UK Youth Urges Country to be Positive About Youth

UK Youth, the leading national youth work charity, calls on the country to be Positive about Youth as it launches its centenary year today with a reception for young people, supporters and youth workers at St James’s Palace hosted by the charity’s Patron, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.

There are many reasons to be positive about young people. In 2001 73% of young people had volunteered at least once during the last 12 months. Despite all the coverage of young people not achieving at school, in 2008 98% of young people gained qualifications. 175,000 young people are carers and 13,000 of them provide voluntary care for their families for more than 50 hours a week.

There may be 9,000 young people in young offenders institutions in the UKbut given that there are over 4 million young people in the UK this represents only 0.05%. Equally, young men are 5 times and young women are 2.3 times more likely than the average person to be victims of violent crime.

To celebrate its centenary UK Youth is recruiting celebrities, sports personalities, business people and politicians to become Centenary Ambassadors and commit to being Positive about Youth and several of them will be attending the reception.

Nigel Mansell OBE, the charity’s President and former Formula 1 World Champion, said:

“I support Positive about Youth because if we celebrate youth, their achievements and their contribution to our communities we will all be the richer. Please join us and let’s make a real difference to the way we value young people

Those who have signed up to the campaign thus far include:

Suzi Perry (TV presenter)

Guy Ritchie (Film maker)

Peter Powell (former DJ and manager)

Natascha Engel MP (Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Youth Affairs)

Chloe Smith MP (youngest Member of Parliament)

David Blunkett MP (former Minister)

Simon Hughes MP (a former youth worker)

Claire Buckfield (actor)

Katherine Grainger (Olympic athlete)

Karen Doherty (author)

John Bateman OBE, Chief Executive of UK Youth, said: We will use our centenary to change the country’s perceptions of young people. Over 70% of media coverage about young people is negative yet the vast majority of young people are achieving great things and playing an increased role in communities all over the country. We want to highlight these activities, raise the aspirations, realise the potential and recognise the achievements of all young people thereby improving their life chances.

“I am looking forward to a significant year for UK Youth as we build a concensus to value the talents and abilities of our young people. Our Positive about Youth message will feature at a range of major arts and sports events throughout the year. In the coming weeks we will also be unveiling a series of new and practical activities that will showcase the benefits of investing in young people and non-formal learning .”

During the year UK Youth will be taking the Positive About Youth message to many of the major arts and sports events around the UK including the Hay Festival, the London Marathon and Wimbledon. In addition, Nigel Mansell OBE, will be cycling round the UK on a 1200 mile journey to draw attention to the campaign and raise money for the charity.