Charnwood

Louis is the new leader of Charnwood Youth Council. He was elected as the new leader at the elections in October. He is the fourth leader of the youth council since 2010 and will be leading on upcoming projects such as the 'Face it Be Green Launch, the 'Big Monster Ball' special needs conference and the 'Big Charnwood Youth Conference 2'.

Louis had this to say, "I'm Louis and I'm the newly elected leader of the Charnwood Youth Council. After being part of the council for two years, its an honour to be able to represent the views and opinions of young people in the Borough. I am looking forward to being able to overlook some of the exciting and valuable projects we have planned during my term of leadership. Working so closely with the community has given us all a good insite into the life of people in Charnwood and has become something we are all very passionate about. My association with CYC has been very rewarding and has given me a great sense of achievement and personal growth."

The Youth Council welcome Louis into his new role and can't wait to see what he has to offer the Youth Council. Louis will be the leader up until Christmas where in the new term, a new leader will again be elected.

Good Luck Louis!

Over the summer holidays, CYC members have been taking part in various training sessions to help them out with upcoming projects.

On the 18th and 19th of July, Anjli, Rachael, Rhea, Louis and Zoe all took part in interview training ahead of their part in deciding who the new PAYP administrator will be.

The youth council have also trained to review PAYP activities.

The multinational phone company, o2, has set up a new funding scheme for upcoming projects in theUK. o2 Think Big allocates £300 and various other goodies for projects they think are good enough, and recently CYC applied for funding for their ‘Active Opinion' project. This new scheme aims to collect the opinions of young people about sports & leisure facilities they use, and drumroll please we got through! This means that we have a page on the o2 Think Big website, and are able to apply to larger pots of money. Our first project with Active Opinion is a disabled Sporty Halloween-themed mini-conference (it sounds confusing, but it‘ll be great!).

We need lots of support on our o2 page to keep us going, so if you could spare a couple of seconds of your time, you can follow the link attached to this article and ‘like', comment or share our page, and follow our Twitter account.

Our o2 page: http://www.o2thinkbig.co.uk/en/Projects/Project-Home/?clubId=845

Stephanie is the new chair of Charnwood Youth Council. She was elected as the new chair at the elections in April. She is the third leader of the youth council since 2010 and will be leading on upcoming projects suck as ‘Face it B Green' and the annual Charnwood Youth Conference.

Stephanie said, “I have been with the youth council for a year now and would like to thank the other members for giving me the chance to lead the group".

“I feel that i always try my best with projects and felt it was time to take the next step and take on a new role within the youth council. As the new leader i will aim to make Charnwood a better place for young people with the support and confidence from the other youth councillors".

Youth Worker Joe added, “I have known Stephanie sice she first joined the youth council. I have seen her leadership qualities grow throughout her time with the youth council and will make a great impact on future projects".

Well Done Stephanie!

The votes have been counted and we are pleased to announce the results.

Members of Youth Parliament

• Karishma
• Poppie
• Helena
• Todd

Deputy Members of Youth Parliament

• Andrew
• Tamsin
• Omar

Thank-you to everyone who stood and everyone who voted.

Discuss these results on the forums

Charnwood Youth Conference 14th October 2009
Loughborough Town Hall.

Anjali, Poppie, Michael, Dominic

Well, here we are at 2009’s Charnwood Youth Conference, their third conference aimed at raising awareness of the excellent work they’ve done over the years on behalf of young people in the area. Approximately 50 young people have made the journey to Loughborough’s impressive Town Hall venue to discuss the issues that affect young people in the area, and hopefully, make a positive difference.

So what are the aims of the conference, or rather what issues do they want to focus on. Historically, the aims have typically been transport, facilities and crime / safety, so are the same issues still top of the list? Those three issues were certainly mentioned along with some new ones such as having secure bins, cleaner streets (with more lighting), more drinking fountains available in public places and more park benches. Specifically for young people, designated Graffiti walls / art projects were mentioned along with more facilities such as Restaurants / Sports Halls / Bowling Alley. Also, one of the biggest problems is the black hole of music that is Leicestershire. If you were to go to Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall or Wulfrun, or even Nottingham’s legendary Rock City or Royal Concert Hall, there are gigs running every week, rock, pop, contemporary. It seems a lot of bands on tour just seem to disregard Leicestershire.

Transport has always been an issue, and not one that’s easy to solve, taxi fares are understandably too expensive for young people, and the bus service run on Sundays is inadequate. And those who might be lucky enough to own their own cars, free parking, or rather the lack of it was also an annoyance.

By way of background, CYCLe’s (County Youth Council for Leicestershire) Pyramid of Participation video was shown to the audience so that they could get a greater understanding of how the Youth Councils are organised in Leicestershire. The groups of young people were then asked what they would like to change in their immediate area / where they live, with similar result to before being voiced. Attendees were also told about the yearly residential, which for the most part have taken part at the Brathay venue, as well as an explanation of the Youth Council’s executive, and the democratic process of how those are elected..

All in all a fantastic day, organised by the Youth Council, so well done! And hopefully we'll see some people froim the conference joining you soon!

Omar Sharif, MYP for Dorset, is aiming to get 2000 signatures on his Downing Street public transport petition by June 4th, he’s nearly there with over 1700 - help him reach his goal!

A new document created by two members of Hinckley & Bosworth Youth Council, Martin and Simon, is set to be piloted in a Leicestershire school. John Cleveland College, Hinckley agreed to pilot the document, formally known as "Leicestershire Student and School Participation Charter".

The document was created with significant support from Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, County Youth Council Leicestershire and Leicestershire County Council's Youth Service and Healthy Schools, both part of the County Council's Children and Young People's service. (read more...)

Two members of Hinckley & Bosworth Youth Council have created a short video out of Lego that explains the Pyramid of Participation proccess that occurs in Leicestershire and where Scount Groups, School Councils, Borough Youth Council and County Youth Councils fit into the structure.