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.

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.

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!      

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!

 

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!

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!

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.