UK Youth make demands for young people at Party Conferences
UK Youth has had a presence at all three political party conferences in September and October this year.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families speaking at our event at Labour Party Conference in Brighton
We held an event at each of the three conferences as part of the Coalition for Young People, of which we are a founding member along with NCVYS, 4 Children, The National Youth Agency, NCB, Clubs for Young People and UK Youth Parliament.
Young people are the number one priority for the coalition, which brings together leading national organisations that work with or represent young people.All too often political debate and media coverage responds to and feeds a negative perception of young people and as a result many feel marginalised. The coalition aims to create a positive agenda for the empowerment, entitlement and equality of all young people.
At the Liberal Democrats Conference in Bournemouth, Labour Conference in Brighton and the Conservative Conference in Manchester the coalition held receptions for Members of Parliament, Prospective Party Candidates and Party Members to tell them about the positive work young people are doing across the UK, and to take our demands to them.As they start to form their manifestos for the General Election in 2010, we set out the following demands for each political party:
1.We want great places for young people to go and great things to do
2.We want young people to be able to make the most of facilities on offer
3.We want young people to flourish – to get the most from their education and wider learning – in school, in their youth centre and at home.
4.We want young people to get the help and support they need when they need it
5.We want more young people involved in decision making
6.We want great people to work with young people to inspire, motivate, support and help them gain new skills
7.We want to prevent vulnerable young people from getting involved in crime
8.We want to ensure that all Government policies work for young people not against
The events were very well attended by young people from each organisation, who put their concerns and hopes forward to the politicians present.These included members of UK Youth Voice and the Hearing Unheard Voices Project from within UK Youth, who carried out a series of interviews with high profile politicians and members of the voluntary sector.
At the Labour Party Conference event the reception also included a performance from the dance act Flava, who last year reached the semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent.They then held a dance workshop for some of the young people present as seen below.
Photographs taken by Mariam Sheikh, NCVYS
