Bilal and Emily will report at the meeting
Minutes:
Bilal and Emily gave an update on what had been happening at the Youthforia meetings they had attended.
Bilal reported that he had attended the Youth Parliament Debate that had taken place on 13 November in the House of Commons.
In the morning, five debates had been held on the following subjects:-
When the debates had taken place a vote was held and it had been agreed that the two campaigns to take forward would be:-
National Campaign – Tackling Racism and Religious Discrimination
Devolved Campaign (across England only) - Mental Health
Bilal explained that the afternoon was spent in a workshop looking at tackling issues in the NHS. This included young carers and transitional care, local health providers, inconsistency in services, employment, school nurses and lack of school nurses.
There had also been a workshop to consider how to progress with the ‘Don’t Hate, Educate’ campaign and a plan had been formulated.
Initially a school survey would be designed to ask which religious groups young people would like to be educated about. The survey would also ask questions about discrimination so that statistics could be compiled.
It was hoped that an event would be organised with different groups attending to educate about their religion or race and provide information and answer questions.
Each school would select 1 champion per year group to attend the event and take part in the workshops relating to the different religions and races. The school champions would then be tasked with putting together a ‘Don’t Hate, Educate’ assembly which the whole of their school would attend.
Bilal explained that he had approached the two Bury MPs and had met with David Nuttall to discuss the campaign. He was still waiting to hear from Ivan Lewis.
Emily reported that she had attended the Youthforia meeting that had been held on 24 January 2016. The meeting had covered 3 main topics: Sub area meetings on how to carry out the campaigns. This included the possibility of joining with other areas to discuss the different approaches being used in relation to the campaigns. Budget was reported as being an issue for some areas.
The groups split into smaller groups and took part in a Dragon’s Den style pitch in relation to the Don’t Hate, Educate campaign.
The final part of the meeting had been a discussion between all of the MEPs about the continuing refugee crisis in Syria.
It was reported that the Youthforia meetings were held across the region at different locations. The MYPs and /or their deputies would normally attend but this had now been opened up to include any young person. Those present were invited to attend the next meeting that was being held in March in Warrington.
It was explained that there was already an established young persons’ forum which was undertaking work in relation to mental health in Bury. The young people could tap into this for their campaign on mental health issues.