Category: politics

Universal Children’s Day

Universal Children’s Day

Cardiff Youth Council

World Children’s Day started way back in 1954 as “Universal Children’s Day” and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare.

Since 1990, World Children’s Day also marks the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the Declaration and the Convention on children’s rights. We use this day to celebrate the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and improving the lives of young people right across the world.

Cardiff Youth Council want to make you more aware of the impact and significance of these days and how the UNCRC has improved the lives of children and young people across the world.

The World is not perfect…but the welfare for young people right across the world has improved. The amount of young people feeling safe has improved. The amount of provision and access to youth services has improved. Most importantly “Children and young people have a voice and a choice in decisions that affect them” – (Article 12 UNCRC).

There is still more that can be done. There are always ways to improve and reach more young people improving their lives and providing more opportunities. Today we celebrate all our achievements and the developments towards a brighter future for all children and young people and we ask you to take one small step in reaching that goal. Lets all raise awareness of Universal Children’s Day.

Kyle: Cardiff Youth Council Member

Spread the word with a tweet and help us share the message for Universal Children’s Day!

#UCDCardiff

The Votes are in… CYC Elections

Cardiff Youth Council

 

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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’

 

Participation Standards Meeting With AM

Participation Standards Meeting With AM

Cardiff Youth Council

Assembly Member meeting

Young Inspectors Chloe and Angharad met with Mark Isherwood conservative Assembly Member for North Wales to talk to him about the recent work that has been carried out on the refreshed National Participation Standards and how the framework is being used in Cardiff.

Mark was very keen to hear how young people had helped in the new developments and their views on the forth coming National Youth Assembly. Chloe and Angharad were joined by Josh chair of the Young Wales Project Board.

The new revamped National Participation Standards can be seen here on the right and copies can be ordered at:

cardiffyouthcouncil@cardiff.gov.uk

Standards Poster

Fitzalan High School Develop Community Manifesto

Fitzalan High School Develop Community Manifesto

Cardiff Youth Council

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The iSay Ambassadors Team worked with pupils from Fitzalan High School as part of their Eisteddfod celebrations early this month.

After receiving a workshop to enable participants to understand children’s rights, democracy and participation the young people then split into groups to create a manifesto and discuss issues present in the areas they live.

The community manifesto will now be made available to candidates in the local election taking place in May so they can help work on the issues raised by pupils, which included concerns over safe playing areas, littering, dog fouling, quality of local services and substance misuse.

 

CYC Met With Future Generations Commissioner

CYC Met With Future Generations Commissioner

Cardiff Youth Council

future generations commissioner meeting

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.

Parliament Take Over!

Parliament Take Over!

Cardiff Youth Council

house-of-commons-sitting-2015

On Friday 11th 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.

 

Young People Shout Out!

Young People Shout Out!

Cardiff Youth Council

CYC have been busy coordinating the UK Youth Parliament Make Your Mark Ballot here in Cardiff once again. CYC members have been contacting schools and youth groups all across the city to take part in the biggest youth consultation for 11-18 year olds in Europe. This year we had over 9500 young people from across the city take part and cast their votes.     The top 3 issues voted for by young people were in 2016 were:

A curriculum should prepare us for life: School should cover topics including finance, sex & relationships and politics in the curriculum.

Tackling racism and religious discrimination, particularly against people who are Muslim or Jewish :

All young people should work together to combat racism and other forms of discrimination, and ensure we know the danger of such Hatred.

First aid education for all young people: All young people should learn basic First Aid on a regular basis , including CPR and all schools in the UK should have a defibrillator.

 

Cardiff Youth Service launches pledge developed by CYC

Cardiff Youth Service launches pledge developed by CYC

Cardiff Youth Council

Cardiff Youth Council developed a series of workshops to be run with children and young people across the city. These workshops highlighted the importance of children’s rights and enabled participants to choose rights that were really important to them.

Youth Council members then developed these rights into a series of statements, these were then sent to Cardiff Youth Service Management requesting them to consider how the newly restructured youth service could embed these rights into their work.

As a direct result Cardiff Youth Service has now developed a ‘Pledge’ to young people. They launched the CYS Pledge in the autumn term and now staff plan against the pledge and it forms part of the staff development process!

Well done Cardiff Youth Service!

Don’t Hate, Educate

Don’t Hate, Educate

Cardiff Youth Council

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to tell everyone that there’s a new campaign page up and running for CYC – #DontHateEducate

This page has been set up by Cardiff Youth Council members to support our priority of tackling racial and religious discrimination in Cardiff, if you’d like more information on how the UK Youth Parliament as a whole are taking on this priority, then click here.

This is a really important issue, so please show your support by liking and sharing our new page:  https://www.facebook.com/donthateeducatecyc/

Look out for upcoming events, and please make sure to attend and show your support!

Thank you for reading,

Stay awesome.

Xinyu, and CYC 🙂