young people – Cardiff Youth Council

Universal Children’s Day

November 20, 2021November 19, 2021Cardiff 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

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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’

Young Wales Conference – Cardiff 2017

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017Cardiff Youth Council

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.

Race and Religious Discrimination Campaign

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017Cardiff Youth Council

CYC members have been busy developing 2 key actions. Firstly we have developed an online survey to be delivered in high schools across Cardiff. The survey aims to capture the views of both pupils and staff around the issues of race and religious discrimination. We hope that it will identify good practice in dealing with these issues and highlight any areas to be addressed.

We would like to thank St Illtyds School for successfully trialling the survey including working with pupils to develop actions plans.

Our second action has been to develop a flyer that promotes tolerance and inclusion in Cardiff and for CYC members to distribute them at a series high profile community events. This month we were joined by Wales Football Manager Chris Coleman on the St David’s March through the city. Thanks for supporting our campaign Chris!

The group now plan to join the Stand Up Against Racism Protest on 18^th March. So please come and join us at the start at Grange Gardens at 11.30am.

Making Rights A Reality — Our Grand Council

December 14, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

100 children and young people from across 26 schools came together to discuss the important issues of children’s rights at this months Grand Council event at Cardiff City Hall.

The high profile event was sponsored by Cardiff Council Cabinet Member for Democracy and Citizen Engagement Dan De’Ath who opened the event stating ‘We need you to tell us what a Child Friendly City looks like because you are the experts! All the work and ideas developed throughout today’s event will shape our thinking and inform the way forward for Cardiff’.

Delegates had a busy day-long programme including taking part in workshops on democracy and children’s rights then breaking into teams to develop their vision of a Child Friendly City.

Each team looked into 3 elements communication, governance and democracy. After a short lunch break teams then returned to the council chamber to present their vision with one team even righting a song!

One young delegate from Greenhill School said that ‘he enjoyed the day so much, he was buzzing’

Cardiff Council will now take the findings from the Grand Council and use it to develop their city wide vision to embed children’s rights across the city.

An application to form a partnership with global charity Unicef will take place by the end of the year hopefully leading to a range of programmes for 2017 onwards.

United Nations Universal Day Of The Child Celebration

December 14, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

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, 3^rd 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

December 14, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

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.

Cardiff Youth Service launches pledge developed by CYC

December 14, 2016December 14, 2016Cardiff 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!

All Aboard The ARC – Young Interviewers Programme

December 14, 2016December 14, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

9 Cardiff Youth Council members completed Young Interviewers training and have gone straight to working alongside colleagues from Children’s Services.

The Young Interviewers took part in 2 rounds of interviews for positions within the new Adolescent Resource Centre (ARC) based in Fairwater. The advert for the posts of Senior Support Worker and Support Worker received lots of attention with a range of great candidates being shortlisted.

Our team of Young Interviewers completed 16 interviews over 2 evenings. Each interview consisted of 6 separate tasks with candidates being asked to move from interview style activities to making a poster!

The scoring went on late into the evening but the team were fuelled by the local fish and chip shop.

ARC Team Manager Carys Davies said ‘The Young Interviewers were great, we couldn’t have done it without them!’

Young Interviewer, Rose Melhuish (15) said ‘It was great fun but it was also important to have young people involved as the successful candidates will be working with young people and their families’.

The ARC will provide integrated support for young people aged 11-17 years, who are at risk of becoming looked after by the local council (LAC). It will provide an outreach service for families in crisis and will work both within the Centre and at the family home if required.

We wish the team all the very best!

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 🙂