Oadby and Wigston

Oadby & Wigston Youth Conference
27th February 2009

Friday 27th February so the impressive Oadby and Wigston Youth Conference took place at the Oadby Racecourse, with some 70 young people attending. The aims were simple, to get the basis of a strong and active youth council, and to come up with the main concerns of young people, putting them in some sort of order for that very same new Youth Council to deal with.

The day itself started out early for the staff and volunteers, turning up just after 8:00am, but having been beaten to the gold medal by a very enthusiastic young person who somehow managed to get there at 7:30am. Considering the day wasn't due to start until 9:00am, this was quite a feat!

The first coaches started to roll up shortly afterwards, and the young people running the event swung into action to get everyone signed in and seated. The schedule for the day was looking busy with the following activities planned:

• Introduction
• Political networking session
• Individual discussions for Oadby and Wigston
• Group discussion for both areas combined
• Determining Action points for the future

The political networking activity is one that has been tried with success at other youth conferences and also at the annual Vox Pops event. The principle is that young people are divided into small groups and each group gets five minutes to quiz a councillor about issues in their areas. At the end of the five minute session, the councillors move around by one table, so every group gets to speak to every councillor. The councillors in attendence were:

Councillors and Representatives

The response from this session was generally positive, although some young people commented that they felt as if they were being interviewed by the councillors rather than the other way around. If this was the case it would suggest a determination to get solid information from young people that they could take away and work with rather than a lack of willingness to listen, so hopefully we'll see positive outcomes from all participants. During this session a vote was taken to see which councillor received the most positive feedback from young people, and the winner wasn't actually a councillor but the Chief Executive, Mark Hall.

After a spot of lunch, the group divided into two - one containing the young people from Wigston, and the other from Oadby. Both groups would engage in a discussion along with the relevant councillors about concerns and areas of opportunity in their areas, and the results of both discussions would be used later to form an action plan for the forthcoming Oadby and Wigston Youth Council.

Discussion topics for Oadby

• Lack of lighting in public areas and passageways
• Vandalism on the parks
• High cost of public transport and leisure facilities
• Request for a gym catering for young people.
• Request for a legal graffiti wall
• Request for a skatepark.
• Decide on a popular, regular spot for the 637 bus
• How facilities and activities should be advertised
• Lack of facilities staff in some areas,
• Negative image of young people in the area
• Need for a youth centre in Oadby

Discussion topics for Wigston and South Wigston

• Lack of facilities for young people, especially 18+
• More information about existing facilities and activities
• Negative stereotyping of young people
• Inadequate lighting in some public areas, safety fears
• Concerns over the effects of anti-social behaviour
• Excessive litter in some areas
• Problems created by underage drinking
• Dispersing gang culture
• Making facilities accessible, transport links and opening times

Some of the issues raised (negative stereotyping of young people, for example) aren't the kind of things that generally surface at youth conferences, so it was great to see young people realising that they have a right to comment on all issues rather than just the ones they think people in authority want to hear.

The one thing that became extremely clear was that young people feel as much at risk from the consequences of gang culture, crime, anti social behaviour and underage drinking as anybody - something that the media often neglects to mention. This, along with the previous point, could both be used as the basis of a strong awareness campaign for residents of all three areas, and with good support from the media could place the forthcoming Oadby and Wigston Youth Council firmly on the map.

The final section of the conference brought both groups back together to try to work out a number of action points for the new youth council to tackle. It was clear that a lot of young people felt the same about key issues regardless of where they lived, with the themes of negative stereotyping, the lack of facilities and fear of anitsocial behavior surfacing repeatedly. There were a number of strongly voiced comments about the final topic, with two visiting members of the police force being quizzed over how far their powers stretched to deal with issues such as street drinking - both officers were extremely willing to put across their perspectives on the issue, and hopefully this helped the group to consider the most effective ways of tackling the problem.

The discussion stayed active and lively right up to the very last minute, when it became neccessary to finalise the key points to shape into an action plan for the future. It seemed that the following points were the most strongly supported:

• To enable young people to feel safe;
• Facilities for young people and publicity for existing provision;
• To challenge the stereotyping of young people.

These will most likely form the basis of Oadby and Wigston Youth Council's priorities for the forthcoming year, but the youth council will decide on that for itself as it gains pace so keep checking back on their page here on the Jitty for more information!

Overall we think the conference was a great success in terms of the representation of young people from across the three areas, and that the young people themselves clearly demonstrated their awareness of social and practical issues in their areas, and their commitment to making things better. Hopefully the enthusiasm we saw throughout the day will carry on, and many of the attendees will decide to go and see for themselves what they can achieve by being part of a youth council.

Photo Gallery from Oadby & Wigston Youth Conference