To receive a verbal report on the latest activities of the Young Mayor and Young Cabinet.
Minutes:
The former Young, Suzie McKenzie, attended today’s Cabinet meeting at the invitation of the Elected Mayor, as she was unable to attend her final meeting as Young Mayor. Suzie explained that since then, the election had concluded with over 5000 young people voting, and our new Young Mayor was Max Godfrey, and the new elected Member of UK Youth Parliament was Hannah Clark-McKeran.
Suzie explained that the young people’s conference would be held this Thursday where students from middle and high schools would participate in activities which would help Youth Councillors’ focus on the most important issues for young people. The conference would conclude with a handing over to Max newly elected Young Mayor, and Suzie confirmed she would be staying on the youth council for a while yet to support our new representatives.
Before she passed over to the new Young Mayor, Suzie thanked everyone for all their support during her time as Young Mayor. She also thanked the Elected Mayor and the Chief Executive too, as both of their support had meant a lot to her and Abi Tang.
The Young Mayor reported on the following activities in which he and Young Cabinet Members and/or Youth Councillors had been involved:
· The Young Mayor had attended his first Climate Emergency Board meeting and was impressed and reassured to know that North Tyneside Council was already doing such a lot and looking forward to working alongside the board members in achieving his pledge, which was to: Work to improve the local environment of North Tyneside and to fight climate change by getting the schools to sign up to the Eco-School Green Flag award and putting more bins in public places and in schools.
· The Young Mayor had been involved in the tree planting at Richardson Dees Park, although he was unable to attend the unveiling of the first Reflection area at the Biodiversity Park, Suzie had attended in his place.
· Newly elected MYP Hannah Clark-McKeran had pledged to work on improving PD/PSHE lessons to prepare students with the necessary skills for the future such as courses on basic first aid skills or education surrounding how to apply for a mortgage etc. Hannah was keen to ensure that there was mental health assistance for students too. Hannah’s work would be driven by the national campaigns. The Make Your Mark Ballot count showed, of the eight issues that were on the ballot paper, that the top issues for North Tyneside Young Voters were:
Health and Wellbeing with a close second being Jobs, Money, Homes and Opportunities and the third issue was the Environment! Hannah would ensure that she represented the issues for the young people in North Tyneside when she joined the wider forums and hopefully was able to speak in the House of Commons. As a Youth Council they would also be working locally on these top issues.
· The annual International Woman’s Day event with North Tyneside Women’s Voices was successfully held online on 8 March with students from several schools, which explored the theme of sexism, and some of the initiatives already happening in the borough.
· Youth Councillors had participated in an engagement activity which had helped to shape the application by the Regeneration Team with Tyne & Wear Museum partners, in successfully securing MEND funding from the Arts Council for repairs such as new lift, plant replacement, roof repairs etc, at Segedunum. The Regeneration Team had also been invited to submit an application for lottery funding for the wider works which the Youth Council looked forward to further engagement on the next phase.
The Deputy Mayor, on behalf of the Elected Mayor and the Cabinet, took the opportunity to thank Suzie for the valuable work she did during her time as Young Mayor and wished her all the best for the future. He, alongside those Cabinet Members present, also welcomed Max to his first Cabinet meeting and praised the work of the young people for their amazing work.