APPG on Youth Affairs – Tia Henderson

On Tuesday the 15th of October Me, Samah and Hamra went down to The House of Commons in London to the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Youth Affairs – to speak about the priorities for young people.
We set off from Oldham to Manchester, at about 1 on clock and got on the train down to London. After a 2 hour train journey and a quick stop for a bite to eat, we got on the tube to the a House of Commons. We arrived alongside many other eager young people and were seated in a large room.
The chairThe Youth Councillor who runs the meeting, heads up the organisation and has the casting vote. Or something to sit on but probably the first one on our site :-) More of the meeting was MPMember of Parliament – A member of parliament is an elected member which represents a constituency views and concerns to the Government and in Parliament. More Lloyd Russell-Moyle who introduced himself and the other speakers and then gave us an update on the progress of the youth service bill.

The first speaker was Larissa Ken from Croydon who spoke very passionately about knife crime and its effects on her as a young person living in Croydon.
The second speaker was Taybah Rahman who shared her views on Mental health, education, youth services, period poverty and youth violence.
The next speaker was Sarah Staples from British Youth CouncilA Youth Lead organisation for  young people aged 25 and under to influence and inform the decisions that affect their lives. They support young people to get involved in their communities and democracy locally, nationally and internationally, making a difference as volunteers, campaigners, decision-makers and leaders.   More (BYCBritish Youth Council – A Youth Lead organisation representing 11-18 year olds across Great Britain. More) who discussed equal pay for equal work, no matter your age and she also discussed votes at 16.
The fourth speaker was Rachel from Your Money Creates Action(YMCA) who said that the top issue from south end was Knife crime.
The last speaker was Marya Ali from UK Youth. Mary’s talked about Youth voice and youth policy development being a government priority. She also talked about opportunities for young people.

The chairThe Youth Councillor who runs the meeting, heads up the organisation and has the casting vote. Or something to sit on but probably the first one on our site :-) More then opened the questions up to the public. Young people spoke about issues a range of issues such as:
knife crime, mental health, poverty, homelessness, education, youth services, period poverty, housing and S.E.N.D young people.
I managed to speak about Social Mobility from an Opportunity area Ambassadors point of view and how Oldham has been a pilot for the opportunity area scheme. I asked what the new government was going to do to enable young people to be socially mobile no matter where they live.

During the APPG we were visited by two MP’s, Ruth Smeeth and Gareth Snell who discussed the importance of youth participation, getting more women into parliament and youth service.

It was a very interesting day that I found very interesting to hear from many different young people about the issues that they feel are young people’s priorities. All the issues discussed were of high importance and our speeches were recorded for there to be another meeting where they would be listened too and actions made upon them.