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:
· Youth Councillors had spent time over the summer working in part time jobs or taking part in National Citizens Service, some had managed to enjoy some family time away and they were all looking forward to the new term and planned to refocus their committees’ priorities at their first meetings over the next few weeks.
· Youth Councillors had visited J&B Recycling Centre in Hartlepool and during the October half term they were expecting to visit Suez in Wallsend to learn about the start of the recycling process.
· Youth Councillors had helped create a film which would be used as part of the Elected Member’s Anti-Racism Training and were keen to share their lived experience of what it was like in North Tyneside.
· Member of Youth Parliament Abi Tang and Youth Councillor Poppy Chaplin had visited some of the Holiday Activity Fund provision acting as roving reporters and hearing first-hand from the children and young people about their feelings during their activities. Poppy had also visited the Forest School from the Linskill Centre which took place in Northumberland Park and Abi had visited International Food Day at Justice Prince held in the Oxford Centre, as well as Play Day in the Park at the Rising Sun Country Park.
· As part of the Holiday Activity Fund provision Abi and the Young Mayor had set the young people a challenge. Suzie’s challenge was Pay It Forward and asked for examples of random acts of kindness, Abi’s challenge was North Tyneside Green Fingers looking for examples of activities that young people had completed connected to the environment or fight against climate change, and included prizes for the participants.
· SEND Youth Forum members had looked at interview skills which would help towards creating a fact sheet to support recruitment generally to help young people who were involved in the interview process. They were also working with the Transitions team looking at the information on the Local Offer, checking its accessibility for young people.
· Over the summer some Youth Councillors, SEND Youth Forum and Children in Care Councillors had been involved in interviews for new staff, and had been panel members for the Social Inclusion Manager and the SEND Participation Officer.
· Children in Care Councillor Brandon had visited prospective foster carers to carry out an assessment which involved interviewing them and giving his views.
· The Youth Council Comms group had supported the Clinical Commissioning Group with their Covid vaccine programme by helping with Instagram posts, an expert panel meeting to discuss covid vaccine related questions would be live-streamed on Instagram on 30 September.
· The BAME Committee had announced the launch of an event titled DigitalMe due to take place via Zoom on 21October 2021 which discusses Refugees and Asylum Seekers bringing people together to view a short, animated film, about refugees and asylum seekers (made by the youth council BAME committee) to encourage empathy, awareness, and action.
The Elected Mayor thanked the Young Mayor for the report and praised the young people for their work. It was agreed that this and future reports would be circulated to all Elected Members to inform them of the positive work carried out by the young people on behalf of the Authority.