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Kent's Youth Voice
Read the Spring 2013 edition of
Kent's Youth Voice, Positive Stories (PDF,
6.2Mb) for reports and information from the current
KYCC Members from across Kent.
Matt Burton elected KYCC Chair
During the KYCC meeting on Sunday
27th January, KYCC members elected Matt Burton, KYCC member for
Maidstone, as Chairperson and Nabhan Malik, KYCC Member for
Canterbury as Vice Chairperson.
Matt accepted his new position
saying, "I am incredibly grateful to be have been given the
opportunity to chair the Kent Youth County Council. My pledge to
the young people of our county, through those elected to represent
them, is to persistently work towards having their views voiced,
heard and acted upon at the highest level."
UK Youth Parliament Members Elected!
KYCC members also voted in 3 young people to take up the role
of Kent Member of Youth Parliament, to represent the issues and
views of Kent young people nationally. The 3 young people
elected as MYPS are Sofia Lesur-Kastelein, KYCC member for Ashford,
Nabhan Malik, KYCC member for Canterbury and Elliot Burns, KYCC
Member for Tunbridge Wells.
For more information or to contact
your local KYCC member please email
kycc@kent.gov.uk
KYCC Residential
50 KYCC Members attended a Training
& Induction Residential at Kingswood Centre Ashford. KYCC
members took part in outdoor activities including abseiling,
archery and the terrifying 3G Swing! KYCC members also participated
in a training workshops to support them in the new role during
2013. These workshops included: representing young people in
Kent, making presentations, e-safety and effective meeting and
chair skills.
KYCC members also took part in
Campaign training and developed action plans for the 3 campaigns
for 2013: Bus Transport, Employment opportunities for young people
and Anti-Bullying.
UK Young ambassadors
trip to Belgium
On the 11 February 2012, 6 UK
young ambassadors met in London to do some consultation training
and to prepare activities for the European consultation team before
they arrived.
On the 12 February 2012, the six
UK Young Ambassadors and the EU consultation teams from across the
country travelled to Brussels, home of the European Parliament and
European Commission. In the delegation from the UK was Tamanna
Miah (representing the UK for UK Young Ambassador), and Paul
Miller from the England consultation team.
Over the trip the team visited the
European Parliament and its new visitor centre (where they engaged
in a simulation of the work of an MEP, met the
“Jongerenambassadeurs voor Participatie” (our counterparts from the
Flemish part of Belgium), went to the European Youth Forum HQ and
got know more about their role. After collating all the
results from the consultations it was great to have so many views
from young people, expressing their opinions and making the
positive change in the UK.
"We had the chance of doing a role play
as “MEP for a day” was such an amazing opportunity. We got to
witness the life of an MEP through a huge area of rooms specially
designed for the role playing activities. We experienced how hard
the language barriers can make an MEP’s job and got a taste of
trying to bargain with the other parties to win what we thought our
party would want.
"A highlight of the weekend was meeting
the Flemish Young Ambassadors in the European Parliament and
discussing all the matters that are different in Belgium and the
UK, and the ones that are similar that we feel the need to act
on.
"We discussed so many matters affecting
our different nations and it was interesting to hear the viewpoints
on many matters affecting the individual nations, and the whole of
the UK."
Three of the UKYAs will now attend an
EU Presidency conference in Denmark in March 2012 to discuss
young people’s participation in politics (including votes at 16),
before the whole UK consultation team engages in another massive
exercise in asking young people their views on the topic of
inclusion for a conference in Cyprus in Autumn, which Tamanna will
be attending.
Diana Champion Volunteer Award
Congratulations to Tamanna Miah who has been awarded a Diana
Champion Volunteer Award! Tamanna was presented with her
certificate by Paulina Stockell, Chairman of Kent County Council
and Mike Hill, Cabinet Member for Customer & Communities.
Congratulations!