Date:

30/10/07

What: Our Young Camden consultation and celebration event where teens who want to be involved in setting up the borough’s Youth Council will visit a Big Brother style diary room

When: 5.30 to 9pm Thursday, 8 November

Where: Camden Town Hall, Judd Street, WC1H

A BIG Brother style diary room will be set up at Camden Town Hall for young people to share their views about the new Camden Youth Council and other local issues on Thursday 8 November.

The Our Young Camden event aims to find out what form the new Youth Council should take and how it should work after elections take place in January next year.

The Youth Council is just one of the ways Camden Council is working to ensure its young people have a voice in the decisions that affect them and to increase their involvement in local democracy.

Young people aged 13 to 19 will also be asked what they think about the local youth website C-world and local issues such as crime or the environment. There will also be a series of debates and the screening of a film celebrating the achievements of young people across Camden.

The young people’s diary room views will be recorded on video and shown to staff and councillors to help them plan future services for young people in the borough.

Cllr John Bryant, Camden Council’s Executive Member for Children, said:

“The Youth Council is about getting young people genuinely involved in local democracy and the decision making process.

“It’s not only about giving them their ‘say’, but also giving them real powers to improve their lives and those of their peers.

“As a local councillor the last thing I want to see is services they might not want or need being imposed on young people. If we are to improve services and engage with young people, we need to listen to young people themselves and make sure they have every opportunity to get involved.”

The starting point for the new Youth Council was a special conference at Haverstock School in January. This was to establish a steering group of 15 young people, who will be helped in designing and developing the structures needed to support the Youth Council.

Invitations were sent to schools and youth and community groups across the borough and to members of Camden’s Youth and Connexions Young People’s Board.

Since then the steering group has been consulting with existing school councils, voluntary sector young people’s steering groups, the police’s ward based citizenship panels, hard to reach groups, the Youth & Connexions Young People’s Board and other service users.

Compering Our Young Camden will be Youth Council steering group members Axel Landin and Louise Suen. Guests will include the Mayor, Cllr Dawn Somper, and Executive Member for Children, Cllr John Bryant.

Our Young Camden event spaces must be booked in advance. To book their place at this free event, young people can email ouryoungcamden@c-world.co.uk, speak to their youth worker or area youth forum worker or call 020 7974 8051.

Notes to editors

Photographers and journalists are invited to attend the Our Young Camden event.

The development of a Youth Council is part of a broader national move to develop democratic decision making structures for young people in response to article 12 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1989), which states that: ‘Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child’

Camden’s Youth and Connexions Service will help the young people set up their own Youth Council. The group will work with Camden’s councillors and staff from the council’s democratic services to develop guidance and procedures for the Youth Council in line with national democratic processes.

In 2001 the UK Youth Parliament was founded and since that time a number of Youth Councils have been established by local authorities.