Universal Children’s Day

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

Welsh Youth Parliament Elections

The Welsh Youth Parliament supports the voice of young people in Wales, on the issues you care about, at a national level.

If you’re 11 and up to 18 years old, and go to school or college in Wales, then register to vote today – so you can decide who represents you in the Welsh Youth Parliament.

60 young people aged 11 – 18 will become Welsh Youth Parliament Members. You’ll elect 40 of them by voting in the election in November 2021. You can discover all the candidates and vote for the candidate you want to represent you via the Welsh Youth Parliament Website. To be able to vote in the Welsh Youth Parliament elections you’ll have to register first.

Registration is online and takes less than 5 minutes.

You have until 5pm on 12 November 2021 to register. Don’t miss out

USING YOUR VOTE

From the 18 October 2021 you’ll be able to see all the candidates who are standing to be a Welsh Youth Parliament Member where you live.

You’ll be able to read their bio and decide which one you think represents how you think and feel about the issues you care about. Vote for who you want to represent you in the Welsh Youth Parliament.

If you have registered to vote by 29 October you’ll receive an email on 1 November with instructions on how to vote.

If you register between 29 October – 12 November you’ll receive your email instructions on 15 November.

You can vote online anytime between 1 November 2021 and 22 November 2021.

Be part of your future and register to vote: Nominations (mi-nomination.com)

Find your Candidates here: Candidates (senedd.wales)

Young Wales Conference – Cardiff 2017

young wales conference 2017

Seven CYC members represented the youth council at the Young Wales Conference at the Future Inn Hotel in Cardiff Bay in February.

The day was hosted by two young people from the Young Wales Project Board who did a really professional job.

The conference was spilt into different sections including workshops developed by the project board and co delivered alongside professionals.

The interactive workshops covered a range of areas including mental health and well-being, bullying, climate change and school curriculum.

During lunch there was an opportunity for young people to visit stands in the market place as well as have a say on the development of the proposed National Youth Assembly for Wales.

Participants also had the chance to use the photo booth which was very popular indeed!

During the afternoon session there was a video message from Carl Sargeant AM & Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children and a presentation by Professor Sally Holland, Children’s Commissioner for Wales on her work over the past year.

David Abadir (16), CYC Vice Chair said ‘Not only was the conference good fun, it gave young people from across the country the chance to meet up and discuss the work that they were doing and share ideas’

To finish off the conference there was a question & answer session were young people were able to put questions to a panel, which including the Children’s Commissioner and Assembly Members.

United Nations Universal Day Of The Child Celebration

The globally recognised day for children’s rights was marked by CYC with an event at County Hall on Monday 21st of November.

A range of key decision makers and partners joined CYC members including Council Directors, Senior Politicians, representatives from Welsh Government Ministerial Office, 3rd sector partners and the Children’s Commissioners Office.

As well as championing children’s rights participants were served afternoon tea and played a range of rights based games.

The busy programme included showcasing the positive impact of the work developed by CYC in 2015/16, learning about Rights Respecting Schools, announcing youth priorities for Cardiff 2016, and recognising schools roll in this year’s Make Your Mark Programme.

CYC Chairperson Xinyu Ye (17) said ‘We think it is important to bring together key decision makers to raise awareness of the importance of children’s rights and highlight examples of work which comes as a result of children being able to have their rights met’

CYC working for improved mental health services

CYC Member Maegan Davies John (18) is representing young people from Cardiff on a national reference group which aims to enable the views of young people to be fed into the work of Vaughan Gething, Minister for Health.

The Mental Health Reference Group is supported by Young Wales and the first meeting took place in early October.

Maegan said ‘The meeting was really productive with young people exploring developments in Wales that try to improve mental health services for children and young people and how the group could have an influence on the developments taking place here in Wales.’

Maegan had the opportunity to share MindHub (www.MindHub.wales) the online resource for young people and their families developed by CYC to provide young people and those that support them access to a range of information in a quick way.

The group hope to meet again before Christmas to look at some of the statements that Together for Children & Young People have developed around what a young person should expect if they need to be seen by CAMHS.

Second Grand Council event 23/03

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 🙂

Don’t Hate, Educate

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 🙂

Time Credits

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;

time creds.jpg

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!)

 

 

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone,

Firstly, sorry for activity being a bit slow over Christmas, but now we’re back!

Just to remind everyone of the meeting we have coming up tomorrow, and to show you the agenda that’s been prepared for tomorrow, here it is;

photo (2).jpgWe have some really exciting news to share with you all about the Mental Health priority, and we’ll be doing some important work on all of our priorities this week, so it’d be great to see you all there!

As always, a warm welcome to any new members, and if you have any questions at all feel free to get in touch 🙂

Look out for some exciting updates really soon!!

Thanks again,

Mae and CYC 🙂

 

Grand Council Event 7/12

Hey guys,

So this Monday, as some of you know, a “Grand Council Event” will be taking place.  I thought you might like a bit of an overview of how the event will be happening, and what it’s all about.

Firstly, that it’s this Monday the 7th of December, to begin at 9:30am at the City Hall.

Secondly, that CYC will help facilitate three of these events over the course of the academic year, and this one is the first! This time, the focus will be “What Matters to Future Generations”, and all the young people that come along will be presented with the valuable opportunity to voice their opinion on the councils budget proposals and “What Matters”, the city’s strategic plan. As we all know, how the council decides to spend its money could have a huge impact on the services available to us and our families, so having your say could be really important.

Here’s a timetable showing the format of the days proceedings;

Time     Activity

9.30      Welcome and registration

9.45       Housekeeping/outline of day/group contract

9.50       Official Welcome and Cardiff Vision for the future

10.00      Short Term Strategic Planning- Table top group discussions       around the councils budget proposals

10.45      Medium Term Strategic Planning- Round 1 Of Workshops

Each group should identify a facilitator, a timekeeper and a reporter. 

  • People in Cardiff are healthy; 
  • People in Cardiff have a clean, attractive and sustainable environment;
  • People in Cardiff are safe and feel safe

11.20       Round 2 Of Workshops

Each group should identify a facilitator, a timekeeper and a reporter

  • Cardiff has a thriving and prosperous economy;
  • People in Cardiff achieve their full potential

12.00      Future Diff Creative Workshop

Artist led workshop where delegates use cardboard boxes to make Cardiff City landscape. Delegates answer following questions and stick sheet to their building and tweet last answer using #futurediff

  • What is the best thing about living in Cardiff?
  • What needs improving the most in Cardiff?
  • How would you advertise your perfect Cardiff in one sentence/slogan

12.30      Working lunch and carry on Future Diff workshop

1.00         Round 3 Of Workshops

Each group should identify a facilitator, a timekeeper and a reporter

  • Cardiff is a great place to live, work and play;
  • Cardiff is a fair, just and inclusive society.

1.30        Chambers Debate

Jointly chaired by CYC Chair and Cllr Dan De’Ath. Delegates debate a themed session around the 7 key areas of “What Matters”. Each area is introduced by workshop generated 1 minute message. Graphic recording to be made by artist, session to be audio recorded.

2.30         The end (…until the next one!) 

 

You can find more information about the Plan to make Cardiff “A Livable City” here.

Otherwise, if you have any questions about the event, feel free to contact us on Facebook through our page Cardiff Youth Council, or to email me at maegandaviesjohn@outlook.com. You can also tweet us @cardiffyc.

Hope to see lots of you at the event, and remember to share this with anyone who might be interested! We can provide you with a permission slip if the event coincides with school or college or whatever.

See you soon!

Mae and CYC 🙂