opportunities – Cardiff Youth Council

The Votes are in… CYC Elections

August 11, 2017Cardiff Youth Council

AND THE VOTES ARE IN…..
CYC have been busy electing 4 members to significant posts in the organisation. Firstly we thanked the 4 CYC members who were stepping down. CYC had a great year and a lot of this was down to the leadership and commitment from those folks who were successful in last years election.

Our new Chair is Stephanie Ezeadum (17), she was MYP last year and is studying for her A levels at Cathedral School.

C Y C ELECTIONS
Our new Vice Chair is Ed Jones (16) a student at Cardiff High and a member of CYC for 2 years. Ed said ‘I am passionate about young people having their voice

heard and look forward to representing the views of young people over the next year!’ Our 2 new elected Members of Youth Parliament for Cardiff are David Abadir (17) and Tabitha Balogun (17). David told CYC members ‘Thank you for voting for me and I will ensure I will work hard to represent Cardiff not only in the House of Commons but throughout the year here in the constituency’

CYC Meetings Dates for 2017/18

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017Cardiff Youth Council

These are the dates and venues for this coming year’s CYC meetings, all welcome:

26th April 2017 (City Hall)

May 2017—No meeting (Exams)

21st June 2017 (Roots)

12th July 2017 (Roots)

20th September 2017 (City Hall)

25th October 2017 (City Hall)

15th November 2017 (City Hall)

13th December 2017 (City Hall)

17th January 2018 (City Hall)

7th February 2018 (City Hall)

14th March 2017 (City Hall)

Arrival at 4.30pm refreshments and public transport tickets reimbursement

Meetings start by 5pm.

Finish 7pm

CYC Met With Future Generations Commissioner

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017Cardiff Youth Council

Seven CYC members went to meeting Sophie Howe, Further Generations Commissioner in January. The meeting enabled young people to find out more about the role of the Future Generations Commissioner as well as raise concerns and share key issues raised by young people.

CYC Member James Martin (16) said ‘It was great to meet Sophie, she was friendly and explained her role which covers a lot of things’

Issues discussed included Brexit, the M4 relief road and the future career pathways for young people.

Families First Review

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017Cardiff Youth Council

The Active Involvement Team (AIT) have been running workshops across the city to enable young people to take part in a review of the Families First Programme.

Families First provides support for families across 50 services and has been running in Cardiff for the last four years but it is now coming to the end of its funding cycle.

As part of the development of Families First services and possible re-commissioning AIT developed a 1 hour workshop to provide a platform for young people to identify issues that their families face and to highlight potential solutions.

Participation Worker Lee Richards said ‘It’s been really great over 200 young people have taken part in the workshops with more planned in the coming weeks. We would like to take this time to thank the services, staff and most importantly the young people that have given up their time to help us’

Parliament Take Over!

December 14, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

On Friday 11^th November, Elin Bold and Stephanie Ezeadum, Members of Youth Parliament for Cardiff debated a range of topical issues, including the need for a ‘curriculum for life’ and tackling racial and religious discrimination in the House of Commons. Elin gave a speech on her ideas for a ‘better, kinder democracy’.

276 Members of Youth Parliament from across the UK participated in the debate and have been elected by their peers to represent them with proceedings being chaired by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP.

This year’s UK Youth Parliament’s sitting will have marked the 7th year that MYP’s have debated on the green benches of the House of Commons. The sitting heralds the start of UK Parliament Week, an annual festival of events intended to connect communities across the UK with their democracy. This year’s Make Your Mark ballot to decide the topics of the Youth Parliament’s debate in the House of Commons, received a record number of ballots, reaching 978,216 young people. This cemented Make Your Mark as the biggest youth consultation of its kind in UK history, with almost two million young people aged 11-18 taking part in the last two years.

The debates where broadcast on BBC Parliament.

Members of Youth Parliament voted to campaign on votes at 16 and a curriculum for life (devolved England issue only) in 2017 with 112,687 young people across the UK voting to lower the voting age to 16 as their top priority in the recent Make Your Mark ballot.

Votes at 16 has been a campaign for the UK Youth Parliament for several years and there were passionate speeches made for the campaign in the House of Commons Chamber.

Second Grand Council event 23/03

March 19, 2016March 19, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

Hey guys!

As some of you will know, as part of its plan to engage more with young people and CYC, Cardiff Council are working with us to produce three Grand Council events at the City Hall this year; the first of which that was held in December, on the theme of “What Matters to Future Generations” was a great success.

We’re really looking forward to meeting young people from schools colleges and youth organisations all over Cardiff this March for our second installment, in order to discuss how Cardiff can achieve UNICEF “Child Friendly City” status. This status would recognise Cardiff as a city committed to fulfilling children’s rights.

You can find out more about this initiative here.

We’ll be looking at the criteria needed to meet this, and will have the opportunity to offer solutions from the perspective of young people to the challenges Cardiff faces in becoming “Child Friendly”.

Here are the basic points that have to be met:

Young people…

know and understand their rights know about the services available and how to access them
have a say in the design, delivery and evaluation of services
experience connected, tailored and responsive services, even if their needs are complex
feel safe, nurtured, prioritised and are treated with dignity.

For those of you who have received confirmation of their place at the event, I’ll look forward to seeing you there! Remember that the event is being held at Cardiff City Hall, Cathays Park, 9:30-2:00, and light refreshments and a packed lunch will be provided.

And for those of you who are not attending the event- is there anything you’d like to comment on with regards to Cardiff becoming a “Child-Friendly City?” If you have any remarks, questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions regarding any of the above points, or anything else, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

You can comment on this post, tweet us @cardiffyc, get in touch via our Facebook page, or send an email to me at maegandaviesjohn@outlook.com.

Thanks for reading guys, and remember to like and share!

Mae and CYC 🙂

Time Credits

January 25, 2016January 25, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

A message to those of you who aren’t sure what these are,

Time credits are those pieces of paper, fondly nicknamed, “monopoly money” by some members of CYC. Some of you have been receiving these since the start of this academic year, and to those who haven’t, they look something like this;

The whole principle of these tokens is, that for every hour you spend helping out in the community, you get something in return- that’s why for every hour you spend at a CYC meeting, and working on your campaign in the office, you sign off for another on of these.

As lovely as they may look stuck on the wall as wallpaper, or as a decorative cover on one of your schoolbooks, or even making you feel that much richer by sitting there building up into a massive pile in your wallet, I think it’s about time we get out there and spend them. On what, I hear you cry! Well, it actually is pretty exciting. You can do a whole range of things, from going to the gym, to getting your hair cut, to working up a sweat at a Zumba class, to rock climbing, touring the stadium, or a farm, or a castle, to watching a movie… check out the list for yourself, here!

If NONE of that catches your fancy, which I doubt, you can also donate your time credits to an organisation that could use them to give children opportunities to play, and have fun in the community… or even give them to a friend or family member to use!

So get out there, and spend!

See you soon,

Mae and CYC

(Remember to comment, share, tweet, whatever if you have any questions!)