Young Mayor and Youth
Council Blog
Young Mayor - Kaycee de Belen and
members of the Youth Council tell us what they're getting up
to...
18 August, 2010
Volunteer hopefuls countdown to 2012
Wangu Mureithi
With the 2012, London Olympics only around the corner many of us
are greatly interested in the volunteering opportunities available
for 16-18 year olds.
The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympics
Games (LOCOG), the people who are responsible for preparing and
staging the 2012 Games and require 70,000 volunteers, aged 18 and
over on January 1 2012. Our young mayor Kaycee De Belen wrote to
the LOCOG chair, Seb Coe asking him to reconsider his decision on
not allowing any under 18s to volunteer at the Olympic Games. Since
this letter, Mr. Coe then responded to Kaycee by extending the
minimum age to 18 - but for only 1,500 young people all over the
U.K. Therefore some, but not many young people will be able to take
part. However, there are other opportunities along the way for
young people under the age of 18 to take part in such as:
Young Games Makers program, this will be an opportunity for young
people under 18 to volunteer at the Olympic and Paralympics games.
The program launches in the summer of 2011. Please see
www.london2012.com for more
information.
London Ambassadors will be welcoming worldwide visitors to London
during the Olympic and Paralympics games in 2012. Eight thousand
ambassadors will be required and applicants must be 16 years of age
(born on or before 1 January 1996), and registration starts now!
Please see www.londonambassadors.org.uk for more
information.
Newham Volunteers is an existing organization which aims to give
those aged 16 and over an opportunity to volunteer at various
events the council holds. Apart of the 70,000 volunteers LOCOG
requires, some will be recruited from Newham volunteers. Please see
www.newham.gov.uk/YourCommunity/Volunteering
for more information.
Wangu Mureithi is a member of Newham's Children and Young
People's Board. She works with Youth Councillors and other Board
members to ensure young people have a say in how Children and Young
People's Services are run.
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3 August, 2010
Spreading the word at the Mayor's Newham Show
Fallak Tabassum
I was part of the team of Youth Councillors that manned our stall
at the Mayor's Newham Show this year.
It was a great day out with lots of different activities for
residents of all ages to try out. There was even a beach right in
the middle of central park.
I can safely say though that the Youth Council's Sumo wrestling
tent was definitely a crowd favourite, with people queuing all day
to have a turn. Mayor Sir Robin Wales even got in on the fun!
This year's election has also kicked off now, so we were telling
people how they can get involved if they think they've got what it
takes to represent the young people of the borough, and also what
the election process involves.
Nominations close at 5pm on Monday 20 September, so head to
www.newham.gov.uk/YoungMayor/Elections
to find out more! While you're there, head to the photo gallery
section to check out Kaycee's gallery from the Mayor's Newham
Show.
Do you know a friend that doesn't get the newsletter but
would like to? Send their email address to
YoungMayor@newham.gov.uk
and I'll add them to our mailing list.
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7 July, 2010
Kaycee de Belen
There's so much happening at the moment that you can get involved
in! I'm heading to Canary Wharf in a few weeks to meet with the
London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games
(LOCOG). I'll be talking to them about how young people will be
involved in the 2012 Games, including volunteering, the opening and
closing ceremonies and also getting tickets for all the events. I
want you to write to me and tell me why you want to volunteer at
the games. I'll take these responses with me to show LOCOG just how
committed young people from Newham are.
The Newham Show is also coming up. I'll be there with the rest of
the Youth Council. Our stall is right near the main stage. You'll
be able to try out sumo wrestling and also chat to us about the
issues that concern you.
There's more detail on all this and much more in the Newsletter so
read on!
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2 June, 2010
Time to make the most of the Youth Opportunity fund
Kaycee de Belen
Do you have a great idea that would benefit young people in Newham
but not enough cash to get it off the ground?
You should consider applying for a grant from the Youth
Opportunity Fund. It awards grants of up to £25,000 to give young
people in Newham places to go and things to do.
Since it got started grants between £1,000 and £25,000 have been
handed out for a huge range of ideas from football competitions,
music and dance projects, to support groups for young people with
long term illnesses.
If you're aged between 13 and 19 and live in the borough or go to
school or college here you can apply.
You'll need the support of an adult for your application to be
considered, this could be someone like your teacher or youth club
manager.
Once you've applied the Youth Opportunity Fund youth panel, lead
by me and the Youth Council and made up of young people across the
borough, will work together to decide which projects are
funded.
For more information about the scheme and access to an application
form visit
http://www.newham.gov.uk/YoungMayor/GetInvolved/YouthOpportunityFund.htm
The closing date for the first round of bids June 9 so get
cracking!
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30 April, 2010
Call to let young people volunteer at 2012 Games
Kaycee de Belen
As soon as I heard that Locog are proposing that volunteer
positions will only be open to young people who are 18 by 01
January 2012. Here's the letter I wrote to him asking him to lower
it to 16 so young people can make the most of the Games.
Dear Lord Coe
Thank you for responding to my letter sent on 15 March 2010. I am
encouraged by your continuing commitment to inspiring young people
though the Games. I wanted to share with you some of my concerns
about the age criteria proposed for LOCOG's Olympic
Volunteers.
I was disappointed to learn that many young people could miss out
on the fantastic volunteering opportunities created by the 2012
Games. I'm one of the lucky ones and will be old enough to take
part but I've lots of friends who probably won't be able to get
involved because they were born a few days too late.
I think 16 is a much more sensible age. Tom Daley competed in
Beijing when he was 14 and won't be 18 until May 2012. He can
compete in London but under LOCOG's age regulations he wouldn't be
able to volunteer to direct a visitor to the Olympic Park.
Local young people have loads of enthusiasm for the Games. We know
the area best and we have a diverse range of language skills, which
makes us ideal Olympic volunteers. I hope the organisers will
reconsider and find a way to avoid causing a lot of disappointment
to people whose eighteenth birthday comes after 1st January
2012.
As Young Mayor of Newham I've made a commitment to represent young
people and I want to bring to your attention that we really want to
take up the opportunities we were promised.
Please consider lowering the age restriction to 16 years and
involve young people across the host boroughs in that
discussion.
I look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely
Kaycee de Belen
Young Mayor of Newham
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27 April, 2010
Making policy more relevant to young people
Aadilah Ismail
I recently travelled to Central London with Kaycee, Kishan and
Rosie for a special event organised by the Young Mayor's Network
about helping decision makers when creating policy for young
people.
Representatives from Lambeth, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets were also
there and together we presented the ideas we came up with at a
recent workshop to representatives from the Children and Learners
division at the Government Office for London (GOL).
I think the main message was to properly involve young people when
you're creating policy, don't just talk to us for the sake of
ticking a box. We also asked them to present the policy in a way
that we understand. Young people don't like jargon or 100 page
essays! We want a clear summary and youth friendly language. We
also recommended that they have empathy for our issues and help us
to be part of the solution.
Here's the full list:
1. If a policy affects young people, we should have a direct
input.
2. Use youth friendly language.
3. We need clear summaries of what you want to do.
4. Provide regular updates that young people can easily get access
to if they want.
5. Be honest with us, even if we wont' like what you're
saying.
6. Don't just invite us to participate for the sake of it.
7. Have empathy and passion for our issues.
8. Use different communication channels and avoid meetings and
conferences which aren't 'young people friendly'.
9. We are not the problem. We want to be part of the
solution.
I'm looking forward to GOL putting our ideas into action!
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12 April,
2010
Education, Inspiration, Determination -
Olympic values in action
Kaycee de Belen
One of the best things to come out of the 2012 Games for young
people is the massive number of opportunities to get involved in
projects around sport, enterprise, media and leadership, to name a
few.
I was really proud to give my support to the nomination of ten
fantastic young people from Newham, who have been selected for the
London 2012 Young Leaders Programme.
They're part of a group of 100 committed young people from across
the UK who will take part in a two-year programme that will train
them up to become high profile volunteers during the Olympic and
Paralympic Games. And it's not just the 100 leaders that will
benefit either - their challenge is to develop their leadership,
communication and team-building skills so they can motivate and
inspire other young people to become local volunteers determined to
make a difference.
Read the rest of this blog entry on the
London 2012 Website.
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6 April, 2010
18 or over? Use your vote 6 May 2010
Kaycee de Belen
If you are a first time voter, don't forget to cast your vote on 6
May for this year's local and UK Parliamentary Elections. If you
are aged 18 or over you are eligible to vote, but
you must be
on the electoral register for your chance to make your voice
heard.
People say we aren't interested in politics but I know that in the
last three years over 24 000 votes have been cast in Young Mayor
Elections, and it's up to young people in Newham who have the right
to vote this time round in local and national elections to let the
politicians know if they want our vote they need to talk about the
issues that matter to us.
If you don't register you can't vote. For more information call 020
8430 2000, visit http://www.votenewham.com, or pop into Newham
Town Hall, Barking Road, East Ham, and ask for the electoral
registration team.
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1 April, 2010
Launching the young people's Manifesto for a Safer London
Kishan Patel
In March I went to see the London Serious Youth Violence Board
launch its Manifesto for a Safer London. It's been written by young
Londoners. The manifesto is their first step in a campaign to get
young people, the Police, local Councils and other groups and
organisations to tackle issues of crime and safety in the
capital.
I think one of the most important aims of the campaign is to
counter negative portrayals of young people by the media, which
unfairly gives us a bad name and is harmful to whole communities
when it leads to some adults, especially the elderly, living in
fear of all young people around them.
The Youth Council has also been working hard to help reduce actual
crime by making recommendations to the Crime and Disorder Reduction
Partnership, influencing the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy and
supporting tough penalties on underage knife sales.
To find out what you can do, check out the Manifesto for a Safer
London on the London Serious
Youth Violence Board website
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12 March, 2010
Networking with Young Mayors across London
Sami Pontin
My first blog! On last Tuesday's Young Mayor Network meeting… I
went with Kaycee, Aadilah, Kishan, Rosie and Ola to the Government
Office for London - opposite the MI5 building featured in the Bond
films!
There were Young Mayors from Tower Hamlets and Lambeth and
representatives from Lewisham. We hosted guest speakers from the
London Serious Youth Violence Board, and talked to them about how
Young Mayors have been countering fear of crime by promoting
positive images of young people; putting positive stories about
young people on our websites; supporting activities and events that
celebrate youth achievement and funding projects for young people
at risk of offending, through the Youth Opportunity Fund.
Challenging those negative stereotypes is so important - it's up to
young people to give the media a reality check. Only 2% of
under-18s in London have actually committed criminal offences.
Young people are much more likely to be the victims of crime than
the perpetrators.
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24 February, 2010
Lots of small steps to make a big change
Kaycee de Belen
The other day I was out promoting recycling with the Beckton
Community Forum. There were loads of people there and it was a
really busy day! Recycling is one of my priorities for this year -
and this event was all about the small steps that individuals can
take to make our borough a cleaner and greener place for all of
us.
It was great fun talking to lots of young people about the
different things we can all do to help.
Community events like this always remind me how important it is to
bring people from all backgrounds together and how it helps us to
get on well together. There was a really great activity about
designing recycling bags that loads of young people were enjoying -
but they were also learning about what they can do to help recycle
more and all the recycling services we've got in Newham. Sometimes
you've got to make stuff to get things done!
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12 February, 2010
Reporting back!
Kishan Patel
I wanted to write my first blog on here about a Youth Council
meeting - and we've just had one at the end of January, so now is a
good time! It was a really busy day for me already as I'd just been
acting in a drama performance as part of a theatre workshop and I
was worried that I was going to be late. I think it's really
important to be strong Youth Councillors and good representatives
for young people in Newham - I think this includes being on time to
all the meetings and events we do. It was a bit of a rush, but
fortunately I managed to get there just in time before everything
started!
It was a good meeting and we all had chance to meet and talk to
some of the new Youth Councillors from other schools who were
joining us for the first time. It's exciting to see new people
getting involved in our work all the time. We saw the report from
the consultation that we did on the Local Development Framework at
the last meeting. It was good to see all our ideas in one place and
to talk through them again to make sure we were all happy with our
response before we sent it off.
Finally we held Newham's election to the
UK
Youth Parliament - they help to represent our views on a
national stage while we focus on local work. I'd nominated myself
to be one of our UKYP representatives and before the vote I had to
do a speech in front of the Youth Council. Everyone was really
supportive and it was a good experience. I was lucky enough to be
elected with Ola as Newham's two Members of the UKYP. Sami and
Rosie were elected to be our two Deputies and I'm really looking
forward to working with our new team for UKYP.
Congratulations everyone!!
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4 February, 2010
Who better to inspire us?
Kaycee de Belen
Today's been just brilliant! This morning I was lucky enough to
lead a group of local young people to meet
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond
Tutu at the
View Tube near Stratford. Speaking to him was
so inspirational. He's really energetic and funny, but also really
down to earth. I talked to him about the diversity of people in
Newham and how the Olympics will put us all on show and create
opportunities for years to come.
When he addressed the group he spoke about how sport can bring us
all together. He told us about the
1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa when
Nelson Mandela presented the trophy dressed in a Springboks shirt
and the reaction it got from the crowd and the world. I wasn't even
2 years old at the time so I don't remember it - but I think his
story tells us how London can set an example, and show the world
how much diversity there is in our great city during the 2012
Games.
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2 February 2010
An Olympic legacy for young people
Kaycee de Belen
Last week I spent some time today talking to Andrew Altman at the
Olympic Park
Legacy Company. Andrew is their Chief Executive and we had a
really good discussion about how he's going to involve young people
in the work of the OPLC. They've already got a
youth panel which looks at the legacy and
has 25 young people from the 5 host boroughs. But I think we
need to do something specific for Newham's young people as well.
That's why I'm going to work with Andrew and the OPLC to set up
a joint event later in the year with our Youth Council here in
Newham.
Andrew and I also talked about their model of the Olympic Park and
what it's going to look like after the Games are over. It's great
to be able to see how the area will develop over time. It's a
really massive project and will be so important to make sure
there's a strong legacy for people after the Olympic and Paralympic
Games have been and gone - you can read more about what I think on
the
London 2012 site.
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1 February, 2010
Time for citizenship
Aadilah Ismail
Last week I went to Newham Town Hall to take part in a question
time organised for local primary schools. It was all about
citizenship and the
Olympic and Paralympic Values. I was really
excited to go and talk to young people about what the Youth
Council have done to make sure that we all have our views and
ideas listened to about the Games. We've done things before -
like helping to design the
Aquatics Centre and talking to the
Organising Committee about the need for affordable tickets and
open access to the facilities after the Games.
The children were great - they were enthusiastic and asked some
really challenging questions of the people on the panel. The whole
experience strengthened my belief that young people genuinely care
about what goes on in the community. It also reminded me of how
much events like the 2012 Games inspire people, especially
children, to set themselves goals and reach for the stars!
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29 January, 2010
Meeting the Children's Trust
Masuma Aktar
This week I came down to Newham Dockside as Kaycee's
representative to the
Children's Trust Board. It was the first time
we've been to a meeting and I found it really useful to see how the
council works together to make local services better. There were
representatives from local schools, colleges, universities, health
services and it was chaired by
Cllr Quintin Peppiatt who is Executive Member
for Children and Young People.
I think it's great that we've now got a representative for young
people on the board and I think it's really important that the
Youth Council continues to be involved and look for ways to
influence positive change for young people.
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25 January, 2010
Change in our local communities
Kaycee de Belen
Last week I led Newham's
Youth
Council on a tour of the Olympic Park. It was really exciting
to see the changes in Stratford and buildings springing up all over
the park. Even from a distance outside you can see the stadium and
aquatics centre really taking shape. Up close they're even more
impressive!
When the buildings are finished I'm sure they'll leave a lasting
image in the memories of people right across the world. But the
real legacy of the
2012 Games
won't be found in buildings or in memories…
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19 January, 2010
Sustaining our communities
Fallak Tabassum
Sustainable communities? What's that all about? Yesterday I found
out when I took part in a consultation on sustainable communities
with the Youth Council. Basically it's about setting local
priorities. So we told the council what things we think Newham
needs most. When I talk to young people about what they want to
see, they tell me that they want people in Newham to be healthier
and our borough to have more parks and be a greener place.
The Council's plans have got different themes, like 'fit and
active' and 'greener' so I think we're getting heard! Helping the
environment by saving energy is another thing that young people
often tell me they care about. I think it's great to be in a
position to influence changes happening in the borough and it's
really important that all sections of the community, including
young people, have their views listened to.
Want to know more? Take a look at the
Newham Sustainable Community Strategy
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14 January, 2010
Setting local priorities
Kaycee de Belen
Today was another really busy one! First we went on
a tour of the Olympic Park, which you can read more about in my
blog for London 2012. After that we welcomed the Crime and Disorder
Reduction Partnership and talked to them about setting the local
priorities to tackle crime over the next 12 months.
It was interesting to see the figures for local crime. There are so
many people living in Newham and travelling through our borough
each day, but crime figures are low - I don't think people know
that.
We took part in a really interesting exercise, trying to predict
the average numbers - and I was surprised to see how low they are.
Everything I see in the national media says there is crime
happening everywhere, all the time, but actually that's not the way
it is. I think it's really important to first make sure that local
people are safe, but second, also feel safe!