wanted to create an event that was interactive, inspiring and which provided young people with valuable information. And we did!

The ‘Inspiring Your Future’ event started with a speed mentoring session; young people had the opportunity to speak directly to various professionals from a variety of areas, including everything from the charity sector to engineers.

It was a fast moving session with young people having three minutes to talk to a mentor before moving on to the next one. This meant that young people had the chance to talk to as many people as possible but were not overloaded.

In the second half of the event, there was a variety of 'Taster' sessions. These sessions gave young people an insight into areas of work, so they could learn more about what was required in the work place.

The event ended with an inspiring speaker, Efe Ezekiel, who emphasised the importance of believing in your ability and getting yourself out there. .

I've been with this project from the start and it was really amazing to see it develop from an idea discussed over biscuits to an amazing event. This experience and a lot of the things I have done in Youth Council has given me confidence that I, and other young people can make a difference.

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Wandsworth Wandsworth Youth Council So much for a slothful Christmas, over the last two months the Wandsworth Youth Council have been as busy as a colony of beavers building new dams.

Some of our youth voice escapades include:       

Being involved in the “soft dialogue” process for the Wandsworth Youth Service Contract! A £3 million decision!

Youth Opportunity Fund – granting £25,000 to local youth groups Mental Health youth inspection feedback from decision makers on what actions they are going to take!

Running focus groups with social services and child protection teams to look at how they involve young people in service design and delivery!

Presenting to the Safer Neighbourhood Panel about our work with the Police and young people.

Attended a prestigious event with the Borough Commander at the House of Commons!

Elected a New Chair of the Youth Council (Welcome Imaan Nalla!).

1. Takeover Day This year, the Wandsworth Youth Council organised for 50 young people to Takeover from 40 decision makers as part of the Children’s Commissioner National Takeover Day. Young people took over from decision makers in a variety of jobs within Wandsworth services including the Council, NHS, the Police, the Youth Service and CAMHS. Check out the pix: http://tinyurl.com/WBCTakeoverDay2014Photos Or watch our movie: http://vimeo.com/113689803 2. Police Youth Think Tank 67 young people and squadron of Metropolitan Police Officers collaborated in the largest Police Youth Think Tank ever!

We used this as our opportunity to practice a training sess we have designed for Police Officers.

We want to help them approach young people on the street in a more positive way.

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3. Coming up…

January hosts a wealth of activity for us, including:  Youth Voice Question time, February 10th. Grilling decision makers on policy and engagement with young people. Come and join us, book your place: https://wbcyouthvoiceqt2015.eventbrite.co.uk  A Youth Inspection of a Local Housing Estate.  Consulting on the Sexual Health Stagey for Wandsworth.  YOF 2014 review with heads of service AND plenty of YOF project inspections.  Plus we are up skilling on our interview techniques Follow us @WBCYouthCouncil (Twitter) or @Wandsworth Youth Council (Facebook)

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North East Northumberland Annabelle Cooper, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Towards the end of the month Ewan Kirk (MYP) and I started to create a report for a public transport survey which was conducted through the month of September which gained the views of 699 young people in Northumberland. Once the report is compiled we are going to give the schools, who took part, a copy of the results, and present a copy of the report to council members. In the future we hope young people in the county would have cheaper fares for buses.

Sunderland Brian Terry, 15, Member of Youth Parliament Earlier this month MYPs across the country met with other MYPs from their region to discuss actions regarding their actions for the next year regarding the "Raise the Wage" campaign. We also took part in workshops to help boost our skills and confidence. Of course, Sunderland MYPs and Sunderland Youth Parliament attended to represent Sunderland. In Sunderland itself, we planned our actions regarding "Exam Resits in Maths and English" for the coming year.

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North West Cumbria Will Adams, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament & Youth Councillor Cumbria goes all UKYP! In December 2014, Cumbria held the first-ever UK Youth Parliament elections in the county’s history so that our young people are represented on a national level.

This is the most exciting development since the formation of the first youth council back in 2010, and for the young people who put the funding bid together a massive achievement and success story. With 3 MYPs and 3 DMYPs, the newly-elected members are eagerly looking forward to making real change for young people in Cumbria, the North West and now the UK. We can’t wait to show the rest of the country our plans and work alongside the UKYP on their campaigns for the year.

Liverpool Ciara Brodie, 16, Member of Youth Parliament On 29th December, I travelled to Media City Salford to discuss a new report highlighting youth apathy with politics. This interview was broadcast Live on BBC Breakfast.

It was a very surreal experience and such an incredible experience. Sometimes young people can be used as a token and not taken seriously when talking about politics, but this experience was completely different- and that was the best thing about it! I was discussing, on behalf of young people across the UK, exactly matters to us. And to be able to do on such a prestigious platform was amazing.

We talked about politicians using online platforms, such as social media, to reach out to more young people. We talked about how politicians aren’t affectively engaging with young people, and how this is crucial in the run up to the General Election. We talked about votes at 16, and whether this would engage more young people in politics.

You can find the report that we discussed here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics30620164 and the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4t5a3agqq4

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South East Buckinghamshire Charlotte Tosti, 17, Member of Youth Parliament For our local campaign in Buckinghamshire, MYPs are working to increase voter mobilisation amongst first time voters who are being severely under-represented in general elections. In the last general election, under half of 18-24 year olds cast their ballot and in the more recent European elections this figure was even lower. We have been organising a 'Question Time' style event to take place before the general elections in which first time voters from Buckinghamshire and young people voting in future elections will be able to interact with politicians and understand what each party can deliver to them. Thus far, we have been in contact with several politicians, some of them cabinet and shadow cabinet ministers, who are working with us towards this event. We hope that it shall encourage greater representation of young people from Buckinghamshire in the election and encourage more young voters across the country to value in political participation.

Brighton & Hove Thomas Soud, 17, Member of Youth Parliament During this Month my work as an MYP has consisted in organising and running the Sussex Voice Convention at Sussex University on the 13th of December.

The aim of the convention was to improve networking with the local Youth Councils across Sussex and to improve Youth Voice in Sussex as a whole.

The convention had over 30 attendees from many different Youth Voice organisations across the region.

The morning sessions of the convention consisted of the Sussex Voice forums which were indepth discussions held on a variety of issues including campaigning on Mental Health, Campaigning on Transport, How to Build a Youth Council and Campaigning on Education. For these panels we had guest speakers from Health watch, the director of Brighton and Hove Buses, workers from local Youth Councils and local head teachers as well as a variety of Youth reps across the Country.

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In the afternoon we had a series of sessions looking at how Sussex Voice should run as an organisation, we had a debate and vote on the Sussex Voice campaign and Caroline Lucas MP as a guest speaker. Overall, the event was a success and has put us on a good footing for expanding Sussex Voice as an organisation capable of developing Youth Voice across Sussex.

The Sussex Voice Team photo includes (from Left to Right): Alex Boyle (Youth Mayor of Brighton and Hove) Harry Elphick (MYP for East Sussex) Caroline Lucas (MP for Brighton and Hove) Thomas Soud (MYP for Brighton and Hove) Paddy Stewart (MYP For East Sussex) Kelly Blamer (MYP for West Sussex) Alexis Orias (MYP for West Sussex)

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East Sussex Harry Elphick, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Back on June 27th this year, as I was boarding a train, Thomas Soud asked if I wanted to be involved in a project linking youth voice across Sussex. I was told we would plan a conference that year to kick it all off. A team of six people did just that, launching Sussex Voice (SXV) on the 13th of December 2014. I'd actually like to take a moment to thank those people (Alex Boyle, Thomas Soud, Kelly Balmer, Alexis Orias and Paddy Stewart) as well as Sussex University because it would never have happened without them.

Sometime this year Beth Burchett and I were looking for a local youth voice group to attend and found we didn't have one terribly locally so we decided to set one up. With the help of our wonderfully supportive council we have now got our first applicants to the council.

I also attended a meeting to review tenders and give a young person's input on which company should redesign the East Sussex County Council website for young people - connexions360. I have also contacted my MP about campaign day and am arranging a meeting with him currently.

Isle of Wight Will Matthews, 16, Member of Youth Parliament Living Wage Campaign! Met with Leader of Isle of Wight Council who was incredibly supportive and invited me into his office (he even said I was better than the real MP!). They voted in the Full Council meeting to pay the living wage to all employees and contractors by 2017.

We had pictures taken on the roof overlooking the island and they were shared on the council's social media. Met with the local MP who confirmed he already pays above the living wage to his 9 employees.

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Kent Angel Layer, 17, Youth Councillor After the hype of November, December has been getting our new campaign of Living Wage up and running. I have been emailing my local councillors and my MP and have managed to get them to attend a meeting in mid January to discuss the living wage and UK Youth Parliament's new campaign which is exciting! As well as that we also had the final convention of the year which was productive as we discussed what occurred this year and how it can get better in 2015!

West Sussex Kelly Balmer, 14, Member of Youth Parliament On Saturday 6th December myself and members of the Worthing Youth Council headed up to London for the BYC Convention 3. It was a brilliant and a extremely productive day. As a Member of UK Youth Parliament, I split off in to the region of the South East and all the MYP's spoke about, planned and bounced ideas off each other as to how we as UK Youth Parliament could campaign on our secondary campaign - the living wage . We were then all directed on how to contact our MP's, Councillors and other Employers and Contractors about signing up to aspire to be a Living wage employer or contractor, justifying that they are one or that they agree that everyone should be paid the Living wage.

It was a fantastic convention and here are some quotes from the other young people I attended the event with.

"Another great even with some new useful and engaging workshops. I still think it's great as the chairperson of the Worthing Youth Council to be involved in this excellent well-organised national collection of Youth Councils and MYP's" - David Price, Chairman for Worthing Youth Council "I felt especially passionate about the Government consultation topic today - voting is the perfect topic for a politically engaged group of young people such as ourselves. Overall the day was good." - Jenny Hirst

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As a MYP I took part of a team of 6 to organise the Sussex Voice Convention at Sussex

University on the 13th of December. Sussex Voice aims to improve the networking with the local Youth Councils / organisations across Sussex and to improve Youth Voice in Sussex by making it stronger.

We held different workshops through out the morning such as: - An Education Panel, A Mental Health Panel, How to Build a Youth Council Panel and A Campaign on Transport Panel These Panels were all chaired by one of the Sussex Voice Team and had panellists on them such as Healthwatch, the director of Brighton and Hove Buses, workers from local Youth Councils, workers from local Youth Councils and a range of Youth reps from across the country.

As we moved on to the afternoon we ran workshops on a more, Sussex Voice focus side. We looked at how Sussex Voice should run as an organisation, which parts of our constitution should be adjusted and what our aims should be.

Afterwards we headed down to the Sussex University's lecture hall were a heated debate took place about what would be our campaign in the next year. The topics which we debated on where: Transport, Education, Mental Health, Living Wage and Work experience. Many views

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were expressed and lots of ideas were shared. the young people were then asked to vote for which topic will be our campaign next year; coming out top Education.

Then finally we invited up our Guest speaker Caroline Lucas MP for Brighton and Hove who gave an interesting and motivating speech.

Overall the day went really well, bring youth groups and getting them to interact with each other went smoothly, if anything was to be improved it would simply be numbers being raised by giving enough time for people to sign up for the convention.

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South West Bath and North East Somerset Ed Joseph, 17, Member of Youth Parliament In the month of December, aside from Christmas Shopping – It was a busy one! I met with the Labour Candidate for North East Somerset whom I discussed the living wage with and an improvement for mental health services. He is a fan of the curriculum for life, so I gave him a pack which explains the campaign and then I explained what he could do to help.

Soon after, I met with the Keynsham Youth Council which I played a role in igniting – we discussed the video that has been made promoting us and are getting closer to entering schools to run elections for the youth council. We look forward to it. Then I was invited to a small private event with Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister. When I met Clegg we discussed the living wage campaign - which he said was not something that could be done overnight otherwise it would put us back where we were 6 years ago and he kept questioning whether it was voluntary or mandatory. Perhaps we should promote the voluntary and not campaign for mandatory. We then spoke about an improvement to mental health services which he basically said is really important and is already a lib-dem policy.

It then turned out that the nice old man trying to work out how to use my phone to take a picture was member of the House of Lords, Lord Strasbourger. I enquired with him about how he would vote if a bill on votes at 16 was to enter his house - but of course being a lib-dem he would vote in favour of it. I then had a Youth Forum meeting and fed back to them about it. I then met with the Green candidate for North East Somerset, Gordon Ingram, who knew a little but wanted to know more about the problems young people faced in the area he wishes to become MP of. I raised the issues of Transport, Internet, Mental Health services, and the need for a living wage and a curriculum for life. He looks forward to working with me on these in the future and I passed on all information about a curriculum for life and what it teaches.

Next I met the Lib-Dem candidate Wera Hobhouse and ‘grilled’ her. She had a great knowledge of Mental Health services and agreed progress must be made. She suggested I organise a day of mental health improvement across all my schools – to raise awareness of the campaign and to teach students about mental health. I then met with the very nice UKIP Candidate for Bath, Julian Deverell, for a lovely organic lunch in the chapel arts café, Bath. We spoke about my campaign to raise awareness of politics to young people in Bath and North East Somerset. We concluded that I should request the chairmen/women of the B&NES youth wings to write manifesto’s appropriate for young people with their young party members. I then went on to 25

meet local MP Jacob Rees-Mogg where we discussed the living wage, mental health campaigns and the curriculum for life campaign. We also spoke about internet, transport and green energy. Much knowledge was gained on both our parts from this meeting. The primary reason for meeting all these candidates is because I am organising a hustings at my school in the 14th April where students can ask questions to candidates and they can debate the answer. All candidates replied positively and 3 have accepted the invitation. Most notably Jacob ReesMogg MP. A delicious meal with the Big Local group was had in Westfield, North East Somerset, where I enjoyed three courses and a good chat with local radio host, Dom Chambers. We discussed getting me on the air and me helping him find supporters of Simon Selby, a cyber-bullying fighter who is being nominated for an award. I also went on a youth forum Christmas Social where we all bonded away from politics/campaigning and enjoyed a Jimmy Spices buffet. I then bumped into a group of sixth form history students at one of my Universities, who asked to have a group picture with me. This was a great opportunity to promote my campaigns and get their opinions/advice. Next I met with Cllr. Nathan Hartley, who discussed with me my future press releases and the best course of action for all the information given from my meetings. After meeting Nathan Hartley I went home and got my cake, then spent 4 hours selling jacket potatoes, cakes, tea and coffee for a charity called the Burundi Education Foundation which I am a trustee of. This helped fundraise over £560 for the charity.

I also went to an Equality meeting where we discussed the big day we will hold on the 17th April to inspire the B&NES E-Teams to promote equality. We were hoping to get in some inspirational speakers and invite members from each school to come. We would then run world café which is an open thing space where people can discuss what they thing needs to be discussed – no set agenda. Finally on the 22nd of December, we have a UKYP South West convention where we planned our 24th Jan action day and took pictures explaining why we want to have a living wage this Christmas and what exactly the plans for the mental health campaign were. We also enjoyed an educational quiz from Jess Elms.

Jasmine Hearn and Netta Claydon, Members of BANES Youth Forum Recently on social media we found out about a protest march on in London called reclaim the night. Some people reading this may have heard about it or even attended it. It’s a march in protest of sexual (and general) violence against women, and it’s an exclusively female march.

There were over 1000 women there, of all ages. On the evening of Saturday, November 22nd, we went to London and marched from Whitehall Place through Trafalgar Square, Totten Court Road, and Charing Cross, to Camden and St. Pancras. During the march, there were police escorts on horses, stopping huge amounts of traffic and blocking off roads for us to march down. We lead a number of call and response style chants, such as “Hey!” (“Hey!”) “Ho!” (“Ho!”) “Sexual violence has got to go!” and “2, 4, 6, 8, no more violence, no more rape!”

Sometimes, we would be the only ones in the group leading the chants, which was really cool

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because so many people would repeat after us. There was a huge amount of support as we marched, with people taking photos and videos to post on social media, and we would walk down streets with people leaning out of windows on every floor to support us. It was a really enjoyable experience and we hope to attend more marches in the future. We would definitely encourage other people to go on marches and we feel it’s a very influential, passionate event! If you feel passionately about something, marches are a good place to express that!

Bristol Rowan Gibby, 14, Youth Councillor In the last month, I have attended several meetings of the Bristol City Youth Council, covering a wide range of subjects, which ranged from a consultation on the Library service to discussions about the provision of school places in Bristol. On top of this, I have been preparing for the Bristol Big Youth Vote, which takesplace in January, and enjoying the festive period with my family!

Theo Davies, 14, Member of Youth Parliament Since returning from te House of Commons debate in November, I have been researching our devolved campaign, Mental Health provision, in and around the Bristol Area. I have also been preparing for the Bristol Big Youth Vote, the upcoming reelection ballot in Bristol. The Bristol Youth Parliament delegation have fed back the findings from the HoC debate to the Youth Mayors, who will take our feedback to Bristol's Mayor, George Ferguson.

Dorset Grace Hill, 12, Youth Councillor This month, I was unable to attend this months DYCE meeting, however, I did attend the Southwest Regional Convention where we discussed in an 'I agree/I disagree' game whether, 16 year olds and 17 year olds should be allowed to vote, if it should be compulsory to vote, should voting be online, whether a 'none of the above' section should be added to ballot papers, if it should be compulsory that you are registered to vote and its more things along that basis. Also, at the convention, we sat in on a talk about cyber bullying and fixers, linked into this we did an activity where we had to list as many social media and networking sites as possible, in my team we found over 70! We also put why everybody working over the age of 16 should get the living wage, we had to write this down on a poster.

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Grace van Zyl, 14, Member of Youth Parliament So this month you hopefully would have heard of UK Youth Parliament's campaign called Raise The Wage. To support this I have contacted my local MP and County Council to have a meeting to discuss this. Unfortunately I haven't heard back from my MP but have had the 'all clear' from DCC (Dorset County Council). In February myself and a team of other young people will be travelling around Dorset and recruiting businesses for my own campaign... the Max Card. I am also working with a team of young people and the Fixers charity to help break down barriers between young people and bus drivers.

Jack Dunne, 16, Member of Youth Parliament Candidate “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” everyone said as I walked into the regional meeting on the 22nd December. The day was an activity packed day with MYP’s, Candidates and others all joining in with listening to Youth Workers about projects that some of us were involved and what was being done about Cyber Bulling. We also involved ourselves with an agree-disagree game about voting. This game/activity consisted of us saying whether we think votes for 16 year olds would be beneficial or not to whether the UK should adopt a new method of voting registration and allow online voting. A fantastic lunch followed but whilst we were eating we all wrote “Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like the living wage because…” this activity allowed an incite into the minds of the MYP’s and other Youth Workers/Representatives. The afternoon was taking up by awarding MYP’s with mugs and certificates, plus a signed photo of John Bercow, MP. At this time I took lots of photos for Dawn and helped finish off the food with the other Jack. After awards and photos everyone got involved with an end of year quiz, which was great fun. From politics to general knowledge it was a brilliant quiz. Unfortunately the team I was playing with didn’t win and narrowly missed first and second place but that doesn’t matter because I’m not bitter. But the other teams were cheating. At the start of the month I went to the DYCE monthly meeting were the committee talked about the NHS and the youth, plus current projects and how we were going to get the message out to the public and our target audience. One of the projects was ‘How to behave on a bus’. I came up with the idea of doing a film in the style of the Peep show, where we film from the perspectives of the bus driver and the student and voice their thoughts and feelings. So that was my month with helping out and joining in with UK Youth Parliament and DYCE stuff. I hope you have had a great Christmas and I hope you have a Happy New Year.

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James Jones, 14, Member of Youth Parliament This month I attended the Southwest Regional meeting on Monday 22nd December. It was a great and successful meeting where we discussed about the new progress made about the national campaigns, for example the raise the wage campaign where “the national minimum wage should be raised in line with the living wage, as calculated by the centre for research in social policy, in order to guarantee workers the decent standard of living they deserve�. Over 175,000 young people voted for this campaign on by the MYM national vote. To start the campaign, we required to contact our MP's and councillors, asking to arrange a meeting with them and hopefully discuss the campaign topics. Another campaign is to use media over the cause of Christmas to spread the #raisethewage #livingwage with a christmas letter to Santa. which will help positvly spread our campaigns. I have already sent my email to my MP and it is still early for a reply. My next step are to carry on with this campaign over the cause of the month: contact councillors...

Sarah Trott, 12, Youth Councillor This month has been quiet but busy at the same time. On Thursday the 4th I attended my second DYCE meeting where we discussed making a workshop booklet to help improve relationships between young people and bus drivers. My school is planning on running a day for young people and their school bus drivers which I as a member of the schools student voice am a part of planning, although that is not related to the work DYCE is doing. We also had a visitor from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group who wanted young peoples opinions on the NHS and how it is run. Some very interesting points were raised and I hope to become more involved with this project in the coming months. Today I've just got back from the South West Regional Convention which was an amazing day. It was great to meet so many other young people who are MYPs or members of youth councils and many interesting conversations took place.

Poole Francesca Reed, 18, Member of Youth Parliament Its been another incredibly busy and exciting month! To begin with, as a result of Poole's fantastic turnout in Youth Parliament's Make Your Mark Ballot of 37%, (which was double last years turnout), I was invited to attend a lunch in the Cabinet Office with the Minister for Civil Society; Rob Wilson MP and 11 other MYPs from around the country to celebrate the Make Your Mark success and discuss the voice of young people in politics. It was a huge privilege and a fantastic day! On the 6th of December I attended a training day in London with the Mental Health Charity Young Minds as I have recently become a HeadStarter. HeadStart is a national

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programme from the Big Lottery to help young people aged 10-14 cope better with the pressures they face, and as a Headstarter I will be involved in shaping the HeadStart Programme and will help to train other young people and adults, go events to spread the word about HeadStart and help create resources. On a local level, myself and my Deputy Thomas have been busy making progress with our youth opportunities voucher booklet which we are currently designing, we hope to have it printed and ready for distribution in schools and youth centres in February. We have secured a number of exciting opportunities for young people to experience for free such as a free swim and sporting opportunities. Furthermore, I was also invited to be on the panel for Poole's State of the Area Debate, during which I was questioned alongside local business owners, Councillors and headteachers around how we can raise aspirations in Poole, particularly for young people. I also attended the British Youth Council's South West Convention in Taunton on the 22nd of December, during which we discussed our initial tasks to make progress with Youth Parliament's new campaigns for the year ahead; Raise the Wage and Mental Health. We also had two brilliant workshops, one surrounding tackling Cyber Bullying and another about the work of the BYC and how the organisation works. It was wonderful to catch up with the other MYPs and youth representatives from the South West and find out what they have been up to in their local areas. The day was concluded with a festive Christmas Quiz and of course chocolate prizes!

Thomas Rowledge, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament December has been a very exciting month for us, as we approach the end of this term in UKYP. One of the more exciting projects is really beginning to take shape now, following the success of our mental health work in poole this year, the youth opportunity voucher booklet has kicked off with a bang. Having successfully acquired 12 vouchers for our booklet we are now approaching the design and printing stage, with plans to begin distribution of the booklets on the 6th February. In addition to the work on local projects, december marks the last regional meeting I will have as my time as DMYP. This is alway an exciting time to network with other people and learn about what they have been working on, in order for us to improve our projects, even getting new ideas as to how benefit the local community. We had several really helpful workshops; on everything from the 2015 elections to the structure of the BYC (the company that oversees the UKYP). December has been a very successful month and looking forward to the rest of the time left in UKYP!

Somerset Ellen Collard, 18, Member of Youth Parliament Its been a busy month rounding off our final campaign aims for the arrival of new members of Youth Parliament. It has been a great time to reflect on the hard work over the year, but also how much we've all developed as young people wanting to make a difference.

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Thrinayani Ramakrishnan, 17, Member of Youth Parliament During this month I attended the BYC South West convention and attended workshops on how to get started on the living wage campaign that we voted for as UK Youth Parliament (at the House of Commons debate) and how to contact MP's, councillors and local youth groups about the issue. During the convention I also wrote about why we should strive towards implementing a living wage and posted the message on social media networks so awareness can be raised about the living wage and why I am campaigning towards this with UKYP. I have also written an article about about my experience of speaking in the chamber of the House of Commons which got published in my school newsletter and I have also spoken about my experience to young people at my school and raised awareness about UK Youth Parliament as well as how to get involved!

Swindon Deputy Member of Youth Parliament I didn't attend the youth meeting due to cost and transport. I have been working to contact people to arrange a raise the wage meeting. It's been a great year and it's fun to be part of this.

I hope to continue this work next year

Torbay Isaac Frewin, 17, Member of Youth Parliament In November, I went to the House of Commons annual sitting to represent the 12,000 young people in Torbay. It was an absolute honor to take part in a debate where so many great MPs have done so over the decades. It was also great to hear so many inspirational speeches from fellow MYPs from around the country and from several MPs themselves. This month we have already had a meeting with members from Healthwatch Torbay - an independent health organisation operating in Torbay - to discuss how we can approach and work on the UKYP Mental Health national campaign. We have also come up with the concept of a young person's 'go-to leaflet' for all the mental health groups and charities in the local area. As well as this, we are all very excited to be on the very edge of completing our Torbay Youth Discount Card local campaign (which has been ongoing for almost two years now). The card will be available for ÂŁ5 and will offer all holders a discount on prices of good and services from a wide range of local businesses. However, this is not all! We are now in the build-up stage to our election period

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and are busy giving assemblies and handing out application forms. Whilst it's only been a few weeks, we already have an astonishing number of applicants: 30 candidates have already put themselves forward, which is well above the 7 applicants that we had last year! So, all in all, it's been a very busy period for us at Torbay Youth Parliament and it is set to get even more hectic as we approach election week in the new year.

Sam McCarthy, 17, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament We had the pleasure to meet with various mental health-care professionals and discussed with them, the possibility of a campaign to improve awareness of mental health among young people, primarily through a new leaflet specifically aimed at young people clearly, but in a friendly manner, detailing where to go if you think someone you know is suffering from an illness, or for the individual themselves! Thanks to these expert's contacts we have been able to contact other local groups in Torbay and nationally (young minds) and hope to be part of a campaign to deal with young peoples' mental health problems effectively. A date has been set for our meeting with local decision makers to discuss the living wage as well as other burning questions. Our election drive is still too truly begin yet we have received 30 nominations to join UKYP already; thanks to our teacher nomination scheme. We hope when the real advertising gets under way in January that we could have a very successful election campaign to properly represent the young people in the Bay. Ohhh and Merry Christmas!!

Wiltshire Chloe Lintern, 16, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament & Youth Councillor On the 22nd of December I attended the reigional convention in Taunton where we pledged to Santa why we would like the living wage for Christmas this year. We also looked at a consultation on constitution reform and ways of voting. We also had a session run on BYC membership and how to get the most from the membership. An Ex MYP came to speak to us about his organisation and fixers project that he ran about bullying and the workshops that he had created around this topic. We finished the day with a Quiz made by Jess, around everything from politics to Christmas which was a nice way to end the day. Overall It was a really good and enjoyable day. I also have emailed my MP's and leader of the council about a raise the wage meeting however they are yet to reply, and so I will be keepiing an eye out on my emails to get that meeting sorted asap

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Courtney Pickering, 16, Member of Youth Parliament This month we have been preparing for our national campaign on Living Wage. We have been contacting our local MP's and Council Leaders to arrange a meeting as close as possible to our day of action on the 24th January. I also attended our regional South West convention, during this we discussed our day of action and checked we knew about the new national campaign.

We also had a talk from a previous Member of the UK Youth Parliament who did a project with Fixers on Cyber Bulling and how to prevent it. He produced a Cyber Bullying workshop booklet for people wanting to teach about the subject. Finally many of us were awarded our certificate for attending the debate at the House of Commons. We also received a signed photograph of John Bercow.

Jordan Green, 14, Member of Youth Parliament On the 22nd of december we held a regional meeting for UKYP we spoke about living wage and we have all contacted our local MPs to have a meeting around the 24th of january.It is my last term as I have to stand down but I am restanding and will try my hardest to become part of the UKYP again and do all the experiences again.

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West Midlands Birmingham Ciara O'Donoghue, 16, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament On the 2nd November four members of UKYP Birmingham, including myself, attended a youth summit at Tally ho, a police training centre. We started off with a meal which provided a great opportunity to get to know the rest of the people on our table which included many high ranking officers. After that we got onto the main event- the announcement of the new Youth Crime Commissioners which included our own Alia Khan who will be working alongside another Birmingham member, Gabriel. The night also consisted of talks from all the highest ranking officers including speeches from the older Youth Commissioners. I found the chats enlightening and helped me broaden my understanding not only the role of Youth Commissioners but also what’s being done currently within the city. The evening was made even more enjoyable by the addition of many MYPs and DMYPs, many of whom I know. The night then concluded with what was probably the most important discussion- what about the future? And what will our role as youth be in it? This poignant question was a fitting end to the evening but not before the evening entertainment in the form of an amazing singer who sung us all out to Bonfire Night.

The event was certainly helpful for both all the youth in the room but also all the police in the room.

Sam Holmes, 18, Member of Youth Parliament This month Birmingham city council hosted its big conference on devolution ‘Highbury 4’. This was an invite only event for people from all three sectors. The aim of it was to set out how the citizens of Birmingham want the city to exist in the future, and how they want devolution to occur. With over 25% of Birmingham’s population under 18, it was important that there were some young people there to make it clear how it affected our lives, and that we were. Three members of the UK Youth Parliament from Birmingham, as well as the Youth Police and Crime commissioner went along. The event was not exactly interesting for young people, but I suppose that is part of the UKYP role: representing young people where young people wouldn’t normally be heard. Despite the at times boring nature of the talk, it was a very much rewarding day. UKYP members raised how public transport and local services could be better coordinated in order to suit young people, as well as crucially encouraging the council to create more easy ways for young people to find out information and contribute to debates, raising social media as a suggested medium. Devolution is going to change the UK, and particularly major cities like Birmingham if the ‘metro mayors’ plan goes ahead. It was vital that young people were considered in the planning process. Even if it wasn’t the most trilling day for the four of us who

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went, it was certainly worthwhile, and we hope to see some of our ideas influence the way Birmingham changes in the coming years, hopefully acuminating that under 18 25% of its population better.

Dudley Ashantai Binns, 14, Youth Councillor On Monday, 8th December 2014, I went along to DYC’s Candidate Day! I went along as I would like to be re-elected to DYC or UKYP. The elections are taking place in January and this was a day where any young people who are interested could find out more about what is involved in being a youth councillor or UK Youth Parliament representative. First we were put into groups and then took part in a range of activities to get to know each other. At the end of teh day we decided if we wanted to be stand as candidates. I thought the whole day was fabulous.

Becky Foster, 14, Youth Councillor Along with other MYP's, DMYP's, and other youth representations from the Midlands, I attended the byc convention in Birmingham. To me this was an absolute pleasure to attend because I had never been to one before, and I do hope to attend another one. I took part in 2 workshops: one about speech and writing, where we idenrifled through group and personal work what the main features of speech are and how to convey one correctly in order to make it as effective as possible. The second was called 'pass it on'. During this a group of us took part in activities which reflected on what we've done as induviduals and as a youth council. We then identified the skills we've developed during our term of office and how they have improved us as young people. After that we met baroness Kids on, who answered some questions for is.

We then went off into groups and took part in discussions. The group I was in took part in some discussions on controversial topics and why we may agree/disagree with them. The final part of the convention consisted of collecting Make your Mark awards (a mug) for those who collected over 1000 ballots, which I was delighted to have a cuppa out of after arriving home!

As a youth council we have also been working on our 'zero tollerance to bullying' campaign recently, and are planning our annual awards ceremony which is held each year to commemorate young people who have been nominated for doing good throughout the year, including inspiration people, people who do good in the community and at school, young people who volunteer, young people who are artistic and entertaining or sporty or adults who do good for young people.

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Carys Hill, 17, Youth Councillor I am Carys Hill aged 17 and a Youth Councillor. As a part of the Youth Forum for Stourbridge, we ran a borough wide campaign into positive image amongst young people ages 12-18. The campaign aimed to discourage negative stereotypes within boys and girls and encourage a higher self image within the community. We did this by sending posters into secondary schools and colleges, as well as personally doing interviews with radio stations – Heart FM, Free Radio and Capital FM. The project was also featured in newspapers in the Stourbridge and the surrounding area. I was team leader of the campaign and this meant that I gained a greater ability at organisation as well as greatly increasing my confidence. Overall I feel the experience was worthwhile to everyone involved and made a positive improvement to society.

Emily Baker, 13, Youth Councillor At the moment we’re organising our annual awards night for the Dudley Youth Awards, where we celebrate young people in our area who have made a difference in the community. This is my first year on the Youth Council, and simply having the chance to organise events like this is incredible. Hearing the stories of what young people in my area have done has inspired me to try and do more to benefit other in my community.

Staffordshire Megan Collins, 16, Member of Youth Parliament On December 2nd, representatives from Staffordshire's Youth Action Kouncil (YAK) had a meeting with commissioners for children's wellbeing to discuss changes to the health service.

Their proposals, which would be introduced in July 2015, would reform what is currently known as the 'school nurse system'. When they first met two weeks before, members of YAK helped to create a questionnaire for young people about what they would like the health system to look like. They then went away to get responses from young people for the next meeting. With these responses in mind, they fed back to the commissioners about what the service should provide, ranging from first aid to sexual and mental health in conjunction to the UK Youth Parliament's campaign. The commissioners were amazed at the group and have asked for further input in the decision making process. The young people also really enjoyed getting involved: Sophie, a member of YAK said, 'This was an extremely productive meeting and I hope that our suggestions will benefit the lives of young people in Staffordshire' Convention 3 success! Reprentatives of YAK attended the third BYC convention of the year on December 6th.

There were many workshops including a speech writing, designing and active workshop as well as the UKYP meetings and opportunities for networking. We also had the amazing opportunity to have a Q&A session with film director Baroness Kidron and government consultations on

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voting reforms. Clarke from YAK said, 'Another very successful BYC convention; I was really inspired by the work of Baroness Kidron and can't wait to get started on the Raise the Wage campaign by writing to MP's and local councillors!' Although it was very sad that it was the last convention for many people, there's still a lot of work to be done.

Worcestershire Member of Youth Parliament Craig Bateman's comments on his experience with Step Up to Serve: I went to the Indigo at the O2 alongside 49 other #iWill Ambassadors to the Cabinet Office Step Up to Serve Campaign. The first year anniversary event saw the launch of the ambassadors, video speeches from HRH The Prince of Wales, the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition who pledged to work cross-party to engage young people to get involved in social action. There was also a speech from the Minister for Civil Society. At the O2, the 50 #iWill Ambassadors met with over 400 NGO's including Sky, British Gas, NCS, the Boys' Brigade and the Scouts to discuss plans for engaging young people in social action amongst the voluntary, education and business sectors. The Step Up to Serve Campaign, which was launched by HRH the Prince of Wales and the three main party leaders in 2011, aims to make social action the norm for young people by 2020. I have have made an #iWill pledge to continuing working cross-party and multi-agency to ensure that young people have a voice, influence and place in society. As such, I am working with Wyre Forest District Council to set up a District Youth Council and Young People's Mayor which will operate as the Wyre Forest's platform for inter-organisational and community young people's collaboration

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Yorkshire and Humber Barnsley Anton Dobson, 14, Deputy Member of Youth Parliament So anti bullying i am aware that my schools should be working on it but i do know about my school and here are the plans; • writing an anti bullying policy • holding anti bullying week • putting the anti bullying charter into place which Barnsley youth council put together and used our innovation to do this and also one school was interested in doing a peaceful protest to stop this and they needed a letter of support and also a letter about why we should do this. If you have any other ideas please could you email me via; antonxdobbiex@hotmail.co.uk Or contact me via Facebook at Anton Jordan Michael Dobson thanks for reading and please do not hesitate to contact me about any issues or ideas on this campaign So raising the wage campaign was our national campaign and since I found out this I been trying my best contacting mp's, councillors and schools to see how many people in Barnsley support this. I been gathering statistics and all schools in Barnsley agree with it. When I meet with the mp and councillor I will show this and show all arguments for controversial issues. It's a weird campaign for Barnsley as we already have a living wage for people but we and Barnsley council want to try and widen this across NHS etc... Once we have focused and gathered evidence and statics on this campaign I will work with the youth council to try and contact health services to see us so we can give ten positive feedbacks and how they can change their services and how we can help I already know that in Barnsley the stop smoking be healthy etc...

Will be joining together as one and I was the only youth councillor who attended this. I’m very thanks full for BYC for giving me this experience and holy trinity students for electing me I will get elected again in January/February I will see you all on Saturday and this will be the last time i see you as I won’t be able to do anything on the national campaign day so I’ll be doing it earlier thanks for reading.

So being invited to have dinner with MP Robert Wilson for civil society was such a privilege Barnsley compared to the other 11 regions i went with had a higher percent turnout in MYM than us. Barnsley received a 48.39% turn out which I still feel we worked really hard to do this.

Whilst at dinner we talked about many issues that affected young people in each area and how the government could help this we also mentioned about our national campaigns. I would like to thanks Barnsley youth council and British youth council for allowing me to do this rare opportunity. I got to see many attractions such as 10 DOWNING STREET, Westminster, Westminster abbey, Big Ben, white hall, and changing if the horse guards. I took a picture and a

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group photo with him and hopely will be tweeted and also put on the Facebook page and i will be doing a press release.

Doncaster Aysha Ahmed, 17, Member of Youth Parliament As part of one of our United Kingdom Youth Parliament priority campaigns this year, we've decided to campaign on improving "fair treatment at work". Doncaster Youth Council support the living wage campaign and we have all wrote our messages on the Dear Santa Post Card that we got at Convention 3 in Wakefield.

My statement is “Everyone is entitled to a pay that can provide them with an adequate quality of life�

We had our celebration night at Doncaster Super Bowl on Tuesday 16 December and I thought it would be a good idea to ask the youth councillors to write their messages on our post card in support of the campaign. We hope that the Government realises that people need a realistic living wage rather than a minimum wage!

Doncaster Youth Council- Youth Councilors

Saying goodbye to 2014 and getting ready to welcome a brand new year 2015! When a New Year arrives, it brings new ideas and hopes for us to make our lives Good to Better and Better to Best. Warm wishes from Doncaster Youth Council and Happy New Year

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Kieran Bennett, 18, Youth Councillor I attended the last convention of the year at Wakefield; I have attended all the conventions this year and wanted to say how much I have enjoyed them all. It’s been good to discuss the work that other youth councillors and MYP’s have been doing in their areas to help improve services for young people and to share our work here in Doncaster. At the last convention we promoted the recent work that we have done with our school nurses, we took posters of the ‘you said we did’ which evidences the changes made to the service which was based on young people’s comments.

Aysha and I had the opportunity to attend Convention 3 in Wakefield to represent young people from Doncaster; we really enjoyed the Convention and found it really interesting.

Richard Corbett, MEP and Olivia Rowley, Lead Member for Children & Young People in Wakefield agreed to be part of a panel; they were very approachable and quite candid with their answers. We were all able to ask them questions about issues of interest regardless of the topic and they made sure they answered everyone as well as they could.

This was a good opportunity for us to have our photo with them; obviously this was just before Christmas hence, me sporting my Christmas Jumper 

Leeds Charlotte Williams, Leeds Youth Council Member This month I helped my student leadership to crack down on the amount of litter on the school grounds. We did this by making the students who got private detentions to go outside with litter pickers. We also held an assembly dedicated to this point. We did this because there are seagulls coming into the school grounds every day to find food in the litter!

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Jude Mason, Leeds Youth Council Member

I recently attended the Diana Award Ceremony to receive an award on behalf of the Leeds Youth Council. The Leeds Youth Council were award the Active Campaigners award.

10 LYC members attended the awards ceremony which was held at Elland Road on Tuesday 9th December.

Ben Harper, Leeds Youth Council Member I have been to the Diana Awards on behalf of the LYC to collect our Active Campaigners Award.

It was an enjoyable event with celebrities and important people attending.

Harriet Parker, Leeds Youth Council Member This month I attended my second Leeds Youth Council Meeting, and I went for an Executive Board Member position in the elections. It went really well and I am waiting to hear the results.

I cannot wait for 2015 and the LYC meetings and working on the Work Experience campaign.

Bethany Rodley, Leeds Youth Council Member This month our school found out which students would be on the student leadership group.

Last month the students who wanted to be a part of it had to send in a nomination form. The Assistant Heads and Head of Year then read through the applications and chose the students who would then form the Student Leadership Group. Each form has a representative on the group and there is a year leader and deputy leader per year group. I have been given the role of Year Leader for year 10.

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We have had a training day to get to know the other year and deputy leaders and learnt how to work as a team. I feel this was successful. We also took this opportunity to discuss the things we wanted to change and set out our priorities for the year.

I went into our year group assembly to tell the students who we are and how we can help them. The next steps are to discuss with the form representatives what suggestions they have been given from their form and talk these back to the meetings.

John Wadsworth, PR Officer Leeds Youth Council This has been the best month ever for the Leeds Youth Council; I have been rushed off my feet!

The highlight of the month has to be the 2014 Diana Awards where I was proud to collect the Active Campaigner award on behalf of the Leeds Youth Council members in recognition of all our work on careers education, disability awareness / inclusion and road safety. It was a great even, an opportunity to meet inspiring youth groups from across Yorkshire and Humber as well as soak in the atmosphere and live musicians.

A slightly more intimidating event was the Leeds Equalities Conference, after a nerve racking speech to well over 100 delegates. Tensions ran high as we tried to hammer out measurer to tackle apathy. Eventually we reached a set of suggestions to ensure everyone has a say and it included.

I cannot think of a better end to 2014 for the Leeds Youth Council.

Aisha Latif, Leeds Youth Council Member This month has been my first full month as a Leeds Youth Council member and in that time I’ve attended a meeting to choose the winners of the Child Friendly Leeds Awards and also attended the Children’s Trust Board where I brought up (in front of many Councillors) that I thought mental health awareness should be one of the Leeds’ obsessions in the Children and Young People’s Plan.

Josh Nasey, Exec Member Leeds Youth Council I successfully passed my advanced (16+) St John’s First Aid Course a few weeks ago which took a lot of intense training and revision.

I also attended the Children’s Trust Board, I spoke with one of the members of the board about how they she can get her companies ideas out to young people. My idea was to limit the use of social media and get into the public view by visiting events such as Breeze. She took my ideas about and said she would present these to her company.

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Joe Hill, Leeds Youth Council Member At December’s Leeds Youth Council Meeting I had to chance to meet the City Councillors and discuss how they could help the LYC to campaign on improving work experience. We were informed about how the Council can take these issues to different people / levels through various committees they sit on. They are going to help us to ensure that all schools are on an equal playing field when it comes to providing information to students around work experience.

Amy Kitchingman, Leeds Youth Council Member I have spent the day meeting with City Councillors involved in Leeds Children’s Services as part of takeover month which was organised by the Child Friendly Leeds initiative.

On the 5th of December, me and three of my classmates spent the day with the Learning, Skills & Universal Services Senior Leadership Team(SLT) at Merrion House.

We attended the 14-19 (25) Strategic Partnership meeting on Learning & Curriculum in the East Meeting Room of Civic Hall. The meeting was chaired by Councillor Jane Dowson, who we were introduced to personally. We observed the meeting and offered our input on the services they offered us.

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We also had a meeting with the SLT, including Gail Webb, Viv Buckland and the deputy director Paul Brennan. We discussed the impact of exams and transitions into work and also asked them questions about their work.

We also had a Q&A session with SLT support staff Mishbah Akbar and Sue Duffield.

We were supervised for the majority of the day by Christopher Suttton and a member of the graduate program named Wasim Feroze. Christopher gave us a session on how to chair a meeting, before we did so in our SLT meeting.

The day really was a fantastic opportunity! I felt I gained some clarity in my understanding of how services for young people operate, and the decision making that occurs regarding them. I would enjoy having another opportunity like this, as it is an educational and interesting experience, and a way to make a difference!

Francis Edwards, Leeds Youth Council Member I along with my fellow youth councillors met up with 11 Councillors from across Leeds to discuss the issues affecting young people as well as also looking at ways in which the Leeds Youth Council could collaborative work together.

One idea we discussed was LYC representatives from each school to work with elected members in their area to solve issues.

Szymon Podgorski, Leeds Youth Council Member I helped organise an event in my school which raised over ÂŁ200 for Joining Jack, a chartity for those with Duchenne Muscular Dystophy.

Mona-Lisa Curry, Leeds Youth Council Member I have attended my second Leeds Youth Council Meeting, and really enjoyed meeting and talking to the City Councillors about subjects such as work experience and how we can promote it better. It was great hearing what they had to say about it and the ideas they put forward.

Crystal Miller, Leeds Youth Council Member The Leeds Youth Council meeting is the best thing I have done. I got to talk to the Councillors of Leeds but it was fun and I liked it.

I have helped students in my college help sell things to raise money for my college.

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Zara Arshad, Leeds Youth Council Member Recently I took part in getting 100 young people to vote for what they wish the UK Youth Parliament Campaign to be for next year. I also informed them of my role on the Leeds Youth Council and what we do on a whole.

Furthermore, I attended a school council meeting and asked them to spread the work that the Leeds Youth Council are recruiting new members.

Isaac Grinnell, Exec Member Leeds Youth Council Recently I had the opportunity to represent Leeds Youth Council at the Diana Award, as we had achieved the Active Campaigners awards. The ten LYC members who attended the event received a certificate and pin badge. I had a great time and look forward to all the opportunities in 2015.

Nadia Saeed, Vice Chair Leeds Youth Council I recently attended the Diana Awards with my fellow LYC members and we went on stage to collect our award for Active Campaigners.

I am also helping with my schools environment project.

I am not taking on the role of the Vice Chair of the LYC, and I am excited for what is ahead.

Tommy Schofield, Exec Member Leeds Youth Council In the last month the LYC were nominated for a Diana Active Campaigner Award and won it. We were nominated for the campaigns we have down over the past two years. The awards ceremony was brilliant with acts like Gabz and Rough Copy performing.

Thanks for nominating us Voice, Influence & Change Team J Holly Lanforth, Leeds Youth Council Member I am in the Global Justice group at school and this week we have been writing Christmas cards to send to people who have been jailed or tortured for ridiculous reasons all over the work as part of amnesty international. In them we have written positive messages like “don’t give up, and merry Christmas’.

I have now attended two Leeds Youth Council Meetings, Children’s Trust Board and the Child Friendly Leeds Awards shortlisting.

Josie Lee, PR Officer Leeds Youth Council

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I represented the Leeds Youth Council at this years Diana awards along with 9 other people. We watched celebrity performances and were on the ITV news. We won the active campaigners award and I am very proud of the Leeds Youth Council members. http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2014-12-09/diana-awards-celebrate-youngpeople-who-make-a-difference/

Polly Foster, Treasurer Leeds Youth Council I attended this year’s Diana Awards with the Leeds Youth Council. We saw talent show celebrities perform, took part in workshops, but most importantly won the Diana Active Campaigner Award! I am so proud of the Leeds Youth Council, our work has been recognised and we have achieved such a prestigious award. The only downside was getting sent away from the buffet to get more food (the onion rings were amazing) Ben Coyne The Leeds Youth Council meeting with Councillors provided very beneficial with supporting us with the planning for next year’s campaign around improving work experience. We established connections between the council, the young people and the Councillors. Hopefully I will have some support in my search for work experience as well!!!

Olivia Thornton, Acorn Lodge MY DAY AS A MANAGER As part of takeover day I took over the role of managing Acorn Lodge for the day. I made sure that staff had their supervisions, I did this with them. I also put together an agenda for a staff meeting and chaired one with all the staff.

I made sure that the staff did the food shopping for the children, buying the foods that they like. And that they planned activities for the weekend that the children would enjoy.

I had to also make sure that they had enough pocket money and answer the phone.

I really enjoyed being manager for the day and want to do it again soon.

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North East Lincolnshire Young Advisor Put in place the young people's holiday rider which saves young people money when traveling on buses locally

Wakefield Maia Parkin, 13, Member of Youth Parliament and Youth Councillor All month we have been preparing for our convention. we have been very busy with it, making it perfect. Apart from a slight issue (fire at city limits) we are ready for it. Location - Hepworth Date- December 13. I hope you all enjoy it xx

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Northern Ireland North Antrim Chris Harkin, 17, Member of Youth Parliament This month the results from the house of commons debate have continued to allow us to get attention from decision makers, as I prepare for my meetings with my local MP and my council leader in January. I am also getting ready to film my "fix" on integrated education in my school next month, which will then be used by integrated schools across Northern Ireland, as well as possibly airing on UTV!

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Scotland City of Edinburgh Martyna Napierska, 17, Member of Youth Parliament Happy new year to you all!! What a fantastic couple of weeks it have been for everyone for sure! It was a great success with the Santa boards and an achievement on Twitter to raise awareness about our fantastic campaign. I have emailed every single one of my influential councillors and even MSP's and am still waiting on a reply.. Fingers crossed though! I am extremely looking forward to the PG residential that's to happen later on in January , and until then.. Keep pushing for your success ,wonderful people!

I'm looking forward to the 6th of December where North East and Scotland will come together for another great convention! The House of Commons was beyond my imagination, the quality the debate blew me away and I'm sure Mr Speaker was highly impressed too!

North Lanarkshire Junaid Ashraf, 18, Member of Youth Parliament I was elected as the debate lead for Scotland during the BYC Convention 2 held in Newcastle and have since been on a an amazing journey ending with myself speaking in the House of Commons at the dispatch box!! My speech was in favour of having "Votes at 16" our national campaign to finally see through the promise that many political parties have made to granting all 16 and 17 year olds the democratic vote in all UK elections and referenda. However my speech fell short of convincing the UK Youth Parliament in supporting the effort for one more year and "Votes at 16" was not selected but I did have an amazing time meeting all the other debate leads and making a wide variety of new friends from across the country.

South Ayrshire Mason Rowan, 17, Member of Youth Parliament I am currently waiting for a reply from my MP Sandra Osborne and the leader of South Ayrshire Council, Bill McIntosh.

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Support worker’s Stories

East Midlands Derbyshire Rachel Sidebottom, Support Worker On 5th December Derbyshire Youth Councillors, along with hundreds of other young people, parents, youth workers and Elected Members from Derbyshire County Council launched YOUTHINC – the new name and brand for Derbyshire’s Youth Offer. The launch event celebrated over 12 months of young people’s hard work to develop and shape YOUTHINC into a one stop information point. A competition to find the name and brand was launched earlier in the year and young people from across Derbyshire submitted entries, which were shortlisted and then pitched at Dragon’s Den to choose the final two winners. Two concepts were fused together to produce the final name, brand and strap line of ‘One Person One Million Opportunities’. Chloe and Adrianne, the winning designers, and Councillor Greenhalgh (Deputy Cabinet member for young people) pressed the button to unwrap DCAS in a light and music showcase, launching YOUTHINC in Derbyshire. All of the youth clubs and youth mobile units, and other places young people can access services will be newly branded so young people know where to find out information.

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Leicestershire Nicole O’Neil, Support Worker

Georgina Riley’s Takeover Day with Leicestershire Police Service – Charnwood November 2014 Georgina is 13 years old – she worked alongside PC Gary Bailey who is based at Loughborough Police Station. Georgina learnt about how modern Policing works and how it is changing to meet the needs of the community. Georgina said “ I loved the Takeover Day because I learned so much about the Police Service. I learned they are a community based service – I found out so much about my own local area and how the Police work. The day really encouraged me and gave me great insight to consider becoming a Police Officer when I leave school. My day was brilliant and a unique, valuable experience” Charnwood takeover day activities, November 2014 Constituency Education Secretary and Minister for Women Nicky Morgan MP has described Rina Roy. Aged 17, as ‘fabulous’ after being joined by her for a Takeover Day. Rina was recently elected as a member of the UK Youth Parliament and is also an active member of Charnwood Youth Council and the County Youth Council. Nicky Morgan MP said: "I was delighted that Rina Roy was able to join me on my constituency duties as part of the Children's Commissioner Takeover Day.” “Rina and I visited the LGBT centre in Leicester and LAMP Advocacy services - both do great work. “After speaking to Leicester High School students with my Minister for Women hat on, we then visited the Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Training Facility and team in Shepshed.” Rina said, “The Takeover Day with Nicky Morgan really was an amazing opportunity for me. It enabled me to see first hand just how much is involved in being an MP – I was surprised that Nicky had such a busy schedule. I loved finding out about her role” “I came away feeling even more inspired to enter politics myself and help as many people as I can.”

Our Takeover Day – Opening event for Anti-Bullying Week. November 2014, Harborough District We started by having a group discussion around what we thought of bullying, this then lead us to writing our views and opinions of bullying onto balloons. We then took photos of us with our 51

balloons in a large gold frame. Using all of this we created a group display showing what we had done, we also took our display into another group called Young Carers and asked them to share their views and opinions on bullying as well. Our display illustrated thoughts, feeling and opinions about bullying. Four of our group members then took our display to County Hall for the AntiBullying week opening event. They opened and closed the event by speaking out in front of everyone. They also shared our display, inviting others to get involved and make their own balloons sharing their thoughts, feeling and opinions about bullying. This was a great success and we enjoyed getting involved and helping take over the Anti-Bullying opening event at County Hall.

Georgina Cullen Blaby Takeover day November 2014 For takeover day in Blaby the Travellers from our group planned to take over an RE class at Brockington College. The Travellers wanted to give an informative session about their lives as young travellers and what it was like to be a Traveller girl.

The group had put together a book full of information and a colourful bored about difference between travellers and non- travellers. The Travellers also made a special effort by dressing up in smart clothing to deliver the session. I chose to work with this group of young people as when I mentioned takeover day the travellers had expressed an interest in going back to school or attending college in the future so I thought this would be a great project to get them involved in.

The school and I were really impressed and proud of the girls, the school also asked the girls if they were willing to come in and deliver the class again to other groups within the school. They were also asked if it was ok for the school to keep the board they had made to use during RE classes in school and the girls agreed. The travellers gained a sense of responsibility and confidence within themselves to stand up and talk in front of people and they were overwhelmed by their achievement and they would do it again.

Special Needs Takeover day – November 2014, Greenhill Youth Centre Freestyle is a special needs group with young people aged 12-18 years attending. We discussed and planned the take-over day session with the young people a few weeks before the night. They came up with lots of good ideas. We discussed all these ideas more as a group and the young people decided who should do what job. All young people planned their own task. Young people were creating café signs for the hot chocolate, certificates for the pool competition; one young person was learning how to check the building and another was learning about the register and practising taking the names. On the night of take over week, four young people attended the session that had planned their activity. They were involved in:- • Organising a pool competition, planning teams, making certificates and refereeing • Collecting subs, registering young people and completing the register,counting money and giving out change • Running the centre “café”, making hot chocolate and giving them out, taking orders from people and understanding the kitchen rules • Helping close the sessions, checking rooms and toilets, switching off computers and other equipment, pulling down shutters All young people engaged very well and really enjoyed the session. One young person said, “I really enjoyed it and liked doing things I’ve never done before”

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East of England Central Bedfordshire Chiwo Mukome, Support Worker Central Bedfordshire Youth Parliament December update.

On Saturday 29th November, Central Bedfordshire’s Youth Parliament members came together to discuss the outcomes of the House of Commons debate. The Youth Parliament members spent most of their day putting together an action plan on how they plan on working on this year’ priorities and will present this to local key decision makers and potential partners.

CB Youth Parliament has also been very busy putting together a film that documents the importance of youth voice and the key role CB Youth Parliament plays in strengthening it across the local authority. This film will be shown at our Manifesto Launch event which will be taking place in February.

One of our young people met with their local MP to discuss better work experience and improving mental Health services. As a result from this meeting the Local MP has written to local schools asking them what steps they are taking to give young people better work experience. The MP has also written to the Secretary of State of asking what central government is doing to improve mental health services for young people. The last month has been a productive month for CB Youth Parliament and we look forward to welcoming more challenges. Central Bedfordshire Young Commissioners December Update.

Central Bedfordshire has a new team of Young Commissioners following a training programme which was delivered over the October Half Term. The team are now hard at work supporting the Youth Support Service Commissioning Team with the latest round of tenders. They have already completed their first shortlisting for one tender and are now preparing for the interview process in early January.

Hertfordshire Debi Roberts, Project Officer - Youth Connexions Redbourn Christmas Tea on 13 Dec 2014 Young people from Youth Councils across St Albans District came together for the third year in a row to host a tea party for 50 older people from Redbourn and surrounding villages in Hertfordshire this Christmas.

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The tea party is organised by a number of local organisations, primarily Hertfordshire County Council Youth Connexions and Redbourn Care and financed through fundraising, donations and St Albans City and District Council’s Locality Budget. However, it is the young people that come together on the day to decorate a building, prepare a sumptuous feast and provide 2-3 hours of entertainment that makes the day so special.

Youth Councillors from St Albans, Harpenden and Redbourn and volunteers from ten local schools came together to donate their time and to ensure that a great day was had by all. The schools taking part were Batchwood School, Beaumont School, Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, Marlborough Science Academy, Roundwood Park School, St Albans Girls' School, St Albans High School for Girls, St. George’s School, Sir John Lawes School and Verulam School.

Ex-pupils from St George’s School, who play in the renamed “The Old Georgian Ukulele Band”, thrilled the audience with a 30 minutes set.

Back row – The Old Georgian Ukulele Band Front row – Cllr Geoff Harrison, Mayor of St Albans City and District, Eleanor Hynes, Katie Jones and Ellie Webb of St Albans Youth Council and James Crawley, Redbourn Youth Parish Council

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Christmas cards made by Batchwood Pupils ‘The young people were wonderful. Everyone was absolutely thrilled with the whole thing. You made a lot of people very happy’ said Barry Welch of Redbourn Care Group.

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This year’s event was made extra special by the presence of Cllr Geoff Harrison, Mayor of St Albans City and District.. The guests were thrilled to meet with the Mayor and delighted to go home with an armful of Christmas gifts and treats including handmade watercolour Christmas cards made by pupils of Batchwood School

Teams battle it out at the Christmas Quiz, with Quiz Master, Ellie Appleyard, Chair of St Albans Youth Council

Hertfordshire County Council Youth Connexions supports young people to improve their outcomes and make a successful transition into adult life. The organisation offers youth work, information, advice, guidance and support to targeted individuals and groups.

Youth Connexions delivers a wide range of youth work projects across the County. Through planned curriculum programmes young people are encouraged to learn new skills, build selfesteem, confidence, independence and make informed decisions whilst recognising their responsibilities as individuals and their role within their community.

Youth Connexions delivers youth work in a wide variety of settings such as youth centres, community buildings, schools, in parks and on the streets. Youth Connexions has a number of facilities including purpose built youth centre, high quality music and media studios and outdoor education centres. Youth Connexions is the Hertfordshire licensed Operating Authority of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

More information at http://www.youthconnexions.org/

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North West Trafford Mark Bailey, Support Worker Youth Cabinet: Held their annual conference for secondary school pupils to get their views. The focus this year was on risky behaviours, i.e. child sexual exploitation, drugs and alcohol, sexual health and offending behaviour. There was also a chance to comment on the latest Trafford budget consultation and a panel discussion with senior managers including the leader of the council. Members attended the launch of a scheme to promote healthy relationships in Trafford schools. They did a short presentation on their schools emotional health and wellbeing pack and got another school to sign up.

Children in Care Council: Held their first meeting where they got to know each other, worked on some issues they want sorting out and completed an online questionnaire for the Children's Commissioner.

Aftercare group: Hosted their annual Children in Care Achievements awards.

There was drama and music from young people in care as well as a prize giving to celebrate achievements of children and young people in a variety of fields including education, sport and drama. There were also speeches from young adults who had been in care in Trafford who told their stories. They told current children and young people in care that they can achieve anything they want to.

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South East Buckinghamshire Simon Billenness, Support Worker Buckinghamshire Young People have set up their own podcast to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions. How it all started This series has been put together by a group of diverse young people from around Buckinghamshire. The podcast started as a project for Take Over Day which is a national initiative that encourages young people to get involved in making the decisions that directly affect them. Take Over Day and this podcast is our opportunity to get our voices heard with the hope of making a difference. Over the series we’ll discuss a wide range of topics that affect us and everyone around us. Some of the things we’ll be discussing are health care, education, politics and other subject which are important to us as young people. We’ve spent a lot of time putting the series together. We’ve all been involved in weekly meetings where we put on the recording equipment and brainstormed ideas and debated subjects. The editing process is probably the most difficult but is made a lot easier with the help of Sunil from the Sound Studio project at the Roundhouse. We’ve been lucky enough through the series to be able to interview; •David Lidington MP on politics and the town of Aylesbury •Mike Appleyard Buckinghamshire County Council Cabinet Member on Education and schools •Aidan Kirwan owner of Rogue Bowling Aylesbury on the exciting new Bowling Alley •A group of young people on their experience of Take Over Day and the 5 Ways Of Wellbeing On Take Over Day itself some of us were also able to go and work with Mix 96, the biggest local radio station in Buckinghamshire and take over the news, weather and travel during broadcasts. So check out our series The Voice Of Youth Podcast by clicking the link to our Soundcloud page, let us know what you think by leaving comments and look out for new episodes www.soundcloud.com/voiceofyouthpodcast

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West Midlands Worcestershire Jade Russell, Support Worker Overview of Takeover day- Extract from Report Takeover Day 2014 in Worcestershire saw us youth workers taking a step back and organisations really driving it for themselves. Drawing on last year's successes, businesses, organisations and services used their existing links and developed new relationships with the children and young people of Worcestershire to make takeover day a fantastic day for everyone. The children and young people gained hands on experience across a range of jobs and sectors. They were put in situations where they had to make important decisions and help to develop services. This works to break down barriers between generations and gives adults some fresh ideas on how things can be done!

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Yorkshire & Humber Barnsley Emma Baines- Involving Young People Coordinator Christmas Town Hall Open Day On Saturday 29th November Barnsley’s Town Hall opened its doors to members of the public for its first Christmas craft fair. Alongside the craft stalls there were many other activities for all the family to enjoy such as Santa’s grotto, arts, choir performances, and the chance to meet and talk to your local elected councillors. Members of Barnsley’s Youth Council were invited to have a stall at the event to promote their work and advertise the upcoming youth council elections in 2015. The youth councillors helped out throughout the day by supporting younger children to complete the town hall quiz which winning could get you an invite to afternoon tea with the mayor. Lots of elected members attended and showed a keen interest in the work that the youth council had been involved in and Barnsley MP Rt Hon John Healey also spoke to the youth councillors and wants to invite the whole of Barnsley Youth Council to visit the Houses of Parliament in the New Year.

Children in Care and Care Leavers celebration event This year’s celebration event for looked after children and care leavers took place on Wednesday 26th November 2014. A total of 159 young people were nominated and 70 young people attended on the evening to collect their certificate and award.

The annual event has improved year on year and is now an important and significant event in the lives of children & young people who are in care or care leavers. It is a fun way to recognise young people’s personal achievements but it also raises our children & young people’s aspirations whilst allowing them to come together with their peers. Barnsley’s Interim Head of Children in Care says “I have been to several of these in different authorities and this was one of the best. You got a real relaxed family atmosphere & the tone of the MC and the speeches and the whole format was just right “ A great night was had by all who attended.

Taking it to the next level Taking it to the Next Level is an event held as part of a 2 year Department for Education funded partnership between the National Children’s Bureau and A National Voice.

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The annual event is for Children in Care Council members and their corporate parents to attend and provides opportunities for participants to showcase their talents express their wishes and needs and explore new ideas for future working. It also gives attendees the opportunity to work with and share ideas with representatives from other Local Authorities. This year’s event’s theme was the health and wellbeing of children and young people in care.

With the support of the Children’s Rights Service, two young people from Barnsley’s Care 4 Us Council attended the event along with Mel John–Ross, the Service Director, Social Care & Safeguarding and local elected member Cllr Jill Carr. The young people and their corporate parents spoke about local issues with accessing the CAMHS service and how they felt it could be improved and they also agreed on a six month action plan of work including.

1. The review and redesign of Barnsley’s pledge for children in care and care leavers.

2. The recruitment of new Care4Us Council members 3. Increased participation levels amongst younger children in care Barnsley’s Corporate Parenting Panel Staff from Barnsley’s Participation and Children’s Rights team along with a member of the Care 4 Us Council were asked along to the Corporate Parenting Panel to deliver a presentation on the participation and engagement of Barnsley’s looked after children and young people. The presentation and its recommendations were taken on board and will be used to further improve the relationship between the Care 4 Us Council and the Corporate Parenting Panel members and will also form the basis of a joint young person’s meeting with scrutiny in February 2015. By this time work on the recommended participation strategy for LAC should have already started.

Care 4 Us Council Christmas Celebration Members of Barnsley’s Care 4 Us Council were invited out for a Christmas treat to celebrate all their hard work and many voluntary hours given throughout 2014. The group went to Barnsley’s new 8oz Burger Co restaurant on Tuesday 16th December with the staff members who support their work. Everyone had a lovely time and the food was delicious. The Council is now ready and looking forward to what 2015 brings.

North East Lincolnshire Pippa Curtin, Support Worker Young Reporters have been approved for funding from 02 think big to run 2 workshops in Febraury half term for younger age groups. The workshops will be for 8-11 year olds and thier work will be published in the Grimsby Telegraph as a feature. If this works well the Young Reporters will go for 02 think bigger funding to run workshops every holiday. these workshops will not only benefit the children involved but will also give the Young Reporters involved another skill and further work experience for thier CV.

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Rotherham Sarah Bellamy, Support Worker One of our very valued and long serving members of Youth Cabinet, josh Parker, who was also a MYP in the past, has just been elected to be Chair of Young Labour in Rotherham. This means he has had to leave Youth Cabinet but we will still be working closely with him in the future.

Members of Youth Cabinet joined Looked After Children's Council to attend the local pantomime in Rotherham. After the performance, members of the cast, including Mark Labbet/The Beast from The Chase came to meet the young people. Rotherham MYPs visited Rush House which is a supported housing for young people aged 16 to 25 years of age and discussed their role as MYPs, what is Politics and the importance of being involved in Politics and Youth Voice. During the visit, they had a lot of discussions around issues the young people at Rush House faced and felt they should meet more regularly with the MYPs in the future. Members of Youth Cabinet and UKYP attended an event at New York Stadium in Rotherham around Standing Together Against CSE. They signed the pledge on behalf of young people in Rotherham. Rotherham MYPs and Youth Cabinet supported the White Ribbon Campaign which is around Domestic Violence.

One young person featured in a 'Real Men of Rotherham' Calendar to raise funds for the Rotherham Women's Refuge and others encouraged people to sign the Pledge stating they wouldn't commit abuse against women.

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

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

Deadline for submissions is quarterly.

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

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