Young People's Participation
UK Youth Parliament
Members of the Youth Parliament
Every Local Authority in the South West region now has an election process to ensure that its young people are represented on the UK Youth Parliament. Our Regional Youth Democracy Worker, Sharon Adams, works with the elected Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) and their deputies, organising regional meetings, an annual residential for the new intake and the South West region’s contribution to the annual national sitting of the Youth Parliament. Click here to find out more about the Regional Youth Parliament and contact your local MYP.
MYPs are also very active in their constituencies and at national and regional level. We have organised a number of regional events on issues that matter to young people, including transport, housing and education, and have worked with MYPs to help them get their concerns across to policy makers nationally and regionally.
Read the South West UKYP regional manifesto
Read the report from our safer communities debate
Read Kirstie Parson’s story about being part of the South West Youth Parliament.
South West Members of the Youth Parliament and their workers at the 2007 regional residential training weekend in Newquay
We provide support for the two young people who represent young people’s interests at the South West Regional Assembly. They have done much to show regional decision makers how positive and effective young people can be in representative roles. Find out more about the support we provide for Jayesh who sits on the Assembly.
MYPS are pictured with John Prescott at The Way Ahead Conference
Read the report from our work & employment debate.
We promote and implement the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Young Roots’ programme as part of our participation work. Young Roots offers funding to youth led projects which explore our history, stories of the past, heritage and culture and its impact on our lives today. We offer advice and information to organisations that want to access this fund.
We work with many other agencies to support participation developments. The National Youth Agency’s ‘Act by Right’ Programme was developed at a residential with the South West MYPs and others, and we continue to work with NYA on participation activity.
Participation Works
The Regional Youth Work Unit has been awarded a contract with Participation Works to provide a programme of support to Voluntary & Community sector professionals working with young people to help develop and improve a culture of participation.
Funding for the work over the next 3 years has come from a central bid to the Big Lottery Fund and here in the South West it will help develop the Regional Participation Network for practitioners and also fund training events to share good practice and help develop skills. To find out more about our work with Participation Works and view several case studies on participation, please click here.
Young people’s participation is a major policy issue at present, and there is some really positive practice emerging here in the region, notably around the Youth Opportunity Fund arrangements.
We look forward to developing more of this work with other regional agencies in the next few years.