KIRKLEES COUNCIL KIRKLEES YOUTH COUNCIL

Transcription

1 KYC6 Contact Officer: Alaina McGavin - Tel KIRKLEES COUNCIL KIRKLEES YOUTH COUNCIL Tuesday 19 February 2013 Present: Cameron Whittingham - Huddersfield South Locality (Co-Chair) Khizar Akbar - Co-optee (Co-Chair) Jake Elliott - Co-optee Alexandra Docherty - Holme and Colne Valley Locality Zain Malik - Dewsbury Locality Matthew Levene - Huddersfield South Locality 1 Welcome and Introductions The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and announced that apologies for absence had been received on behalf of Saad Aziz, Jess Cullen, Kieren Hudson, Afsha Munir, Aishah Naim, Reyan Saghir, Jess Senior, Chelsea Beaver, Megan Carpenter, Brodie Simpson, Sunila Khan, Aimen Mahmood, Aleena Razzaq, Shannon Smith, Robert Morris and Atiqa Aziz. The Chair also announced that Marwah Ahmad had submitted her resignation to the Youth Council. The Youth Council gave thanks to Marwah for her contributions during her term of appointment. 2 Minutes of Previous Meeting RESOLVED - That the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 December 2012 be approved as a correct record. 3 Admission of the Public It was noted that all agenda items would be considered in public session. 4 Deputations/Petitions No deputations or petitions were received. 5 Update on KYC Projects The Chair invited representatives to provide an update on current KYC projects. Jake Elliott updated the Youth Council on the Police Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire update. He advised that the recently elected Police Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire had asked young people in the area for suggestions for an interview question for the West Yorkshire Chief Constable post. The Youth Council had shared their thoughts, Fear of 1

2 Crime report and the NCVYS Youth Charter with the Police Crime Commissioner. They had also offered to work in partnership on a forthcoming youth event for young people in West Yorkshire. Jake also advised the Youth Council that Tim and Alex had attended the Colne Valley Area Committee Young People s Portfolio Meeting and planned to attend future meetings. Jake informed the Youth Council that the group had developed relationships with the Kirklees Employment and Skills Board and had attended their recent event aimed at creating links between local employers, schools and young people. Several Youth Councillors had attended an event hosted by Kirklees Youth Enterprise Centre. They had been given the opportunity to meet Ed Clancy, Local Olympic Gold Medal winner 2012, who gave an inspirational speech followed by a question and answer session. Matthew Levene informed the Youth Council that the Poland project group had spoken with Polish students live via a Skype session held at Huddersfield Town Hall. They learned a lot about life in Poland for young people and were in the process of putting together a summary of their learning experience which they advised they would share once completed. Matthew also advised the Youth Council that they had received a number of applications for the Kirklees Grants Scheme and that the Panel was set to look at these very soon. Jake also advised the meeting that in 2011 the Kirklees Youth Council had carried out a consultation with almost 700 young people in Kirklees aged 11 to 19, to find out what their main priority for change was. They had said that it was jobs, opportunities and money and as a result, a new project group had also now been initiated to research these issues. The Children s Trust had also agreed that this priority would be included in the Kirklees Children and Young People Plan for further action. At the same time, the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel had also expressed a willingness to take on a young peoples initiated enquiry. The new project group also planned to attend the Kirklees Council Cabinet meeting on 12 March where the recommendations from the report would be discussed. RESOLVED - That the update reports be noted. 6 Young People with a Disability Zain Malik informed the Youth Council that the Youth Councillors representing young people with disabilities group had taken part in a Panel looking at bids for short break activities. They had considered six applications and had shared their views. 2

3 Zain also informed the Youth Council that over the next few weeks the group would be talking to other young people with disabilities about their views and experiences of work experience. 7 Our Voice The Youth Council received an update from the Our Voice Project group regarding the Your Library, Your Voice project. They had completed the report with all the information that had been collected and had handed it over to libraries. They had researched new furnishing and had created a shopping list for the community room in Dewsbury Library. They had also met to plan the activity sessions that would be happening in the Library during the Easter Holidays. 8 Workless-ness, Poverty, Aspirations and Young People The Youth Council received an update from a group of young people aged 13 to 19 from the Dale Lane, Mirfield. They had been undertaking a project around Workless-ness, Poverty, Aspirations and Young People. They had been instrumental in planning and designing all aspects of the project and had been working on the project since October The idea for the project was identified by the group of young people. Many of them had left school or were due to be leaving school within the next few years and the idea surfaced during a discussion with youth workers on the mobile unit session on the estate. Young people wanted to do a project on gaining entry into work and how poverty affected them. The project aimed to find out how each of the above topics directly affected young peoples lives within the home, school, peer groups and their communities. The group had also planned to share their learning with Kirklees Youth Council and other young people and decision makers at the Integrated Youth Support Celebration Event in May The group also wanted to speak to someone who they deemed as having been successful. A young person from the group met with the Mayor of Kirklees at the recent IYSS Celebration evening and invited him to come and speak to the group. The group asked the Mayor structured questions that had been prepared beforehand, that were based upon his life, his work, workless-ness, poverty, aspirations and young people. The group advised that they had left the session extremely motivated. The young people also advised that the Mayor had written to them in proceeding weeks thanking them for inviting him and offering them further support if needed. 9 Kirklees Young Carers Council The Youth Council advised that staff and young people at the Young Carers Project had been discussing how the project would support young 3

4 carers. They had been made aware that Young Carers had a large variety of support needs and that there was a need for the project to be adapted so that it could better meet these needs and also support more young people. The project would aim to introduce a Growing Stronger Programme for young carers that would start at the end of April Young carers would attend to learn information around, skills, coping strategies, self esteem and confidence to flourish in their roles as young carers. There would be some focused work on selected topics and lots of fun and social activities with other young carers. It was advised that this would allow staff to get to know the young people and look at any other support that they may require. The plan aimed to meet the specific needs of young carers with a more flexible support package. The young carers had also previously looked at how the Youth Council meeting was run and had decided to take some of the ideas and introduce them to the Young Carers Council meeting. The current Young Carer Council advised that they hoped to adopt the following ideas, learned from the Youth Council: * To introduce a formal application process, young carers would register their interest in joining the Council, write a brief application and advise what they would bring to the position. A member of staff would look at these and decide on the best candidates for available positions. * Each meeting would have a discussion topic brought to the meeting by members of the Council. * There would be two Chair roles with responsibility for running the meeting and these would alter at each meeting to provide everybody with some experience of the position. * That a system of providing an audio recording of the meeting would be considered as this would help them to take notes and also to provide evidence of the work of the Council that could be recorded and stored. * That membership of the Council would be open to all young carers aged 11 years old or over. 10 Children in Care Council The Children in Care Council had completed the Looked after Children Folder, which would be distributed over the forthcoming weeks. The folder contained important documents relating to a Looked after Child s life (Care Plan/Pathway Plan/Personal Education Plan and Health Assessment). The Council had also attended a National Voice Event at Brian Jackson House on 24 November 2012 and another event at the Refugee Council in Leeds on 17 January They had also attended a Christmas Outing to see Peter Pan at Manchester Opera House. 4

5 11 Work Related Quiz Youth Councillors participated in a quiz containing work related questions. 12 KYC Discussion Topic Youth Councillors participated in a debate titled Studying or Working in the EU. 13 Hotspot Seat Kirklees Youth Enterprise Centre attended the meeting to participate in the Panel Question Time and answered a variety of questions from the Youth Councillors regarding their experiences and projects. RESOLVED - That the content of the hotspot seat be noted. 14 Get Involved The Youth Council received a presentation detailing current opportunities for young people s involvement in the local area. RESOLVED - That the presentation be noted. 15 Chairs Update The Co-Chairs presented a number of Youth Councillors with certificates for their participation in a variety of projects, including the Youth in Society Event; these certificates were presented by Andrew Mycock, Politics Reader at Huddersfield University. 16 Public Question Time No questions were asked. 17 Future Meeting Dates The schedule of meetings for 2013 was noted. 5