KYC Highlights from 2010
MP Candidate Question Time event
In February 2010, the Youth Council held an MP Candidate Question Time event. Over 50 young people attended the event, and quizzed the MP Candidates on a number of issues and topics. The event proved to be great success.
Korean TV Interview
Early 2010, the Youth Council were approached by a Korean TV Company, who were making a documentary about life in Britain. The documentary featured politics amongst young people with the example being Kingston Youth Council. The documentary will be shown on National Korean TV, and we hope that our work will inspire other young people across the World.
Kingston Carnival
The Kingston Youth Council is involved with several high-profile local events throughout the year, such as the Kingston Carnival and May Marrie.
Take Over Day
Takeover Day is a national event offering children and young people across the country the chance to work alongside adults and get involved in decision-making in a wide range of organisations. Everyone can be part of it!
Now in its fourth year, the event has grown from strength to strength since it was launched. Last year, around 30,000 children and young people worked with hundreds of organisations, including businesses, schools, police and fire services, newspapers, banks, TV and radio stations, charities, local councils, MPs, hospitals and government departments.
This year we want to encourage 40,000 children and young people to show adults what they can do. We also want more businesses and organisations to benefit from a fresh perspective on their work and to celebrate the positive contribution children and young people make to society.¡±
Every year the children’s commissioner sets a date for “Take Over day”. It is a national event and it happens all over the country. This year, take over day was on the 12th of November. As part of Take Over Day, Darius and I led the over 55’s session at Devon way.
It was a lot of fun. At first I was very nervous because I thought that we would not get along. I almost felt that there was an invisible age barrier between them and me. But I soon realised that it wouldn’t be that bad after all.
After introductions, we started of with a story. I just introduced the character and the others added other bits of information. In the end we ended up with a girl who was going to school but she found a cat so she came back home, then she was late for school so she was sent back home. And after two days they realised that it was a dog. And then it was a cat again. And after two years time, the Cat met another dog and they were both named Devon Way.
We then went on to some other small games. It was then when I finally realised that there was a real bond between them and me. There was no difference. We were just two different age groups having a good time. It may sound surprising and I am surprised as well but the invisible barrier had never been present.
We then played Bingo.
Well they played Bingo I just called out the numbers. (2 on its own: One little duck *quack*) (2 and 2, 22: two little ducks *quack quack*)
All in all “It was a fabulous day”. When we asked them whether they liked it, we got many positive responses back.
It seemed that the elderly didn’t once think of us as useless little noise makers.
By Aakeen Parikh
‘Bridge the Gap’ - Kingston
One of KYC’s manifesto points for last year was: Bridge the Gap.
The aim of ‘Bridge the Gap’ is to improve the current relationship between young people and the Police. As a result of this campaign and ongoing discussions with the Borough Commander; KYC have managed to:
-Increased presence of Police on buses during school times.
-Improve engagement between Safer Neighbourhood Teams and youth clubs.
During the course of the year, KYC will continue to act as advisors to the Borough Commander, so that together we can make Kingston safer for everyone.
Sharing our success
Last year we started to share and publicise our success.
We have written a number of articles for YU Online, which is an online magazine, designed and written by young people for young people.
We have recently secured, a fortnightly article with Kingston Informer, and we hope to write regular articles for the Borough’s Neighbourhood newsletters. It is important that young people in Kingston know of our work and are given the opportunity to have their say!
UK Youth Parliament, debate in the House of Commons
On the 29th of October 2010 the UK Youth Parliament made history the 2nd time by being the first non MPs in the history of the House of Commons to debate in the chamber. The Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) for 2010 had the divine opportunity of being one of many MYP’s across the Country to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity.
One of the topics debated was tuition Fees which is quite prevalent in Kingston at the moment.