SHOUTOUTJanuary - February 2020

MYP Elections

Cardiff Youth Service Active Involvement Team

Page 1 ShoutOut

Angel EzeadumCai ParryZack HellardSteffan ThomasMeg Hicks-Jones

On Wednesday, 15th of January 2020, 7members of Cardiff Youth Council (CYC) stoodfor the position of Member of the UK YouthParliament. All 7 candidates delivered a speechon why they should be elected. They also tookquestions from other youth council members onwhat their priorities would be (for their campaign),ways that they will take others views intoconsideration and how they will engage withseldom heard groups (including those who arenot CYC members). This year the following people stood for theposition:

Shivam SinghalEshaan Rajesh

CYC and the active involvement team (AIT)congratulate all the candidates for puttingthemselves forward in such an inspiring andbrave way, delivering some profound speechesand for answering all questions that CYCmembers had for them.Angel Ezeadum has been duly elected as thenew Member of the UK Youth Parliament forCardiff for the next 2 years standing alongsideVictor Ciunca, she will also sit on the CYCexecutive board.AIT and CYC would like to take this opportunityto thank Connor Clarke for all his hard work overthe last 2 years and would like to wish him all thebest for taking on his role as a member of theBritish Youth Council Procedural Group.

New Member of the UK Youth Parliament Elected

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Capital Ambition is Cardiff Counciladministration's new five-year plan for thecity, outlining the council’s vision forCardiff to become a leading city on theworld stage. Each Cabinet member hasoutlined their key aims and ambitions fortheir term of office. CYC members wereinvited by the Leader of Cardiff CouncilCouncillor Huw Thomas to attend theCapital Ambition Launch 2.0 at Cardiffand Vale College on the 6th of February2020. The plan focuses on four mainareas, working for Cardiff, working forWales, working for the future and workingfor public services. Steffan Thomas, a member of CardiffYouth Council, said, "It was great to beable to attend the event and hear ofCardiff Council's plans for the future.

Capital Ambition 2.0It was interesting and thought provoking,especially given the need to balancegrowth with environmental concerns thatare increasingly important."Steffan managed to ask Cllr Huw Thomas,"The plan calls for a greener capital city.How achievable is this given the currentemphasis on new development andeconomic growth?" and in his own words;"I was particularly keen to hear theLeader's views as to how the city cangrow and develop whilst respectingenvironmental concerns. The Leader'sresponse acknowledged the importance ofstriking this balance and ensuring thatfuture development is as sustainable aspossible." CYC look forward to workingwith Cllr Huw Thomas and CabinetMembers in realising Capital Ambition 2.0and making Cardiff a Child Friendly City.

Curriculum forLife Interviews

As part of our young interviewersprogramme three of our CYC members saton a young person’s interview panel for thenew position of ‘Curriculum for Life worker’that would be managed by the ChildFriendly City programme. Mia John sat onthe panel as chair, along with Alana-LeighEllis and Zahara Mutibwa. Within thedecision making process the youngpeople’s panel and the adult panel wereunsure which candidate out of the

two would be suitable for the role, as bothcandidates were strong but had differingstrengths.Discussions eventually led to both panelsagreeing that both candidates wouldcomplement each other professionally. As aresult of this decision, both of them wereemployed as Curriculum for Life workers!CYC and AIT welcome Tom and Amy toCardiff Council and look forward to workingwith them in the near future.

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The group have been working on a numberof ideas and building links with otherprofessional and organisations over the lastcouple of month. A couple of the ideas thathave been worked on have included holdingan event in City Hall, working in partnershipwith ACE Communities First, bringingtogether various organisations andprofessionals that work with refugee andasylum seekers in Cardiff to an educationaland promotional event. Unfortunately due totime commitments and funding this wasunable to gain traction and is an idea that wewill be looking at in the future.Instead to group have come up with the ideaof an information leaflet that can be sharedigitally across the city and withorganisations and professionals.

CYC Subgroup Updates

The first side will have a map of Cardiffand will highlight the places that youngpeople and families can go for support,such as oasis, refugee council for wales,citizen advice, hubs etc.The second will again have a map thatwill include fun and educational things,such as parks youth centres, ice skatingetc.

The leaflet will have two parts.

We will also be working with Oasis on a newproject specifically working with youngpeople who are refugee or asylum seekersat an event, date to be confirmed. If you canthink of any services that could be includedwithin our leaflet, please feel free to get intouch with us atcardiffyouthcouncil@cardiff.gov.uk.

Welcoming Refugees

Protect the EnvironmentRecently, the environmental sub-group hasbeen making lots of progress on our project.We are creating a resource for the people ofCardiff to use so they can live moresustainable, environmentally friendly lives.After visiting businesses around the city, wehave started whittling down a list of places toinclude on our resource which we are happyare sustainable enough to promote to the

eco-friendly members of Cardiff, or thosewho want to change their lifestyles.In our last meeting, we set out a roadmap ofwhat we want to achieve and when, to makesure we are doing what we set out to do.We have decided to include a map on theresource showing the places that we believeto be sustainable in a productive way, sothat people know where to find them.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

Creating two videosThe first - a 2 min live action film inwhich young people talk about some ofthe issues they face that cause poorMH&W and which promotes MindHub

CYC identified a number of ways in whichthey would like to promote MindHub as partof their plan for the year by doing thefollowing:

The second – a 20-30sec animatedfilm that can be used to promoteMindHub on various platforms such associal media sites

Update the MindHub website withchanges identified by usersPosters and banners that can bedisplayed in schools and other locationsacross the city

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Tempo, the network running the distribution andspending of time credits across the UK recentlyput their Cardiff team through the NationalParticipation Standards. This is what they had tosay about the experience:"Recently we went through the Child Participationstandards, firstly self-assessing and then laterbeing inspected and reviewed by the YoungInspectors. We really enjoyed the process and found itmanageable to complete. It was a very usefulinternal assessment of where we are and howwe value participation; as an organisation thatvalues the voice and experiences of everyonewithin our network (including young people!) it

Young Inspectorswas interesting to see how valuable it is, andwhere we could still do a bit better.We plan to introduce more varied communicationmethods including Instagram so we reachyounger audiences as just one example ofchanges we made. The inspection with the young people was agreat experience, with the observations anddiscussions of the young people challenging howwe manage participation and picking up onopportunities for us to include the views of youngpeople that we had not recognised." Tempo have since been recommended for thekitemark award.

With the support of the healthy schools team inCardiff Council, young people in CYC’senvironment subgroup were invited to contributeto the discussion making process around theprocurement of sustainable sanitary products forschools across the local authority. There were 4lots in total available for tender and 9 companiesapplied. Meg said:“On Friday the 28th of February 2020, I wasgiven the opportunity to attend a meeting withKaren Trigg and colleagues to review introducing

Period Dignity sustainable sanitary products to Cardiff schools.It was a great way for me, and the other youngpeople who attended, to explore environmentallyfriendly brands and to have a discussion aboutwhich were most suitable. It was really beneficialto have a proper look at these products. I felt likeI had a valid voice around the table and I felt thatmy opinion was very welcomed.”All of the young people involved found theexperience to be empowering as they sharedtheir view on the environmental impact of eachproduct.

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Erasmus UpdateWritten by Thorfinn Moffat

I have witnessed in the space of a decade theexplosion of interest in environmental issues. Inno group of people is this interest stronger than inyoung people. Behind the backdrop of schoolwalkouts becoming a regular feature in countriesworldwide and young climate activist GretaThunberg named ‘Times Person of the Year’, itseems that the environment is the definingpolitical issue of this generation. Unsurprisingly, Cardiff Youth Council has recentlychosen the environment as one of its priorityareas and with funding from Erasmus+ we havehosted our first out of two environmentalresidentials. We are convening youth councilsacross Wales in one place to consult youngpeople on problems which are important to themand their local areas.

Our vision is to launch a programme to buildstrong relationships with other youth councils sothat we can form a network of young peoplenation-wide devoted to tackling environmentalissues. As a part of this programme we will beasking youth council’s to launch their ownprojects with an environmental focus within theirlocal communities. We will also be developingbranding so that we can demonstrate that youngpeople across Wales are working under acommon purpose. This is a unique opportunity for Cardiff YouthCouncil to collaborate with other youth councils totackle an issue which is at the centre of ouragenda. To make our vision a reality, we willneed support over the next couple of months so ifyou would like to support us in some way or wantto get involved, please contact a member of theactive involvement team (see pg 7).

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The Erasmus residential experience was agreat opportunity to create a lastingrelationship between the different youthcouncils of different areas of Wales. It was an enjoyable experience because itgave more freedom to the youth of ourcountry to unite and discuss the issuesfacing the environment and how we influenceit. As well as this, it had many non-workrelated aspects such as a chance to go tothe cinema and to socialize. We hope to use Erasmus as a brand and useit as a way to complete changes in our localcommunities to improve the environmentunder one name.The first day was used to have an opendiscussion to decide on a few maincontributors to climate change that we allagreed were a top priority. We then split intogroups to discuss each topic in depth, askingthe youth councils taking part what their localissues were as well as how we could tacklethe problem. I enjoyed this because I got toexplore a specific solution in depth along-

Erasmus ResidentialWritten by Meg Hicks-Jones

side individuals of varying ages from differentlocal authorities and learn new things aboutmy subject (which was low carbon housing).On Saturday, we split into mixed teams andwere all given a solution to climate changeand were set the task of creating apresentation to persuade a panel of judges(experts) as to why our topic should bechosen as a top priority. This allowed us as ayouth council to get to know other youthcouncil members in a productiveenvironment. On the final day, we were given a session onFlatholm Island; Within our Local Authoritygroups, we were set the task of creating apresentation to showcase what we thinkFlatholm Island should install on / changeabout the island. This was a highlight of mytime at the residential because we hadfreedom to present this in any way we liked,so we decided to act out our idea. I had agreat time, I never felt bored or unable tovoice myself and discuss topics with others,and always had something to put my mind to.

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Dates of upcoming meetings:April 22nd

Venue:Zoom - email AIT for detailsTimes:Meetings start by 5pm andFinish at 7pm

Dates of future CYC meetings can be foundon our blog or Facebook

Join The Conversation…..cardiffyouthcouncil.com/twitter.com/cardiffyouthcouncilfacebook.com/cardiffyouthcouncil/youtube.com/user/CardiffYouthCouncilcardiffyouthcouncil@cardiff.gov.uk

Blog:Tweet:FB:Tube:Email:

Contact usAIT@cardiff.gov.ukCarey Davies - 07974 417734

Email:Phone:Address: Grassroots

58 Charles StreetCardiffCF10 2GG

CARDIFF YOUTH COUNCIL

ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT TEAM

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Active Involvement TeamEngagement & Impact

January - February 202032 Engagement Activities

341 Total Contacts63 Young People Engaged

801 Volunteer Hours

CYC ran an Erasmus+ residential with 118 participants10 Young inspectors trained

7 Young inspector participated in 2 inspections3 Young interviewers trained

3 Young interviewers participated in 2 InterviewsCYC Presented at the Cardiff 2030 staff launch

CYC supported the Child Friendly City UNICEF monitoring visitCYC attended the launch of Capital Ambition 2.0

Cardiff Youth Council now has representation on various StrategicBoards and influencing groups, including:

- Children & Young People’s Scrutiny Committee- Economy & Culture Scrutiny Committee

- Education Development Board- Children & Young People’s Advisory Board (CYPAB) for

Child Friendly Cardiff - Scrutiny Mental Health Task Group- Cardiff Commitment Steering Group

- Cardiff 2030 Education Strategy