Q&A with the Youth Mayor

On Thursday the 17th of March, we attended the annual school council event in the Vale of Glamorgan, where 5 school councils attended from across the Vale. It was also great to see so many young people from youth organisations such as youth action groups and the VYF at the event.

I would like to give the Vale Rights Ambassadors a huge congratulation on delivering their rights workshop to all the young people at the event. (And it was their first time!) They delivered a really thought provoking  set of activities, engaging all pupils, whilst learning all about the UNCRC and the rights of children.

The jam-packed day also included sessions hosted by the Vale Youth Service staff on participation and the school councils were able to share ideas of good practice with other school councils.  They were also lucky enough to engage with the co-ordinator of Healthy Schools in the Vale.

Finally, we had the amazing opportunity to talk to all the young people about what we, as Youth Mayor and Deputy Youth Mayor are currently working on, and who we are. Not forgetting the productive Q&A session in which young people asked some really good questions! I can't wait to look at the points raised in the Q&A in more depth, as the young people who asked questions were clearly very passionate about the issues raised. Dan & Bronwen (Youth Mayor & Deputy)

#CIYW 2016

Cymru Ifanc - Young Wales is a platform to ensure Welsh Government ministers listen to the views and ideas of young people. 

We attended their annual conference in Cardiff on 05.03.16 which was really interesting.  The conference was chaired by the Deputy Youth Mayor from Merthyr Tydfil and was an opportunity for young people, professionals and Welsh Government to find out what Cymru Ifanc, Young Wales have achieved in the last year.  There were guest speakers including the Children's Commissioner for Wales and we learnt more about the plans for a new curriculum in Wales.  We also took part in workshops around the use of social media and participation and young people's views on mental health services. 

School Transport update

We just wanted to give you an update on the progress of the Youth Cabinet school transport.

In 2015 we carried out a piece of work around young people's experience of school transport.  This came after young people were sharing their experiences of school transport and some concerns were raised.  We decided to create a survey and consult young people across the Vale to find out their opinions.  We then created a report, a summary document and made several recommendations.

Our recommendations are now being taken to Cabinet for consideration.  As soon as we have any more updates we will keep you posted!

A new emotional health & well-being service for children and young people

As young people we know that growing up can be stressful and we are under a lot of pressure from things like exams, schools, family and friendships.  So when Cardiff & Vale University Health Board and Cardiff Youth Council asked us if we would like to get involved in a new project around this topic we had to, especially as it had been raised by young people in the Vale before.  

There is going to be a new service available to children and young people in Cardiff and Vale to help our emotional health and well-being.  The new service will help children and young people from developing more severe mental health issues which impact on the rest of their lives.  

The project involved being trained up as a Young Commissioner to help decide who should run the new service.  We took part in a couple of days training where we met professionals from the Health Board and from CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and discussed as a group of young people the following:

1. What pressures are affecting the emotional health and well-being of children and young people?
2. What support do children and young people currently have access to?
3. What do young people need from a new service?

We formed a young person's evaluation panel and interviewed potential organisations.  The organisations had to apply to the Health Board, just like you would apply for a job! They delivered a presentation and we questioned them on their plans.  We also met the Director of Public Health at Cardiff & Vale Health Board, Dr Sharon Hopkins, who congratulated us on our involvement in the project.  It was great to work with youth councillors from Cardiff Youth Council and we also received time credits for our involvement - which we can't wait to spend!!  

UKYP: Don't Hate Educate!

As mentioned the Member of UK Youth Parliament and the Deputy UK Youth Parliament member are currently working on the national priority which is tackling racism and religious discrimination.  A few weeks ago we made a little video talking about our roles and the campaign for this year which is called Don't Hate, Educate.  Please see the above slides for more information about the UKYP national campaign.

My year with the Children's Commissioner for Wales

Sally Holland is the Children's Commissioner for Wales and she works young people around Wales and Welsh Government to promote children's rights. I've been heavily involved and have worked closely with the Children Commissioner for Wales office and over the past year and three months.  I have been involved in the recruitment of  Sally Holland and have helped her into her role along with other young people from across Wales. 

So how did it start? 

After the previous Children's Commissioner for Wales, Keith Towler, finished his term, I joined a young persons recruitment panel to find the next Children's Commissioner for Wales.  There were 63 applicants who all wanted the post. That was watered down to 7, and with an adult panel, I and other young people narrowed that down to 5 for interviewing. 

The young persons panel had the opportunity to interview these candidates, and we had our say on who was the best for the role.   After a nail-biting final decision we decided that Sally Holland was the most appropriate. 

We've met up with her since then to give her our viewpoints on how she should work with young people, and she's very proactive when it comes to working with other children and young people around Wales. She will be the Children's Commissioner for Wales for the next 7 years. This process was beneficial for the the young people involved, and it was an incredibly successful piece of work as it was the first time young people were involved in the recruitment process. We also have our first female Children's Commissioner for Wales too.  

Sally has recently launched the areas of work she will be focusing on following her Beth Nesa? What's next? consultation.  Take a look at the video for more information.

Contact1Vale, My Travel Pass & International Women's Day!

In our meeting on the eighth of March, we discussed a new app that was being developed called Contact1Vale.  It's an app for the Vale Of Glamorgan. By using the app users will be able to report issues in their local areas, such as potholes, and there are many links to information that the users would want to know, such as events in the Vale and general council information. This is made accessible to the users. As young people, we questioned how we could make other young people want to use the app. We felt that by containing information for young people and by showing young people what's available for them would enable us to promote the app amongst the youth.

We also completed two surveys: one was about our satisfaction in leisure centres, the second about Welsh Government's new Travel Pass scheme, offering young people discounts on bus travel in Wales. Finally, a big congratulations to Bronwen and Dan, who received certificates for 50 and 100 Millennium Volunteer hours. A great achievement and a display of great commitment.

Also, happy international women's day!!