WELCOME
Apologies :- Amber C., Isabelle A., Alex R.
VOICE OF CHILD STRATEGY CONSULTATION
Andy Rudkin from the Oldham Council Communications team came into the meeting to talk about the Voice of the Child strategy. The ambition of the strategy is to make sure that young people are;
- School, work and life ready.
- Having the chance to lead and active and healthy life.
- Able to have a voice.
- Able to have the best possible chance to fulfil their potential.
Currently, the involvement of children and young people has developed over the last ten years, with the target for the involvement to continue to grow further. The current approach currently taken is;
- Embedding a culture that supports and values the participation of all young people, both individually and as a group.
- Making children and young people a corporate and political priority.
- Providing opportunities for active participation in meaningful decision making processes, shaping and influencing service design and delivery.
- Participation is not simply about consultation with children and young people – it’s about ensuring views influence decision-making and bring about change.
Andy showed a video on the Voice of the Child, where members of OYC and primary school children answered questions about how they feel about certain aspects of Oldham. As the video is based on expressing how young people feel about Oldham, Andy asked if any changes needed to be made.
Once the strategy has been finalised, Andy will return to a future meeting to give a full overview on the strategy.
Youth councillors were asked about different types of communication with young people, how best it would be to communicate with them if they want feedback from young people. Existing options that were discussed were Focus Groups, Interviews, SMS / Text consultation, Surveys, Internet Discussion, Youth peer consultation, Vox Pop, Arts and Social Media. Youth councillors had a chance to input their opinion on if these communication methods were viable and worthwhile and if any communication methods were missing of the list.
GLOBAL GROOVES PROGRAM
Freya Bennett-Nielsen from a Future Leaders project called Global Grooves. Freya is a participant of Global Grooves, a project that focuses on the Arts (mainly music but involve all different forms of art). Thee program helps young people to express themselves in a more creative way, improving teamwork, creative and communication skills. Information about the project and how to get involved can be found on their website : http://www.futureleaders.org.uk/
OLDHAM THEATRE WORKSHOP CONSULTATION
Craig Harris and members of Oldham Theatre Workshop came into the meeting to do a consultation on the issues that young people face when entering employment. Working in a project that involve three other European countries, the aim is to create a recourse that would help young people entering the labour market (this is the term used in other European countries, including the countries working on the program).
The first activity was involving chairs. One volunteer would have to stand at the back of the room and it would be the task of the other participants to stop the volunteer from getting to a seat. After a few goes, members of OYC gathered they needed people from the opposite side of the room from the vacant chair to move, making it harder for the volunteer to gain the empty chair. After the activity was finished, a small discussion was sparked about the meaning behind the game. One point sparked is that the game could represent how when opportunities open themselves up, it is easy for them to close again as someone else wants the same opportunity.
The next activity was to visually represent a happy memory. Splitting into five groups, each group had to represent a memory that would provoke happiness. With almost all groups having a little struggle on latching onto a happy memory, the point of the activity was to remember to focus on the happy memories when going for a job. Happy memories can set you ahead of other candidates, allow yourself to be seen as more human.
After the activities finished, Youth Councillors were split into three groups, where they were tasked on writing down what can help someone get into employment. Coming up with ideas such as CV writing workshops, online job search engines, career days etc. The ideas that the groups made up where then sorted into the most and least effective, giving a view on what young people would help them the most to get them into employment.
MAKE YOUR MARK
DUE TO A TIMING ISSUE, THIS AGENDA ITEM HAS BEEN POSTPONED.
AOB
Jade Calder, Vice Chair, has decided to leave the Youth Council. This means that the post of Vice Chair is open for election. Following the OYC guidelines, all candidates have to have been on the Youth Council for six months prior to the election. With timing in mind, the election will be held on the first meeting of October (3rd October) which allows all youth councillors to put themselves up for election.
