education – 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!)

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 🙂

First Aid In The Curriculum

November 20, 2015November 20, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

Hello,

So firstly, thank you to everyone who came to November’s meeting- we’ll summarize on here what steps we managed to make in deciding what our priorities mean within the next week.

Today, however, I saw something in the news which I think will be interesting to those who feel passionately about the fact that we need to improve the education system to prepare us for life. Our PSE survey last year, featuring 1030 young people, showed us that most pupils aren’t taught first aid at school, but that they would like to be.

This article claims that the opportunity to vote on the issue was totally missed, as the allocated time for this bill was totally taken up by the education secretary and other MP’s blabbing on about it for ridiculous amounts of time- one of them for a full 50 minutes.

The group of MPs used up the bill’s time by talking for hours, with one speech by an education minister described by the deputy speaker as like reading a “telephone book” out loud.

Is this fair?

Do you agree with any of the arguments given by those who oppose it as to why it should not even be considered, and why they don’t think a vote should be granted on the issue?

Those arguments include;

“he himself had been taught first aid in school but had forgotten what he was taught.”

“he did not want “the Government to be sticking their nose in at every turn trying to lecture [teachers] every five minutes that they should be doing this, that, and the other”.

According to the St John’s Ambulance team, it’s a matter of life or death whether a child is taught first aid- is it common sense that we should all know what to do should an incident occur, and that educating at a young age would be a good way to ensure this?

Let us know what you think, and if there are any stories in the news you think are important to young people, feel free to let us know. Additionally, if there’s any relevant topic you’d like to write about, you can!

Thanks again,

Mae and CYC 🙂

November Meeting

November 17, 2015November 17, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

It’s that time again!

Attaching the agenda for this month’s meeting which is taking place tomorrow, on the 18th of November; as always, we’ll be at the City Hall from 4:30pm reimbursing bus/train tickets, giving time credits, and for refreshments, before getting started at 5pm. Here’s how the evening’s set to look – CYC Meeting Agenda November 18th 2015 City Hall (1)

It’s an important one, as we’ll be starting to look at our new priorities properly for the first time, and debating what they mean to us, and how we can work on them.

Hope to see you all there!

Mae and CYC 🙂

The Results Are In!

November 3, 2015November 5, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

As most of you know by now, CYC members, and young members of the British Youth Council all over the UK have been working hard to co-ordinate the biggest youth consultation in Britain… and the results are in! The UK results can be found here, but here is a detailed account of the findings in Cardiff.

Unfortunately, there was only a turnout of 38% among Cardiff’s school pupils… but altogether, we managed to collect the views of over 7,000 young people, which is great! Hopefully next year, you can help us make that number even bigger?

The top four were an interesting mix, with Living Wage coming out on top, followed by Curriculum 4 Life, Tackling Racism and Religious Discrimination, and at fourth, Mental Health. On the 18th of November, Cardiff Youth Council will be coming together for their monthly all members meeting, where a discussion will take place about what these results mean, and how we can go forward in tackling these really important issues for young Cardiffians all over the city. Come and be a part of the discussion!

Have a read through the rest of the results, and make sure you let us know what you think in the comments, or on Twitter, Facebook, or our new Instagram account. See you there, thanks again guys 🙂

Last day! sniffle

November 1, 2015November 2, 2015Cardiff Youth Council

So for the last final time, we wake up in this wonderful city. Day 5!

After much hard work throughout our stay, we were treated to a visit to the Mercedes museum.

12194139_905768222846177_626059857_o — A bit excited, are we?

I’ll let the fabulously stylish, timeline-style museum tell you its own story! Enjoy the cars 🙂

11667003_843879259064245_524835275_n — Even the building itself was awesome to look at

Museum Collage 2 — old models v. new ones- which do you prefer?

It’s important to remember the old guys which took us around for so long before we had the very first car.

The unlimited supply of cool displays and of course, the authentic logo.

Okay I may go back on my word, I really don’t think just those pictures alone do that magnificent museum justice. Even for someone who isn’t that into cars, I still found that this was a good walk through history. You started your tour from the top of this building and moved your way down through all that’s been. Starting the journey right back to the times of horse and carriage and then all the way to an inside views of the modern race car’s highly complex engine.

Not only a fine history lesson, but also a great life lesson. The struggles that the company faced after WWII were very real and they dealt with the issues incredibly well.

All good things must come to an end, all aboard for back to Cardiff!

To round up this wonderfully eye-opening trip, I think it’s fair to say everyone had given their 100% effort throughout the trip, evident in the many sleepy heads on our journey back.

And there are a few people we must thank for this trip – our lovely youth workers and Michael for organising this trip, for keeping us fed and entertained, for showing us life in a different light in the 5 short days we spent together.

12197393_905768146179518_1709061758_o — We wore you out! Thanks Lee’s!!

Thank you Lee, Lee and Dayle for being so patient, working with us and looking after each and every one of us so well, truly guys, thank you.

Perks of traveling at dusk, you always get the great sunset!

Now safe and sound, and back from London, there’s only one thing left to say…

…peace out guys.

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!