We are delighted to announce the new Members of Youth Parliament and Deputy Members of Youth Parliament for 2015!

The previous UKYP Reps Jade, Omo, Lydia and Jack handed over their roles to the new representatives on Friday 27th

February at the Big Announcement at Walsall Town Hall.

Joscel and Namir, are elected as the new Members of Youth Parliament and Ben and Balraj are the new Deputy Members of

Youth Parliament. Your new UK Youth Parliament reps for Walsall will be representing YOU and YOUR VIEWS in their term of

office.

9,206 votes were counted and the top issue that came out is Bullying, which will be the new local campaign. The UKYP Reps

will also work on the national campaigns Living Wage for all and Mental Health as well as participate in regional campaigns,

work with different people and organisations and make contributions to a variety

of projects and many more.

We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who voted and got

involved in the UK Youth Parliament elections and well done to all the candidates

who worked hard on their election campaigns. Candidates who did not win the

election were all offered seats on the Youth of Walsall.

We would like to wish the very best of luck to the new UKYP reps for 2015 in

their term of office!

NEWSLETTER Issue Two

June 2015

NEW MEMBERS OF YOUTH PARLIAMENT ELECTED!

New UKYP representatives Joscel, Namir, Ben and Balraj.

Former UKYP representatives Omo, Lydia, Jade and Jack.

New members join Youth of Walsall!

by Thando Sibenke

In March, new members joined Youth of Walsall following UK Youth Parliament elections in Walsall. One new member Thando shares her experience so far!

“I was very reluctant to campaign for UKYP (United Kingdom Youth Parliament), as I had never done anything like it before. I wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of speaking in front of cameras and to have over 20,000 youths around Walsall seeing my video. For anybody who’s awkward and shy like me, would very much understand. But I have not regretted doing it ever since, although I did not win the election. However, I was given the opportunity to join the Youth of Walsall, which I’ve greatly enjoyed so far.

I wasn’t the only new member. I was joined by Joscel Manirambona MYP (Member of Youth Parliament), Daniel Dulleston, Balraj Jhooty DMYP (Deputy of Youth Parliament), Adam Amwar, Ben Sharpe DMYP (Deputy of Youth Parliament) and Sebastian Kalicun.

I remember vividly our first meeting at the Walsall Council House where we were asked to introduce our selves. We were asked to speak to a member we had never met, and did an activity to find our similarities and differences, then shared with the rest of the group. We then also discussed and shared our ideas for the design of the new Walk In Centre.

My overall experience for Youth of Walsall was great, I had heard of it before but I never thought I would join it, or even considered applying myself for it. I’ve met awesome people, and I’ve made brilliant new friends. I do not for a second regret joining the YOW.”

NHS Walk in Centre Consultation

by Laura Morgan

Walsall’s NHS Walk in Centre, currently situated at the top of the market in Town is being relocated.

Its brand new location will now be in the Saddlers Centre where the old Argos used to be.

As young people make up a large number of those who use the Walk in Centre, Diane Osborne from Health decided that YOW were the perfect group to consult with and give their input on the decor and facilities. We have given our initial thoughts and ideas on the existing building and what we think should be implemented in the new Walk in Centre to make sure it is young person friendly.

Feedback on our views and opinions is due to be given in the next few weeks and we will continue to be involved in the process over the coming months. We will keep you all updated on this exciting project.

Group photo of the YOW Meeting from 25th March.

YOW delivers presentation to secondary headteachers

by Thomas Evans (Chair)

The WASH meeting (or the Walsall’s Association of

Secondary Heads) went extremely well and was attended by

myself, Nicola and Lydia.

We presented the results of the “What Do YOW Think”

survey to eight Walsall headteachers’ about the findings and

what we intend to do about it. They were extremely

interested in having a representative from their school

council in a YOW meeting.

Overall, it went brilliantly well and we have also been given

email addresses from teachers so that we can inform them

about what we are doing in YOW.

Manifesto Update by Matthew Rafferty (Vice Chair)

In YOW we have been recently working on our manifesto, which outlines our key aims and objectives over the coming two years.

It was based on a large scale consultation between us and young people in Walsall with over 3000 responses working in partnership with schools. Utilising these responses, we were able to understand the views of a large number of young people in Walsall.

We were then able to take these views and decide what we wanted to do to tackle issues that had arisen by improving Walsall for young people. Amongst other issues we have highlighted how we plan to tackle crime, getting young people involved and taking positive actions in their local communities.

Feedback from YOW full meeting on 28th May

2015

by Charlotte Gough (Press Officer)

On Thursday 28th May, YOW spent a day working on the

manifesto by making final changes and working on design

ideas. This manifesto will be a first for us and will be a

starting point for our future projects.

The manifesto will be based around a number of areas

including Your School, Your Future, Crime and Safety and

Health.

In addition, we worked on an upcoming debate with former

and current members and deputies of Youth Parliament

and decided on activities for the Activate Residential

coming up later this summer.

It was great to see all the YOW members contributing to

the manifesto and working on the upcoming debate!

Activate Against Hate Update

by Laura Morgan

Staff at Youth Opinions Unite

are busy updating and adding

to the existing brilliant sessions

within the Toolkit.

We are delivering sessions

within primary schools,

promoting with Senior Schools

and at the same time generating some income for the

Youth of Walsall to plough back into community projects.

Also, we have secured external funding to kick start the

brand new toolkit sessions on an Activate Residential. Here

we plan to train the Youth of Walsall members and some

staff on all of the newly update Activate Toolkit sessions,

ready to take out and deliver to young people across the

borough. Look out for how you can get involved and

Activate Against Hate!

TURN OVER FOR MORE!

New UKYP representatives attend BYC Youth Voice

by Joscel Manirambona (MYP) The whole purpose of the weekend was to provide the new MYPs and DMYPs with the fundamentals on the requirements

of their new job roles. The weekend consisted of various team building activities along with various ways in which we

could ensure that our campaigns are effective and successful. However as well as being informed of our duties, the

weekend away was also a chance to meet with other MYPs and DMYPs in other constituencies some as far as Northern

Ireland. The weekend was very resourceful and beneficial in many different aspects. Various activities such as the staged

protests and various tasks that reflected the tasks required of an MYP or DMYP helped greatly because it pointed out the

"do's" and "dont's" of being a member of Youth parliament and many other things. It truly was a memorable experience.

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@YouthOfWalsall

Call or text: 07834 499381/01922 654888

www.youthopinionsunite.co.uk

UK Youth Parliament representatives had the honour of meeting the Mayor of Walsall, and discussing our roles and what we want to achieve in our term. He showed a lot of support and encouragement, and it was really refreshing to see how highly he thought of young people and how open he was to new ideas. Like us, he wants the best for the young people of Walsall. We had a look around his chambers, before sitting in the Main Hall and asked him questions about the issues around young people; it was a brilliant experience and really motivated us!

UKYP Visits Mayor of Walsall by Namir Chowdhury (MYP)

Get in touch!