Tuesday 20 December 2016

Last meeting of the year!


This afternoon we also conducted the last youth cabinet meeting of the term. This mainly consisted of reviewing the Youth Service satisfaction survey and putting together a final draft.  Over the past couple of weeks we have been visiting youth provisions to ask young people their opinions on the survey design and proposed questions.  Today we were able to take these suggestions on board and make the final changes.

During the meeting we were also able to update everyone on the individual work we have been involved in such as the Youth Mayor's visit to Elfed Avenue youth club and the Emoji's Presentation evening.  We also gave our Secret Santa gifts.

Merry Christmas from the Youth Cabinet!


Young People's Participation - Having a Voice

Today, we began our ACU coursework on Young People's Participation - Having a Voice.  This involved group discussions on how we have contributed our views to consultations around issues that are relevant to us.  We looked at the different methods of collecting young people's views; the barriers that prevent people from collecting young people's views and how to overcome them.

This was a really jam packed session but we covered topics that are also important to us as Youth Cabinet members.  This coursework will also link into the Youth Service Satisfaction survey we have been working on lately.  We will continue to work on this ACU in the New Year.  





Thursday 15 December 2016

Congratulations Emojis!

I was honoured to attend the Emoji's presentation evening on behalf of the Vale Mayor on Thursday 15th December at the YMCA Hub, Barry.  It was amazing to meet the young people who have been involved in the project and have completed a 10-week course focusing on improving their confidence and self-esteem.

The Director of Learning and Skills and the Head of the Youth Service were also at the event and we all got to present young people with their certificates and watched a video showcasing the work they've been involved in.  We then enjoyed a lovely buffet and I got to play some pool and table tennis with the young people and their families.

Congratulations everyone!


Thursday 1 December 2016

Thank you Elfed Avenue Youth Club

Tonight we visited Elfed Avenue youth club in Penarth to meet the young people  after they invited the Youth Mayor and Deputy following the election.  It was great to meet the young people, to find out what they love about attending youth club and what they get out of it.

They also helped us by taking reviewing our questions for the Youth Service Satisfaction Survey. We were able to run our draft survey past them and ask them for their suggestions on how to make it better. Thanks everyone!





Thursday 24 November 2016

November's meeting

This week we held our November monthly meeting and we have a few things to report. Following discussions at the Vale Youth Forum, members concerns about long lunchtime queues have been raised with professionals who are looking into carrying out some research into the issue and the impact it has on students.

Also, we've had a great idea to have some training in British Parliamentary style debating and can't wait to suggest it to the Vale Youth Forum.  Hopefully we will then be able to hold a debate on a chosen topic and invite some decision-makers to listen to our ideas.

The Trans*Form Cymru Charter was also discussed again and we are grateful to have a case study of a young person from the Vale which supports the need for a local LGBTQ guidance document for schools and organisations working with young people.

Also, please see below the new Youth Mayor poster for 2016-17, copies will be coming to schools, youth clubs and youth organisations soon!

      

Thursday 17 November 2016

The results are in!

So 2016 was the second year young people involved in participation projects in the Vale took part in the Make Your Mark campaign.  The Make Your Mark campaign is run by the British Youth Council across the UK and the results are used to find out the top issues for young people which are later debated and voted on at UK Youth Parliament.

This year in the Vale we collected 4136 Make Your Mark ballots and the Vale was the top performing Local Authority in Wales - woop woop! This could not have been achieved without the hard work of members of Penarth Youth Action, Barry Youth Action, Llantwit Youth Council and the Vale Youth Forum whilst encouraging young people to take part in the ballot not to mention the support from Barry Comp, Bryn Hafren and Cowbridge Comp!   

So what did young people vote for and what are the top issues for young people in the Vale?   
  • A curriculum to prepare us for life - 804
  • Votes at 16 - 560
  • Transport - 508 
  • First aid education for all - 469 
  • Stop cuts that affect the NHS - 448
  • Mental Health - 440
  • Tackling racism and religious discrimination - 429
  • Body Image - 171
  • Raising Awareness of Sexual Harassment in schools - 164
  • Fund our youth services, don't cut them - 143    

Monday 14 November 2016

Armistice Day

On Friday 11th November, as Deputy Youth Mayor I attended the Vale of Glamorgan Armistice Day ceremony to commemorate the fallen and in support of the Royal British Legion.  It was an honour to represent the Youth Cabinet and lay a wreath on behalf of young people.  The ceremony took place at the Civic Offices in Barry in front of the Merchant Seaman Memorial where there was a short service, a two-minute silence and a wreath laying ceremony.  



Friday 11 November 2016

UK Youth Parliament debate

It's not every day you get to sit and debate in the House of Commons! Not wanting to sound too clichéd but it is quite literately a dream come true for me. Today I attended the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) annual sitting and represented young people from the Vale of Glamorgan.  There were nearly 300 Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) present, all representing young people from across the UK.  I travelled up with other MYPs from Wales so thanks to Children in Wales for organising this!  

The whole debate was chaired by John Bercow, who is a champion of young people's voices in democracy and gives great support to the UKYP. We debated the 5 top issues of the Make Your Mark ballot, issues that affect young people right across the UK including; Votes at 16, Cuts to the NHS, A curriculum to prepare us for life, Tackling racism and discrimination and Improving transport. All the MYP's debated in a very fair and thoughtful way, debating complex issues in an astute manner that impressed all of the prestigious visitors that included some MP's.

As voted for at the end of today's debate, the national UKYP priority for 2017 will be lowering the voting age to 16 and 17.  The devolved priority will be a Curriculum to prepare us for life. I can't wait now to get back to the Vale (hopefully soon but London traffic is awful) and raise awareness of the outcomes from the debate with everyone at the next Vale Youth Forum meeting.




Wednesday 26 October 2016

Survey development

We started our Youth Cabinet meeting by congratulating the re-elected Youth Mayor Daniel Marshal and Daley Chapman who was elected as Deputy Youth Mayor.

We continued by looking over the new UKYP Make Your Mark results where the top three issues for young people in the vale of glamorgan were a curriculum for life, votes at 16 and transport.

We then discussed the recent announcement that there will be an official Youth Parliament for Wales in addition to discussing what this could entail for young people.

We focused the majority of the meeting on the Vale Youth Service satisfaction survey which we are in the process of writing. We concluded the meeting by discussing how including more subjects in a PSE curriculum would better prepare young people for life.

Cawsom gyfarfod effeithlon iawn heddiw, a chawsom llawer o amser i weithio ar ein prosiect newydd, siarad am barliment ieienctud yng nghymru ac amser yn yr ysgol i drafod sgiliau am fywyd.


Tuesday 18 October 2016

Congratulations!

At last night's Vale Youth Forum meeting, the Leader of the Council, Cllr Neil Moore and the Vale of Glamorgan Mayor, Cllr Stuart Egan announced the new Youth Mayor.  

Daniel Marshall from Cowbridge Comprehensive was elected as Youth Mayor and Daley Chapman from Barry Comprehensive was elected as Deputy Youth Mayor.  In total, 3992 votes were cast by young people across the county during Local Democracy Week.  Congratulations to both!      


Friday 7 October 2016

Youth Mayor Elections 2016

Next week, young people across the Vale of Glamorgan will have the chance to vote for their next Vale Youth Mayor. This year, 3 youth cabinet members are standing in the election.  Daley Chapman, aged 15 from Barry, Daniel Marshall aged 16 from Cowbridge and Rhys Powell aged 14 from Barry.

The elections will take place all week during Local Democracy Week, 10-14th October 2016 and will be held in secondary schools, youth clubs, youth organisations and training providers in the county.  

Please watch the candidate's manifestos and get ready to vote!

 

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Meeting the cabinet

This evening, we had our first joint meeting as the new Youth Cabinet. Three Cabinet Members and 5 Youth Cabinet Members attended the meeting. We had a bunch of progress to report back on, including our momentous trip to Mouscron in Belgium. We also had an interesting discussion around transition from primary into secondary school. The Cabinet thanked us greatly for the impressive work that had been achieved in the six months since our last joint meeting.

The meeting was followed by our general Youth Cabinet meeting. The hot topics were the 'Make Your Mark' campaign that is coming to a close; and Local Democracy Week that will see the election of the Vale's third Youth Mayor. This will also provide a great opportunity to promote our work. Dan, our current Youth Mayor, will also be attending the annual sitting of the UK Youth Parliament in London this November. We wish him well!

Monday 26 September 2016

The Youth Show on Bro Radio.

Listen to our latest interview with Jacob on Bro Radio's Youth Show.  Thanks Jacob for the great opportunity to promote the Youth Cabinet!


Tuesday 13 September 2016

Civic Celebrations!

We would like to thank the Mayor of the Vale of Glamorgan, Councillor Stuart Egan for inviting the Youth Cabinet to attend his Civic Celebration on Saturday 10th September 2016 at Barry Memorial Hall.  It was a fantastic event where the new Mayor pledged his commitment to supporting residents of the Vale of Glamorgan.

There were special performances from young musicians from the Vale including High Street Primary School Choir, Sophie Egerstorm, Monika Stadler, Verity Belle Atkinson and the Youth Theatre Company Stage Door One.  Speeches were given by HM Deputy Lieutenant Mr Colin Jones QPM, CFtJ, DL and the Mayor himself.

It was a great celebration and we learnt more about the Mayor, his life and what he plans to do in his role.  The Mayor will be supporting two charities during his term of office: The Penarth and District Lesotho Trust and The Llandough Orchard Charity Project and we hope to support them in any way we can.



Wednesday 31 August 2016

Back to work!

This afternoon, the Youth Cabinet held it's first meeting of the term.  The first item on the agenda involved evaluating the twinning youth camp we attended in Mouscron, Belgium at the beginning of August.  We have made a presentation about our trip which we will be presenting to the Vale of Glamorgan Twinning Association to tell them about our experience and to thank them for all their support.

Also on the agenda was the National Assembly for Wales' enquiry into Youth Work which is currently being run by the Children, Young People and Education committee.  We gave our views on youth services in Wales and you too can take part in the survey here.  We also had our say on what we thought of the new Welsh Government Travel Behaviour Code which has been an ongoing piece of work for us since 2014.

It's not long until the next Youth Mayor election which will take place during Local Democracy Week (week commencing 10th October).  This is a busy time for the Youth Cabinet and some of our members are already preparing their manifestos hoping to get your vote to be the next Youth Mayor for 2016-17.  

Saturday 6 August 2016

Celebrations!

Today was our last full day in Mouscron. We began the day with the official opening ceremony of La Grange by the Mayor.  We celebrated the work we had done throughout the week and the relationships we have built with the young people from our twin towns.  The opening ceremony began with the Mayor giving a speech congratulating us on our work and expressing his admiration for how we, from different cultures, and countries have come together and worked effectively as a group to complete our youth project.



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At lunch we had a barbecue to celebrate our work. A lot of the young people helped to prepare the food for the barbecue. There was a variety of fresh foods and drinks, which gave us an opportunity to socialise with the new friends that we have made, in addition to decision makers in Mouscron.

We then walked from La Grange, to a bowling alley 10 minutes away where we played an enjoyable game of 10 pin bowling.  After this we celebrated our night with an extremely enjoyable party, as a farewell to our new found friends. We're sad to be leaving and will miss all of our new friends from Rheinfelden, Mouscron & Fécamp. It's been an amazing week!

http://www.notele.be/list70-les-reportages-de-notele-sur-I-entite-de-mouscron-media44240-les-ados-des-villes-jumelles-sont-dans-la-place.html.

Friday 5 August 2016

Diwrnod Pedwar

Yesterday was our fourth day in Mouscron. We started the day off by finishing our work at La Grange, we were finishing making our sun beds, our insect hotels and our chicken huts.  Then we had to clean and tidy up any mess that we had made so we could finally say we had finished our work.

In the afternoon one group did Zumba and the others went climbing and swimming.  In the evening it was our turn to host a Welsh night.  We presented facts about the Vale of Glamorgan and Wales by doing a quiz and a tour of Wales treasure hunt.  We finished off the night by making welsh cakes with everyone.  It was a huge success with a lot of positive and helpful reviews!

Wednesday 3 August 2016

Tag drei!

So we are now on the 3rd day of the Mouscron Youth Camp, which feels really weird as the time has gone by so quickly with days full of fun and adventure. Today we did more hard work in the garden, sanding down and even painting the benches we had been building over the past couple of days. We also started building chicken pens which look really cool.

Then in the afternoon we visited an Artisan Chocolate shop (which everyone had been looking forward to since we saw the itinerary). It was an amazing experience to see Belgium chocolate being made 1st hand, and of course we couldn't leave without tasting it! Then we progressed to our next activity of the day hockey and archery, which got very competitive, yet was loads of fun. Then to round of the day the Germans from Rheinfelden put on a great show, with lots of music plus some great dancing and choreography! We all can't wait for tomorrow, especially as it is our night to facilitate tomorrow.

Tuesday 2 August 2016

Day 2

Day 2 in Mouscron & the weather's not so great today. However, luckily we're used to it in Wales, unlike the Germans who said they were freezing cold after having 35 degree weather.  Lucky them!  We started the day at La Grange where we were making the bases for the sun beds that will be used in the Twinning garden so that tomorrow and Thursday we can assemble and paint them.  It was a real team effort and due to this we already have 4 sun beds assembled and we are on course for our 10 sun bed target.

After our picnic at La Grange we went to a shopping centre and Mouscron city centre which had more tourist shops and a beautiful chocolate shop filled with Belgian chocolate,  I can already see you're jealous!  Afterwards we went to the cinema and watched "Demain" - a French documentary about climate change and the environmental challenges we face in the world today.  We than had a discussion on the environmentally friendly schemes we do in the Vale, Mouscron, Fécamp and Rheinfelden.  This evening Fécamp hosted their culture night where we learnt to tie sailing knots and tasted french food.  It's been a fantastic experience so far.  

Monday 1 August 2016

Bienvenue a Mouscron!

Today was our first day of the youth camp in Mouscron, Belgium, one of the Vale's twin towns, along with young people from Mouscron, Rheinfelden and Fécamp. We all met with the mayor of Mouscron and cabinet member Kathy who welcomed us to Belgium. We visited the old Mouscron town hall and we were given a tour of the new  civic offices.


We then went to work at La Grange, the garden dedicated to the Twinning Project. We have really enjoyed the different aspects of woodwork that we have learnt in order to build benches for the garden. The young people from Mouscron also hosted an evening of fun games and as a result we were able to get to know the other young people at the camp. Bon nuit from us all!

Thursday 28 July 2016

Youth Mayor Fundraiser

Every year the Youth Mayor raises money for a local charity and this year I decided to support the Vale Youth Forum.  The Vale Youth Forum is a registered charity who helps young people have a voice on issues that affect them and their communities.  

On Saturday 23rd July, we held a bag packing event in Asda, Barry.  I'd like to thank Lynette, the Community Champion for helping to arrange the fundraiser.  Members of the Youth Cabinet and Vale Youth Forum took part and I'd like to thank them for supporting the fundraiser and also thank the generous Asda customers who donated.    

The day was a great success and we raised £308 for the Vale Youth Forum and I presented the Chair of the Vale Youth Forum, Erin Jennings with a cheque for the money raised.  The money will go towards helping with the promotion of the Vale Youth Forum in the local community which will hopefully encourage more young people to join the Forum to represent the voice of their peers in their local communities. 





Tuesday 19 July 2016

Bro Radio Interview

We have just had a really exciting interview with Jacob on Bro Radio who hosts the Youth Show! We talked about the Youth Cabinet, the Vale Youth Forum and all the important work we do.  We talked about the work we have done in the past, what we're working on at the moment and what we are doing in the future, for example our upcoming trip to Belgium in August.

So if you want to hear all about it, remember to tune into Bro Radio Youth Show 98.1 fm on Thursday 7pm - 9pm.  We're on at 8:42pm!




Wednesday 13 July 2016

Cyfarfod Cabinet Ieuenctid

Just a quick update on last night's meeting ...

We've decided to start introducing the Welsh language into our meetings and we had an excellent introduction by our two fluent Welsh speakers who both kicked off the meeting.  Llwyddiant mawr! We had a full agenda; however still had time for fun, working on our Welsh pronunciation!

As a Cabinet we analysed the results from the Vale Youth Service Youth Offer consultation, which we are going to be working on in the autumn term to find out more about what young people want from the Youth Service in the Vale.  We also looked over the Vale of Glamorgan Super Survey which all young people will be filling in soon in schools and colleges across the Vale.  The results of the survey will help improve children and young people's services in the Vale.

In more exciting news we are soon going to Belgium for a Twinning Youth Camp where we are required to plan and host a Welsh themed night.  We can't wait to start planning and we're sure it will be loads of fun ... hopefully!

Wednesday 29 June 2016

What's your Youth Work story?

It's Youth Work Week in Wales and it's time to celebrate the postive impact youth work has on our lives.  We've been asked "What's your youth work story?", so some of us just wanted to let you know about our personal experiences of youth work and how it has helped us ....

Emily: I've been involved in youth work for 6 years and it has given me the opportunity to represent my local area to local, national and international decision-makers.  I've had the chance to travel across Europe and meet lots of new people and friends.  I am now able to facilitate workshops and training to young people and professionals on a variety of issues and it has given me the passion to fight for young people's voices to be heard!

Erin: Youth work has made me happy.  I'm proud of myself and my friends because we work together to make a change in young people's lives locally.  I can now create session plans and deliver workshops and I know how important children's rights are.     

Daniel: Over the past couple of years I have been involved with many projects that have been championed by Youth Workers; these include the Rights Ambassador project, D of E, Vale Youth Forum and Cabinet, not forgetting VOG Youth Mayor as well! All of these projects have been outstanding examples of good practices by the dedicated and simply wonderful Youth Workers, who on a daily basis have enriched not only my life, but the lives of many young people right across the county.  Youth Work has enabled me to do things that before I would have never done; Youth Work has provided me with many opportunities that I would have thought as impossible, Youth Work has equipped me with the skills to succeed in life, and to top it all of Youth Work has given me many new friends and memories. I could go on further about the positive impact Youth Work has had on my life yet the list would be endless! 

Ellis: Youth work has increased my confidence so much that I can speak infront of people now without vomiting! I have developed my public speaking skills and now have the skills to be Vice Chair of the Vale Youth Forum, deliver assemblies and as a Young Inspector inspect young people's services to award them with the Children and young People's Participation Kitemark for Wales.   

Daley: I've been involved with the youth service since September 2014 when I joined Barry Youth Action and I've had so many opportunities.  I've joined the Vale Youth Forum and I'm now part of the Vale of Glamorgan Youth Cabinet and going to Belgium in July to meet Youth Councils from across Europe.  I've been trained as a Young Commissioner to help deliver a new Emotional Health & Wellbeing service for young people locally and I've meet the Queen and Prince Charles.  I love being a Youth Councillor and attending meetings because I am improving things for young people, we even have a joke and the youth workers like Bethan ,Geraint, Conway and Ve are fantastic in helping me!  It's not too much either, just one meeting a month.  It's fun and I like a debate so positive all round. I now have the opportunity to be Youth Mayor in October and I'm sure everyone would like to take up that opportunity.  I've developed loads of new skills and it's very interesting because you find out information that nobody else would know about yet.  Youth work is a fantastic service!

Kyle: Youth work has given me the confidence to meet new people, gain qualifications and teach children, young people and professionals about the UNCRC.  I've started to help people whereas before I was doing nothing.

Emme: I've attended youth clubs, I've been a Young Inspector, a member of the Vale Youth Forum and the first Youth Cabinet and I did my 6th form work experience with the Youth Service.  I've had so many opportunities to meet new people, try new things and my experience has been so rewarding.  I'm now about to go onto University and youth work has inspired me to study politics.  

Tom:   

 


Monday 27 June 2016

Youth Excellence Awards 2016

The Youth Excellence Awards took place on Friday 24th June in Llandudno, North Wales and was a fantastic experience.  We won the Youth Excellence Award for most outstanding young person led project in Wales!  To think our school transport project has proved to be a significant piece of work where we have represented the voices of young people in the Vale to a variety of decision-makers is a great achievement of which we are extremly proud of.  To have this recognised on a national level, at the Welsh Government Youth Excellence Awards 2016 is an honour!   

It was wonderful to see so many inspirational young people and youth work projects being recognised for their achievements across Wales and to celebrate Youth Work Week in Wales.  The venue was amazing, the food was delicious and the young people who performed at the event were sooooo good!!  Also a massive congratulations to the Right's Ambassadors and Cadoxton Regeneration Project for representing the Vale and being shortlisted for another two fantastic awards; outstanding rights youth work project and outstanding arts and media project.  What a lovely evening!  

   

Thursday 23 June 2016

Youth Cabinet Meeting - 21.06.2016

Andy Borsden, Lead Officer for Youth and Community Learning at the Council came to our meeting to talk to us about the Youth Offer.  Following a consultation with young people in the Vale last year, Andy wanted to know what we thought and asked us how more young people can be involved in ensuring the Vale Youth Service provides activities and projects young people want.  This looks like it's going to be a big piece of work for the Youth Cabinet and we can't wait to speak to more young people about what they want to be included.

We also prepared for the exciting Youth Excellence Awards that we are attending in Llandudno this coming weekend because our School Transport Report has been shortlisted for an 'outstanding young person led project!  During the meeting we also finalised our new logo, watch this space!

We would like to thank Billy & Jacob from Bro Radio's Youth Show for asking us to come on their show and also Cathie Steele for inviting us to the VIP tent at the Barry Scouts & Girl Guides Fete at Romilly Park on 2nd July.  Looks like its going to be a busy summer! Also congrats to Tom & Dan for receiving their award for being elected onto the new Youth Cabinet at the end of April.

Tuesday 21 June 2016

#SaluteOurForces

This week is Armed Forces Week and events will be taking place all over the UK to show support for the men and women who make up the Armed Forces community (Royal Navy, British Army & Royal Air Force) and risk their lives to protect us.  

The Vale of Glamorgan Council awarded freedom of the County Borough to the ship's company of HMS Cambria and as an early celebration on Saturday 18th June the ships company marched through Barry town and were led by the Band of HM Royal Marines, Plymouth.  There was an impressive ceremony at King's Square in Barry and then they marched through Barry town centre to the Civic Offices where we watched the Armed Forces Day flag being raised whilst celebrating local residents and veterans who have and are part of the Armed Forces community.   

Armed Forces Day will take place on Saturday 25th June but you can get involved by showing your support and #SaluteOurForces for all they do! Find our more information here

Thursday 9 June 2016

The Royal Opening of the 5th NAfW

On Tuesday 7th June, members of the Vale Youth Cabinet, Vale Youth Forum, Llantwit Youth Council, Barry Youth Action and Penarth Youth Action attended the Royal Opening of the fifth National Assembly for Wales where we represented young people from the Vale of Glamorgan. 

The day started off with the rigorous security process that we all had to go through and then we were greeted by Assembly staff who gave us visitor passes and Welsh flags.  Walking single file to the Senedd, we took our places outside the Senedd and we were right at the front! We watched the soldiers march into position with the band playing them in.  The loudest part was definitely the 21 gun salute to mark the arrival of the Queen.  The most important part of the day was seeing the Queen walk right past us, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. 

The experience of watching the Royal Family walking past us was unreal and I none of us will forget it.  Daley even got to give his Welsh flag to the Prince of Wales!  The crowd roared and cheered and we even made it on the TV screens.  You can watch highlights of the ceremony here, don't forget to look out for us waving our flags!



Agoriad Swyddogol / Official Opening

Monday 6 June 2016

Youth Cabinet promote Town Twinning

We attended the Beats, Eats & Treats event at Barry Island on Saturday which had lots of food and craft stalls, music, food demonstrations, the VPod  and play activities on offer. 
We helped promote the work of the Vale Town Twinning Association and met delegates from the Vale twinning towns: Mouscron in Belgium, Fecamp in France and Rheinfelden in Germany. 
There was lots to do and see, we are already looking forward to next year's edition!
 
 

Thursday 12 May 2016

A new Mayor for the Vale!

Last night, we attended the Vale of Glamorgan Council's annual meeting where a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor for the Vale was announced.  The new Mayor is Cllr Stuart Egan and the Deputy is Cllr Edward Williams.  Congratulations to both and we look forward to working with you!  

 

Tuesday 3 May 2016

Meeting update!

Tonight was the first meeting of the new Youth Cabinet.  We invited Jennifer Hill, the Director of Learning & Skills at the Vale of Glamorgan Council to come along and discuss the Trans*Form Cymru Charter and how we can empower and support Trans* young people in our community.  This is something the Youth Cabinet are really supportive of.  We also started to plan our new action plan and discussed the different ways we can support young people living in the Vale.  We also considered a new logo for the Youth Cabinet and started planning short videos to showcase the importance of youth work in the run up to Youth Work Week in Wales. Finally we continued to plan our exciting town twinning youth camp in Mouscron, Belgium.  We cannot wait!!!



Tuesday 26 April 2016

Election time!

Last night was the third Youth Cabinet election.  The election was held at the monthly Vale Youth Forum meeting and 11 VYF members presented their manifestos.  Candidates gave passionate speeches in a chance to be voted as one of six Youth Cabinet members.  Everyone wanted the vote!  The new Youth Cabinet will be in office until September 2017.  Check out this short video for a snippet of the candidates manifestos:


Tuesday 19 April 2016

#YouthVoice


As Youth Mayor I recently attended the Youth Voice Development Programme run by the British Youth Council.  It was a great experience where I met over 200 young people who are involved in youth forums, youth councils and who are also Youth Mayor and Members of UK Youth Parliament.  I took part in lots of workshops to develop essential skills that I can bring to my role and to the Youth Cabinet such as leadership skills; learning how to plan and run campaigns; information about the Don't Hate Educate campaign and much more.  Read this article for more information.







Wednesday 13 April 2016

Strong Communities with a Bright Future

At last night's Youth Cabinet meeting we met with officers from the Vale of Glamorgan Council who discussed the new corporate plan called Strong Communities with a Bright Future. The document sets out what the council wants to achieve for the Vale over the next four years and explains how they are going to do it.  Supporting the well-being of people and communities is really important and they are going to do that in different ways.  A summary of the document can be seen below.

As a Youth Cabinet we are looking forward to working with the council to help design and create a digital animation to help raise awareness of the plan so as many people as possible know about it.  

 

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Young Carers Speak Out!

Last Thursday I attended the Young Carers Speak Out event. It was amazing to see so many young carers at the event, and what was even more pleasing was that young carers from the Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff planned and organised the whole day! 

Some of the results of the Young Carers survey were launched, and it was great to see so many young carers actively getting their voices heard, and hopefully the results from the survey will be acted upon by decision makers in Wales.      

The day was superb, (the young people involved deserve huge congratulations).  There was a magician, photo booth and workshops run by professionals where young carers learnt essential skills such as first aid. Not forgetting the market place, where one stall was even cooking food as a demonstration for the young people.  It goes without saying that it was a big hit with everyone at the event. The market place also had live music, and I can’t forget to mention the Vale Rights Ambassador stall that spread the word of the UNCRC.  The day was a load of fun, and was a well-deserved chance for all the young carers to have a break, from their selfless lives and daily hard work. Dan (Youth Mayor)





Monday 21 March 2016

Q&A with the Youth Mayor




On Thursday the 17th of March, we attended the annual school council event in the Vale of Glamorgan, where 5 school councils attended from across the Vale. It was also great to see so many young people from youth organisations such as youth action groups and the VYF at the event.

I would like to give the Vale Rights Ambassadors a huge congratulation on delivering their rights workshop to all the young people at the event. (And it was their first time!) They delivered a really thought provoking  set of activities, engaging all pupils, whilst learning all about the UNCRC and the rights of children.

The jam-packed day also included sessions hosted by the Vale Youth Service staff on participation and the school councils were able to share ideas of good practice with other school councils.  They were also lucky enough to engage with the co-ordinator of Healthy Schools in the Vale.

Finally, we had the amazing opportunity to talk to all the young people about what we, as Youth Mayor and Deputy Youth Mayor are currently working on, and who we are. Not forgetting the productive Q&A session in which young people asked some really good questions! I can't wait to look at the points raised in the Q&A in more depth, as the young people who asked questions were clearly very passionate about the issues raised. Dan & Bronwen (Youth Mayor & Deputy)

Friday 18 March 2016

#CIYW 2016

Cymru Ifanc - Young Wales is a platform to ensure Welsh Government ministers listen to the views and ideas of young people. 

We attended their annual conference in Cardiff on 05.03.16 which was really interesting.  The conference was chaired by the Deputy Youth Mayor from Merthyr Tydfil and was an opportunity for young people, professionals and Welsh Government to find out what Cymru Ifanc, Young Wales have achieved in the last year.  There were guest speakers including the Children's Commissioner for Wales and we learnt more about the plans for a new curriculum in Wales.  We also took part in workshops around the use of social media and participation and young people's views on mental health services. 


Wednesday 16 March 2016

School Transport update

We just wanted to give you an update on the progress of the Youth Cabinet school transport.

In 2015 we carried out a piece of work around young people's experience of school transport.  This came after young people were sharing their experiences of school transport and some concerns were raised.  We decided to create a survey and consult young people across the Vale to find out their opinions.  We then created a report, a summary document and made several recommendations.

Our recommendations are now being taken to Cabinet for consideration.  As soon as we have any more updates we will keep you posted!



Tuesday 15 March 2016

A new emotional health & well-being service for children and young people

As young people we know that growing up can be stressful and we are under a lot of pressure from things like exams, schools, family and friendships.  So when Cardiff & Vale University Health Board and Cardiff Youth Council asked us if we would like to get involved in a new project around this topic we had to, especially as it had been raised by young people in the Vale before.  

There is going to be a new service available to children and young people in Cardiff and Vale to help our emotional health and well-being.  The new service will help children and young people from developing more severe mental health issues which impact on the rest of their lives.  

The project involved being trained up as a Young Commissioner to help decide who should run the new service.  We took part in a couple of days training where we met professionals from the Health Board and from CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and discussed as a group of young people the following:
  1. What pressures are affecting the emotional health and well-being of children and young people?
  2. What support do children and young people currently have access to?
  3. What do young people need from a new service?
We formed a young person's evaluation panel and interviewed potential organisations.  The organisations had to apply to the Health Board, just like you would apply for a job! They delivered a presentation and we questioned them on their plans.  We also met the Director of Public Health at Cardiff & Vale Health Board, Dr Sharon Hopkins, who congratulated us on our involvement in the project.  It was great to work with youth councillors from Cardiff Youth Council and we also received time credits for our involvement - which we can't wait to spend!!  


UKYP: Don't Hate Educate!



As mentioned the Member of UK Youth Parliament and the Deputy UK Youth Parliament member are currently working on the national priority which is tackling racism and religious discrimination.  A few weeks ago we made a little video talking about our roles and the campaign for this year which is called Don't Hate, Educate.  Please see the above slides for more information about the UKYP national campaign.

My year with the Children's Commissioner for Wales

Sally Holland is the Children's Commissioner for Wales and she works young people around Wales and Welsh Government to promote children's rights. I've been heavily involved and have worked closely with the Children Commissioner for Wales office and over the past year and three months.  I have been involved in the recruitment of  Sally Holland and have helped her into her role along with other young people from across Wales. 

So how did it start? 

After the previous Children's Commissioner for Wales, Keith Towler, finished his term, I joined a young persons recruitment panel to find the next Children's Commissioner for Wales.  There were 63 applicants who all wanted the post. That was watered down to 7, and with an adult panel, I and other young people narrowed that down to 5 for interviewing. 
The young persons panel had the opportunity to interview these candidates, and we had our say on who was the best for the role.   After a nail-biting final decision we decided that Sally Holland was the most appropriate. 


We've met up with her since then to give her our viewpoints on how she should work with young people, and she's very proactive when it comes to working with other children and young people around Wales. She will be the Children's Commissioner for Wales for the next 7 years. This process was beneficial for the the young people involved, and it was an incredibly successful piece of work as it was the first time young people were involved in the recruitment process. We also have our first female Children's Commissioner for Wales too.  


Sally has recently launched the areas of work she will be focusing on following her Beth Nesa? What's next? consultation.  Take a look at the video for more information.








Tuesday 8 March 2016

Contact1Vale, My Travel Pass & International Women's Day!

In our meeting on the eighth of March, we discussed a new app that was being developed called Contact1Vale.  It's an app for the Vale Of Glamorgan. By using the app users will be able to report issues in their local areas, such as potholes, and there are many links to information that the users would want to know, such as events in the Vale and general council information. This is made accessible to the users. As young people, we questioned how we could make other young people want to use the app. We felt that by containing information for young people and by showing young people what's available for them would enable us to promote the app amongst the youth.

We also completed two surveys: one was about our satisfaction in leisure centres, the second about Welsh Government's new Travel Pass scheme, offering young people discounts on bus travel in Wales. Finally, a big congratulations to Bronwen and Dan, who received certificates for 50 and 100 Millennium Volunteer hours. A great achievement and a display of great commitment.

Also, happy international women's day!!


Tuesday 23 February 2016

Our meeting with Cabinet

Tonight we met with the Vale of Glamorgan Cabinet, we meet with them once every term.

As usual, the meeting was very productive and feedback from the cabinet members was positive. We told them about the activities and meetings we have been involved in over the past few months and they were all impressed with the amount of work we've been involved in, from our monthly youth cabinet meetings, to attending the Holocaust Memorial Day event and meeting with the Children's Commissioner for Wales.

We also discussed future plans for the Youth Cabinet, in the coming months.  We updated the Cabinet on the progress of our school transport report and our response from Edwina Hart, Welsh Government Minister for Economy, Science and Transport.  Then we discussed how the council are planning to make savings - it's a difficult job to do!! Cabinet discussed some important projects we are hoping to get involved in in the future such as an NHS Orchard and raising awareness of Young Carers.  These are areas we definitely want to get involved in as youth cabinet members!

Campaign for The Children and Young People's Assembly for Wales: what do young people want?

At the Vale Youth Forum meeting last night and as discussed at a recent youth cabinet meeting we talked about a current campaign being run to find out what young people want from the National Assembly for Wales. On the 5th May, people in Wales will vote for the next National Assembly for Wales and we need to make sure the politicians know what's important to young people and what we want them to do for us!  You can also get involved in the campaign and give your views and opinions by emailing: engagement@cypaw.wales.

    




Do you know about the Children and Young People Partnership?


VOG Members of UK Youth Parliament



Although the Youth Cabinet is a voice for young peole in the Vale of Glamorgan it's important that the views of young people in our area are taken into account outside of the Vale.  A lot of decisions are made that affect young people at the National Assembley for Wales and also at the UK Government in Westminster. 

Did you know that young people from the Vale can get involved in decision-making at Westminster too? This is called the UK Youth Parliament.  Please watch our video for more information.

Who is the VOG Youth Mayor 2015-16?


Do you know who the Youth Mayor and Deputy Youth Mayor in the Vale of Glamorgan is? Watch this video to find out more.



Monday 1 February 2016

Welcome!

Welcome to the Vale of Glamorgan Youth Cabinet blog.

We want to make sure that we keep you up to date with the work that we do as youth cabinet members.  It's our job to make sure the views of young people in the Vale are being listened to and that decision makers know what issues affect young people.  This will help professionals who provide services for young people know what we want and what we need.