August has been an extremely busy month for the youth council, with it being the run up to the start if the new school term, means that we kick the young mayor elections into over drive and the youth council have been working their little socks offs to prepare for all the publicity and hard work that is in-store for September. If you want to see what is going on with the young mayor elections check out the young mayor pages, or even apply to be the next young mayor!

Somehow the youth council memebers have found time to fit in the planning for the first young person's community forum and we're all getting execited as it all comes together and we can see how the event is going to run.

So august has been packed full of meetings and work and the youth councillers in melton should be proud of what they have done in such a small amount of time! Although i feel rather confused as i htought this was supposted to be our sumer holiday!

Keep your eyes peeled for us as September is going to be extremely busy as well!

The Young People in our Borough have asked for a Youth Community Forum. The Youth Council, Leicestershire County Council and Melton Borough Council are pleased to be able to facilitate this as follows:

Meeting: Youth Community Forum

Date: Thursday 16^th September 2010

Venue: Scout Hut, Wilton Road, Melton Mowbray

Time: 4:00 for 4:15pm start

Finish: 6:15pm

Melton Youth Council who are co-ordinating this event are looking for people aged between 14 and 19 years old (14 and 25 for people with special needs) to take part in this exciting opportunity for the Young Voice to be heard. Please come along, ask questions and join in the debate.

This is an ideal opportunity for young people to bring issues of concern so that they can be discussed and is an ideal way of promoting their concerns to a wider audience so that they can be addressed. These issues can be local, national or global.

The Youth Community Forum is designed to offer young people the chance to tell us their views and priorities and have their say on activities and events happening in the Borough of Melton. This will ensure that our local councillors and government recognise the importance of Youth Voice and that the leaders and voters of tomorrow can be heard today. The outcome of a Youth Community Forum which will feed into the Community Forum will:

• give local people and communities an improved opportunity to tell us their views and priorities;
• based on working together with key partners - to present ourselves to the public in a clear way

If you are aged between 14 and 19 (14 and 25 for people with special needs) and you have a question you would like our Panel to consider then please email klawrance@melton.gov.uk or contact Kay Lawrance on 01664 502314.

Could you be Melton Borough’s next Young Mayor?

If you had your voice heard what issues would you raise?

This year Local Democracy Week is taking place between the 11th and 15th October, every year your vote counts. If the job of young mayor is not for you, you can still have an active role by making sure you decide who gets the job. Voting will be done in schools or via the post so keep a look out on this page for further information.

If you are:-

• Aged between 14 (by 1 September 2010) and 19 (or between 14 and 25 if an individual has specific needs e.g. a Learning Disability)
• Live, work or go to school in the Borough of Melton

It could be you!

What does being a Young Mayor involve?

• You would represent young people in Melton Borough
• You would voice the interests of young people to the Mayor, Councillors, and the Community
• You would attends events that interest Melton's young people, this includes Melton Youth Council meetings

This is the third year of the election campaign and once again we are inviting young people to take on the responsibility of becoming the new young mayor. Being the young mayor is a challenging role but you will learn new skills and have new experiences that you will be able to take with you into the future. You will have a chance to shine at public events, and meet a variety of people while in office. The most important part of the role is making a difference; you will be the face of all the young people and will have an opportunity to have a voice on their behalf.

Application Deadline

Don't worry! You have the whole summer to start planning and thinking about if this is for you. The deadline to put your name forward is the 30th September 2010. Make sure you start planning now; thinking about your campaign and what you want to stand for will help get you prepared to put together an Election Statement

Closing Date for Applications: 30th September 2010

How do I apply?

You need to complete an application form and read the information beforehand. The application form needs to be sent in before the deadline and you can do this by post, or by hand at the council offices listed. Signatures are required from guardians/ parents and your schools so you need to take this into consideration when sending the forms in the post.

Useful links

Frequently Asked Questions

Candidate Application Form

Follow us on twitter at OWYC

Find out what young people in North West Leicestershire youth councils, area forums and school councils are involved in. June 2010 Edition

Last weekend CYCLe (County Youth Council Leicestershire) went on a residential to learn more about leadership. Both how to be a good leader and leadership skills. The weekend went very well and everyone enjoyed the weekend although with a fair few people there were some personal challenges, like the high ropes. The weekend taught everyone about leadership and helped to give insight to everyone of how to be a good leader and what leadership is. Everyone also learnt that there are so many different ways in which you are a leader and there are loads of ways that leadership affects people. Everyone who went on this residential overcame personal challenges and everyone who went on the residential enjoyed the weekend.

Find out what young people in North West Leicestershire youth councils, area forums and school councils are involved in. March 2010 Edition

At the recent HBYC AGM, elections were held, and after voting the results were shown, so here is the HBYC Exec 2010.

Chair - Chloe
Vice Chair - Cassie
Treasurers - Libby and Katy
Jitty Officer - Keiran
Publicity Officer - Karl
Community Forums Officers - Bhavik and Bobbie
Communications Officer - Liam
School Liason Officer - Alex
Inclusion Officer - Xavier

Congratulations to all the everyone who got won the election for each position.

By Keiran

From the 19^th to the 24^th December, HBYC ran an ice rink that was open to the public; and it proved a huge success.

On the first day the mayor opened the event, and the fun began!

Citizens of all ages came to use the facility, have a laugh on the ice and soak up the festive atmosphere, whilst also donating 50p each admission for charity.

From the donations, a total of £690.52 was raised and 50% was donated to the Help Haiti Charity, and the other half went to Air Ambulance.

Another purpose of the ice rink was to raise awareness of crime and age barriers. Volunteers from HBYC were situated in and around Hinckley town centre, with keyrings and badges etc. These young people stopped passers by and offered them these freebies.

The badges said “talk to me”, and the idea behind this was to try and encourage older and younger members of the public to break down barriers and talk!

As well as this, there were keyrings with slogans like “hide me!”, on the subject of crime, as recent information has shown that the method of breaking and entering, and then proceeding to steal keys on show, resulting in the theft of cars and other vehicles has risen. These keyrings were a simple idea to remind people to put their keys away, and out of view.

By the end of the week we were running out of theses items and crime was DOWN 50% in the area over the period of time the ice rink was in place! I think we can call that a success!

Finally, a HUGE thank-you to all the youth council members, youth workers and everyone else who gave up their time to help out; and thanks to you, the public who contributed their hard earned cash for two great charities.

Thank-you to all!

By Courtney

North West Leicestershire Youth Council’s second ‘Safe’ event, on 17^th February 2010, has gained support from the organisers of the Download Festival, Live Nation. The company had supplied two VIP back stage passes to be awarded as prizes at the event.

Safe will focus on crime and safety – issues identified by the Youth Council as important to young people in the district.

The event is supported by the North West Leicestershire Partnership in Safer Communities and Stephenson College. A number of local organisations have given their support to the event including; Loughborough Women’s Aid, Turning Point, the Fire Service, Youth Offending Service, Youth Service and the Police.

A range of stands giving out community safety information will be based at Stephenson College from 1pm until 4pm. All local residents are welcome.

Young people from the area are then invited to workshops in the evening. These will focus on a variety of issues including; road safety, knife crime, anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse. The event promises to be informative yet fun. Young people will have the opportunity to debate community safety issues that matter to them, and give feedback to professionals working in the field.

Councillor Trevor Pendleton, Children and Young People’s Champion for North West Leicestershire District Council and Chair of the Partnership in Safer Communities said: “We are really excited about the support we have received from Live Nation for this event. Safe is in its second year and we hope this one will be as successful as the first.

“We are also delighted to have sponsorship from UB Logistics this year. It is really good to see local businesses supporting initiatives to help the young people in our district.

“I am looking forward to meeting the young people who attend, and getting feedback on the issues that matter to them. These will help influence local authority policy making and ensure that we have an understanding of what issues matter to young people locally.”

For more information about the Safe event, contact Gillian Haluch at North West Leicestershire District Council on: 01530 454545 or email: Gillian.haluch@nwleicestershire.gov.uk.