cardiff council – Cardiff Youth Council

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 🙂

Don’t Hate, Educate

January 31, 2016February 8, 2016Cardiff 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 🙂

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!)

Happy New Year!

January 12, 2016January 12, 2016Cardiff Youth Council

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;

We 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 🙂

Exciting Times

December 14, 2015December 15, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Hey everyone,

On Wednesday, the 16th of December we have an important meeting- following last month’s discussion of the priorities, we’re now ready to formulate action plans and start working towards our goals- positive change in Cardiff under these categories;

Living Wage
Curriculum For Life
Tackling Racial and Religious Discrimination
Mental Health
Transport

You can read more about them below, and feel free to ask any questions you have on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or by emailing me on maegandaviesjohn@outlook.com

This month we also have a really important opportunity to shape the new mental health service in Cardiff!

Hopefully we’ll see lots of you there, and remember new members are always welcome 🙂

Thanks,

Mae and CYC

Grand Council Event 7/12

December 4, 2015December 6, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

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 🙂

Belated Update on Fayre

November 9, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Hello again!

If some of you haven’t heard already, quite a few Saturdays ago (26th September) we held our one and only Anniversary Fair for the 60th twinning anniversary of Cardiff and our wonderful sister city Stuttgart. It had taken weeks of planning and the hard work paid off. Cardiff Youth Council volunteers were there for the duration of the fair which had started earlier than planned – from 1pm until around 4 o’clock. As Jugendrat Stuttgart and Cardiff Youth Council have been working in collaboration for a key part of this 60 year long so far twinning, we felt it was a sister city’s duty to help promote our fabulous twin.

At the fayre we had a variety of fairground type stalls:

* Name the teddy bear (with German names, of course!)

* Guess the number of sweets in the jar

* Face painting (by a very talented newly recruited member of CYC)

And on top of these very popular mini stalls, we had a German taster session in the corner, a quick fun lesson of the numbers 1-12 in German by a member of our partner organization the Cardiff-Stuttgart Association, Claudia (many thanks!!)

We saw parallels once again in our two wonderful cultures, this time in language, in an exercise that allowed people to see just how easy it is to pick in German, if only just a couple of cool words to whip out as a party trick!

For those of you who don’t know, Stuttgart is an urban city in Germany, a highly eco-friendly and green city, one that is modern and well-developed yet with much historical culture, which 10 members of CYC have been lucky enough to be flying over to see this month, finishing up this special year’s work on the 60th anniversary of twinning!

See you all on Facebook and Twitter, and in our next meeting which will take place on the 18th November!

Thanks all!

CYC

CYC’s Stuttgart Adventures: Installment drei!

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

So, it’s time for the third installment of Adventures of CYC in Stuttgart!

We began the day by spending a few hours in Stuttgart’s zoo; where we saw vibrant flamingos, adorably cuddly gorillas, munching fruit bats (who are far from the scary blood sucking stereotypical bat), exotic bird species from tropical areas of the world, and many more.

The zoo was highly enjoyable and even for those who weren’t head-over-heels for animals before, I think it’s safe to say that there’s definitely a new found soft spot for at least some these beautiful and majestic creatures. (ft. Stuttgart’s very own Dory and Nemo – safe and sound)

One of our CYC members, Luke has a new found friendship with this fluffy mammal. Meanwhile, this undying love between Mae and Alaw was rediscovered.

Our mischievous mob did have to bid farewell to the zoo and move onto the next element of the day; the city tour! This was our opportunity to see and view all the great projects that our counterparts are working on currently. And so it starts…

One thing all touring members did notice was the fantastic amount of artwork around the city. Albeit, graffiti, street art, architectural prowess or just the skyline at dusk.

All of our members left this inspiring tour with a fresh view on urban life. We had the opportunity to see one of Stuttgart’s many urban rooftop gardens, which now, of course in the midst of autumn, has been turned to a venue available to hire for those parties or gatherings you may wish to host.

Even this seemingly plain multistory car park holds so much creativity, on the walk up you would just see sneak peaks of each individual artists stamp on their area.

Just along the outskirts of this carpark was one of the projects Jugendrat Stuttgart had been working on for 3 years. Consisting of Dutsch inspired skate ramps which doubled up as a ‘chill zone’, 3G Football pitch and a wall for legal graffiti.

To end our hectically busy, yet highly rewarding day, we wound down and visited a youth centre on the other side of the city and cooked our own meals. After filling up on lots of scrumptious food, games of pool were played while our 2 lovely singer song writers accompanied us with more of their original creations.

Thank you Stuttgart for another wonderful day!

Curriculum For Life

October 4, 2015October 4, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Hey everyone, happy Sunday!

Last year, one of the priorities which emerged from the Make Your Mark ballot and onto CYC’s agenda, was “Curriculum For Life”- this means that a large number of young people felt that the education they received at school wasn’t adequate in preparing them for the “real-world” challenges they would face after leaving. Not just that- the curriculum doesn’t prepare us for the challenges we face now, it fails to provide us with the skills and information we need to live happy, healthy lives; the emphasis on grades and exams is such that young people are increasingly unable to cope with the pressure.

We decided to conduct a survey on what young people thought of their PSE lessons, what content they think is missing, and how they think they could be improved.

The results were… interesting. Young people from different schools all over Cardiff took part, and the most notable thing about the results, were the inconsistencies that they showed us. There is no real structure, or any set curriculum for PSE, meaning there are huge differences in the quality of the teaching some people received- though quite a few people claimed they were happy with their PSE lessons, we question what this means when over half weren’t convinced… are some people just happy to have a free lesson which doesn’t mean anything, to do nothing in? Either way, it was unanimously agreed that there’s a lot missing from our lessons, from important topics like citizenship, first aid and mental health awareness to having a qualified specialist doing the teaching.

We turned the most important results into an infographic, which can be seen here; Infographic_v2 (4)

What do you think these results mean? Do you agree? What should be done about it? Let us know in the comments, or on Twitter, or Facebook!

Thank you to everyone who came to September’s meeting, and we’ll look forward to seeing you later this month!