To receive a verbal report on the latest activities of the Young Mayor and Young Cabinet.
Minutes:
The Young Mayor reported on the following activities in which she and Young Cabinet Members and/or Youth Councillors had been involved:
· The Young Mayor had been invited to be part of the Young People’s Wellbeing Partnership Board. She had met the partners including Council and Voluntary Sector staff and learned about the plans for supporting young people’s mental health and the partnership with Barnardo’s.
· The young people’s mental health wristbands and Z Cards which had been distributed to schools and colleges in the borough a few weeks ago had received positive feedback and was hoped it would make a big impact.
· The Young Mayor had spent the week leading up to Mental Health Day on 10th October sharing positive messages on social media representatives from the SEND youth forum, children’s council and youth councillors showing others the types of positive activities they did to maintain good mental health.
· The Young Mayor had been involved with the International Youth Mayor Association working on creating the website with another young mayor and providing an email link to enable young people to have their say about campaigns or to raise an issue.
· Youth Parliament Member, Abi, and the Young Mayor had begun a process of reviewing how young people had their say in North Tyneside supported by young councillors to fulfil their commitments and develop their pledges, in particular, looking at a lead person position to take responsibility for pieces of work to be agreed by the youth council on how they would move forward.
· Abi and the Young Mayor had met with the Council’s Chief Executive, Paul Hanson, to thank him for his support, they were also keen to continue links between the Elected Mayor, Cabinet and the young cabinet.
· Abi had been selected to be part of The Bank of England Youth Forum after competing with university students and graduates. She aimed to highlight the importance of financial education in schools and hoped to influence decision makers.
· Abi and youth councillors had begun creating a film project to show how people could reduce, reuse and recycle unwanted clothing rather than putting in the recycling bin or rubbish bin, which on completion would be shared widely on social media as another way of encouraging residents to support their work around climate change.
· Youth councillors had participated in various activities across October as part of Black History Month, including a webinar which included thebarrister Alexandra Wilson; young people had also been invited to be part of the Mayor’s BAME task group to look at the experiences of children and young people in North Tyneside.
· Children in Care Council had developed packs donated by Make A Difference Luggage campaign for all children and young people who were in care. The group were involved in delivering Care4me, training newly qualified social workers to support staff working with children in care, also children in care in North Tyneside on what was important to them and how they had coped over the last 6 months.
· Due to the impact that COVID was having on Remembrance Day Services and despite restrictions youth members were being creative in the way in which to commemorate the day in other ways this year. The Young Mayor would be encouraging children and young people in the borough to draw pictures of poppies to put in their windows to show their respect for our fallen heroes.
The Elected Mayor thanked the Young Mayor for the report and the young people for their contributions to the work on the green agenda and young people’s mental health issues.