UK Youth Voice 2009 - 2010
What Do We Do?
Voice is a youth led organisation within UK Youth that is dedicated to giving 16-25 year olds a voice. Although a part of UK Youth, Voice is in charge of its own finances, meetings, and organisational structure. The highlight of the Voice year is the Annual Conference which is held at UK Youth's head quarters in the New Forest: www.avontyrrell.org.uk. The Voice Panel is made up of two young people from each region of England, one young person from the Channel Islands, and two young people from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Voice is a key part of UK Youth’s network and is seen as a model of good practice in the field of youth participation.
Who we are!
Daniel Robertson – Chair - 2nd Year – Scotland Rep
Florence Taylor – Vice Chair – 2nd Year – East Rep
Andy Baker – Media & PR – 2nd Year – South East Rep
Liam Wooton – Secretary -2nd Year – North East Rep
Jack Watson Warr – Vice Secretary - 1st Year– SouthWest Rep Dean Sharpe – Treasurer - 1st Year- North West Rep
Rebecca Barrow - 2nd Year – East Midlands
Moira McHale – 2nd Year – Northern Ireland rep Blessing Maregere - 1st Year - Yorkshire & Humberside Rep
Ashley Rae – 2nd Year – Yorkshire & Humberside Rep
Tia Rutherford – 1st Year – London Rep
Yazmin Pusey – 1st Year – London Rep
Jack Rivers – 1st Year – East Rep
Mitan Patel – 1st Year – Scotland
Suree Jinks – 1st Year – South West Rep
Jade Bell – 1st Year – South East Rep
We have some gaps in our panel so if you or anyone you know are from a region that isn't being represented, make sure you or they book a place at our Annual Conference and get yourselves voted onto the panel! To find out what regions are not being represented please contact our e-Participation Officer - Claire Dever on claire.d@ukyouth.org.
Voice Structure:
Chair – plans and runs Voice meetings, is responsible to the Board of Trustees and is a Trustee.
Vice-Chair – helps the chair organise and plan meetings, runs meetings when the chair is unavailable, helps time-keep in meetings.
Secretary – minutes meetings (circulating minutes after each meeting), approves/writes outgoing post, works with PR & Media on Conference write ups.
Treasurer – reimburses travel and food expenses for all Voice members when travelling to and from meetings, controls budget.
PR & Media Officer – works with UK Youth’s PR & Media officer, updates website/ blog, represents UK Youth and Voice in the media, looks after guests at meetings and conferences, and helps create promotional material for Voice.
Voice representatives on UK Youth's Board of Trustees:
Daniel Robertson, Florence Taylor and Andy Baker
Voice hosts an Annual Conference which is held over a weekend and is exclusively for young people. It is an opportunity for young people throughout the UK to come together, meet new people and discuss the issues relevant to their lives and futures. The Annual Conference is planned, developed, hosted and attended by young people from all walks of life. Each year workshops are run promoting participation and getting the voices of young people heard. Each year the participants vote on the top four issues that young people face, these issues are known as Resolutions and are worked on throughout the following year by Voice members; Voice members also formulate workshops based on these Resolutions for the next Conference. The Annual Conference gives a platform to young people to express their views and formulate their opinions it also enables participants to make changes to their lives and communities.
The next annual conference is 2nd July - 4th July 2010 at Avon Tyrrell - details will follow!
Being a part of Voice provides a vast amount of opportunities at a local, regional, national and even international levels. It also helps participants on a personal basis by increasing their confidence through being involved in decision making, meeting new and influential people, travelling to new places and being involved in innovative projects. Members of Voice regularly interview for staff at both national and local levels, and individual members have sat on local youth club committees and UK Youth network association boards.
Past News:
Survey results – Young People in the Media
Leading youth work charity UK Youth conducted an online survey, of 588 young people on their views of young people in the media, through its young people led arm UK Youth Voice (UKYV).
The survey found that young people clearly have to take the lead in changing their image in the media, but the media also has a responsibility to reflect what young people are doing.
84% of young people asked felt that the media has had a bad effect on the image of young people, with more young people likely to see a negative story in the media than a positive one.
Kerry Pedder from UK Youth and an author of the report commented that she was “not shocked by the high number who thought the media has had a bad effect on the image of young people. With the media often categorising all young people in a negative way, it’s hard to see the positive stories out there”
The report by members of UK Youth Voice highlights that 71% of young people have been involved in positive activities but only 22% have contacted the media about them.
Of the 66% of young people who have been in the media, 93% agreed that they had been represented in a fair way. This emphasises the importance of every young person contacting the media about their positive activities.
UKYV’s research also shows there would be 44% more positive news stories if the media was contacted in such circumstances.
The report’s authors said that their research shows young people need media training to help them contact the media, to highlight the positive stories, so that there can be a balanced portrayal of young people in the media.
“It was nice to see people’s faces when they found out that there could be up to 44% more positive coverage for young people if those young people knew how to access the media” said Nick Newton, Member of UKYV at the presentation of the report.
UK Youth Voice and UK Youth will be working to producer an online toolkit, so young people themselves can help to change their image in the media.
