Testimonials

I first joined CYC because I was really interested in social action and advocacy. I am particularly passionate about improving mental health services as someone with lived experience of using secondary and inpatient mental health services, neurodiversity again because of my own experiences as an autistic young person, and the climate emergency as I feel that this is the single most important issue facing our world today as nothing else will matter if our earth becomes uninhabitable. After joining the youth council it became clear to me how much I loved using my own lived experience and views to make a difference, and how inspiring it was to hear other young people’s views and stories. I realised very quickly how important it is for young people to have a platform where our voices will be heard, taken seriously, and that allows us to push for the changes we need to see. It showed me how powerful and vital the voices of young people really are. I had always struggled with lack of confidence at school and always felt like an outsider from my peers. But when I was given opportunities to speak about the issues that really mattered to me and to feel like I was making a difference, for the first time I felt like my voice was important, like I had power in my life, and that I had something I could do that had worth and value. I am an active member of Cardiff Youth Council. I am now on the exec board as an Equality and Inclusion Officer. I have had many amazing opportunities through CYC such as speaking at a climate conference for businesses in Cardiff about the impact of climate change on young people, to meet with and discuss issues affecting young people with members of Cardiff Council, and being involved in creating a conference surrounding gender equity and children’s rights. I hope to be involved in many more opportunities with CYC in the future and to continue to advocate for positive changes for young people in Cardiff. If anyone reading this is thinking of joining CYC then they definitely should. My advice would be to try everything you feel able to, but not to be afraid to take your time and take a step back when you need to as well. Your voice matters, what you feel passionate about is important, and all young people deserve to have a platform that amplifies their voices, like CYC.

Welsh Women’s Aid wanted to extend our gratitude to the Youth Forum for their invaluable input during the consultation process for the Misogyny Workshop as part of the Ask Me CYP programme. Their insights and suggestions played a crucial role in enhancing our misogyny workshop, making it significantly more useful and responsive to the needs of children and young people across Wales. Thanks to their contribution, we were able to tailor the workshop to better address the issues and concerns that matter most. We recently ran the session with over 100 children in Swansea, and the feedback has been great. The children and young people found the workshop engaging, relevant and impactful which is a testament to the relevance and quality of input provided by the Youth Forum. We really appreciate the time and effort that the Youth Forum dedicated to this process. Their voices have made such a difference, and we hope to work with the group again in the future.

There is a lot to say about Cyc but one thing I want to focus on Is how it can change your life. Now this may sound dramatic but honestly its not. My life has done a complete 360 since I joined In December of 2022 because of Cyc all the opportunities I have gotten because of Cyc have made me a better person, Cyc has brought me joy but also a sense of responsibility that I have never really had before. I will be honest Cyc can sound a little daunting during the first few times but once you get into it its really good! It shows you can make a change and have fun at the same time. There Is so much I have done in Cyc that I would never of got to done If i never joined. Im so grateful for Cyc and truly believe that joining was the best decision I ever made.

I find it is a good place too meet people and discuss the problems facing young people and too have our visions seen

CYC is an amazing organisation, ran by youth from all over the city, but without the amazing staff, CYC wouldn’t be half what it is now!

Staff are amazing and have given me so many opportunities and to grow In confidence thank you.

Please can we have more visitors and supports us in organising work experience in lots of organisations?

Joining CYC was one of the best decisions I’ve made.

Would be good if the Council had a bit more imagination and clout.

My experiences as a member of CYC A biased, honest, and revering account of what it is like to be a member of the Cardiff Youth Council as an autistic and quite introverted human being. When I was 13, I was first invited to the Cardiff Youth Council by a very good friend of mine. I walked into a very intimidating room, full of very intimidating people. In that meeting I spent more time counting the missing lightbulbs in the chandelier than listening to the conversation. It was all too confusing. I returned the next month and tried to listen to the debate that was going over my head. I realised I understood what was being said, and that I had a very small voice of my own that I could contribute to the conversation. My friend who’d accompanied me also had a small voice, which he used to scream into the microphone at the end of the meeting. For a long while these were the only contribution that either of us made to CYC, as we felt it wasn’t for us. By the time I was sixteen I had built up a deep-rooted fear for the state of the planet and its ecosystems. I felt that I had to do something to make a difference. When my teachers reminded me of the Cardiff Youth Council in a plea for someone from my school to represent us, I decided to try again. And I had very much the same experience. I contributed very little to the early discussions of subgroups, I even missed the first meeting by accident. The environment was not chosen as a subgroup {doubtlessly due to by absence}, so I joined the mental health subgroup. The conversations were very much out of my depth, full of mentions of organisations like CYPAB and CAMH, so I made only a few cursory comments based on my own life experiences and common sense. I spent much of the year feeling like I was faking expertise in subjects I knew very little about. But I learnt one thing over the course of that year: No one in CYC is an expert on anything. Just like the real government, everything we do is a culmination of guesswork, things we read off the internet, and occasionally the wisdom of someone with genuine life experience of the issues we are trying to solve. And no matter how loud your voice is or how informed your opinion is, your opinion WILL BE VALUED. Always. Even if you have to stutter through ever word. Because everyone in CYC is doing the same thing, some people just have a little more confidence or a little more experience. By the end of the year, I felt confident enough to attend the Flatholm residential trip. I felt very uncomfortable for a lot of those 3 days despite support, and it ended up feeling like half my personality was my camera, and the other half playing Chess with Thorfinn. It is safe to say I enjoyed my trip vastly, but I still carried the nagging feeling that I could have done better and got to know people better. By the time the next year had come around, I was a familiar face around CYC, and despite my terrible sense of timekeeping managed to attend almost every meeting. With the new year, we had to choose our new priorities, and half an hour before speeches putting forwards motions were to begin, I was told for the first time that I was the person putting forward the Environment and Sustainability motion. I improvised a short speech, largely drawing on my own passion for the environment, and accidentally forgot to mention bike lanes at all (which had been merged into the environment motion). Nevertheless, I was ecstatic when it was announced that the environment subgroup was voted as one of CYC’s priorities. It felt like I had really done something. The universe of course has a strong sense of irony. During the first meeting I was excited to take action on what I personally consider the greatest disaster the human race has yet faced: Climate Change. I was however outvoted by other members of the group who decided that our focus would be plastic pollution. For the sake of full disclosure I did feel a little bitter about this, but I worked to make sure that CYC would tackle this issue as best we could. The environmental subgroup’s work lead to many interesting experiences for me personally, including debating with a climate denier who later researched the issue and decided that humans were in fact responsible for climate change (I will forever admire this person for his ability to change his mind when faced by the facts), discussing recycling for an hour with Councillor Michael Michael, and a frustrating endless change of plans as the environmental subgroup went from plastic pollution to a recycling guide to a map of sustainable businesses in Cardiff (all of which are good ideas). Having attended both the young inspectors program and the young interviewers program I have learnt an awful lot, and met people unlike anyone else I have ever met in my life. Though I found the young interviewers program to be incredibly emotionally draining, I would highly recommend both programs to any member of CYC who would ask me if they should get involved.* Having volunteered with CYC for 226 hours, I believe I may be the most involved member who has never officially held a title. Undoubtably my favourite part of working with CYC has been the Branches program, which brought young people from across Wales together to discuss environmental issues. Both the planning of the grand council as well as the event itself was an exciting and worthwhile experience. I remember fondly the long nights of playing The Mind at Story Arms between training sessions and saying the word “eager” more times than ever before in my life. I facilitated discussion on a variety of environmental topic, explained Climate Change to Victor, while also managing to get the applause of several scientists for our presentation on Biofuels. Though I do not know when the next summit will be, I look forwards to my invitation. I often have felt that I should have tried harder to help new people in CYC, maybe become a mentor to them, but lacked the courage to speak to new people. So here I have listed some key pieces of advice for newer (and perhaps experienced but still nervous) members of CYC: Getting involved is never about immediately becoming Chair of CYC after one session. Its all about taking a small step of courage one at a time, coming along; speaking in a general meeting; going to a subgroup meeting at grassroots; taking part in a one off event; giving a small presentation; speaking in front of the entire CYC; involving yourself in planning events; run for an election; become chair of CYC (which regrettable never happened to me, but you get the gist of it)   Sometimes you may feel like everyone else in the room is smarter or more confident than you are. That does not matter. Always try and say what you have to say even if it does not feel like you have as much to contribute, because you do   The way to win elections is to turn up to everything. Not just general meetings, but subgroup meetings, young interviewer and inspector programs, social sessions, residential trips, scrutiny meetings. This works even if you’re terrible at making friends like me, because at the very least everyone will be familiar with you and trust you because of that. The more people who get to know you, the more you’ll have their support, because they know you are committed and will do what you say, and people always prefer to vote for someone they know and recognise over someone they don’t. Because someone two meetings into CYC saying they are going to revolutionise Cardiff’s approach to homelessness without a plan will get taken seriously in theory but won’t get votes.   The other way to win elections is to have a clear plan. Everyone says they are going to “represent young people” and care about the issues we all care about, but it’s how you are going to do that which wins the elections. The more precise your idea, the more people think “That’s a great idea!” because everyone cares about the same issues   Last and most certainly not least, TRUST THE ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT TEAM. They are unfailingly amazing people and will talk to you about anything and try to help IF YOU ASK THEM.   I have spent a lot of time being nervous, and feeling like I don’t quite fit in. While writing this I realised that much of what I have written can be interpreted as being negative, but I want to reassure you that that is not the case. Being a member of the Cardiff Youth Council has been an incredible experience, and I can look back at myself two years ago and say for certain that I am a far more confident and social person than I used to be, and have learnt so much from everyone around me. It has been a genuinely life changing experience, which I will always remember fondly. The greatest achievement of CYC is unquestionably its people. My original intention was to lavishly complement every member of CYC individually, but then I realised that it would probably embarrass anyone on the list and offend anyone who I had not got the chance to meet. So if you would like to hear my honest reasons to admire you feel free to contact me, if you know who I am. Otherwise suffice it to say the members of CYC are some of the most amazing young people I have ever met in my life and are quite deserving of admiration. I hope to see you all again, but if not, I wish you all a very fond farewell.       *I can assure you I am not being paid for this. I still haven’t spent any of my time credits

My Experience with CYC I joined Cardiff Youth Council (CYC) in 2017 and only became fully involved roughly a year ago. In the space of a year, my work with CYC has been central to my personal growth and skills development. CYC offers a safe space for young people to have a say and make a difference in the community. It has also been the perfect platform for me to express my interest in activism and politics. I have taken several opportunities and have been involved in several projects since joining CYC. One area of work I have been heavily involved in is CYC’s environmental sub-group. As a part of this work, we visited the island of Flatholm and learnt about its environmental and ecological features as well as its history. This granted me a new perspective of Cardiff and a better understanding about where I live. We have also helped to design and hosted one out of two conferences for youth councils across Wales to come together to discuss environmental problems in our local communities. We are currently designing the second conference and our long-term ambition is to connect young people across Wales and inspire them to take action on environmental issues. Most of the work that we have done so far has been youth-led and I feel CYC members are given the freedom to take the direction that they want to. Consequently, we also have responsibility to create and implement a plan of action. This has in turn helped to strengthen my communication and leadership skills. Another opportunity I have been lucky enough to have been provided was being invited to sit on the Education Development Board. This strategic board brings key stakeholders together across the local education sector in Cardiff. Despite having only sat on this board twice, I have got an insight into how local government and education works in Cardiff, two areas I knew little about prior to starting. It has also helped me to improve my knowledge on the link between policy, (such as the new curriculum), strategy and programme delivery which has greatly benefited my knowledge for my apprenticeship in project management. It has also given me an invaluable opportunity to advocate the opinions of young people and shape education in Cardiff. I feel little of my positive experience would have been possible without the ongoing support from the Active Involvement Team (AIT). AIT are instinctively good at guiding as opposed to controlling. For example, they will take the part as a critical friend at meetings, providing knowledge and insight instead of taking decisions. They are also approachable, understanding and easy to talk to. Very recently at a meeting I was complaining about my high work stack and a member of the AIT offered support and asked if I needed to be relieved of any of my CYC responsibilities.