Hey there,
I have noticed that there have not been any updates since the new Youth Councillor term began, therefore I have decided to give this summary.
FIRST MEETING
For the first meeting of 2022 (and the inauguration meeting for the newer Youth Councillors), we did games including 2 quizes, to help the new youth councillors to settle in. For this term, we have 68 youth councillors (25 from previous term(s) + 43 newly elected).
INTERNAL ELECTIONS
Over the span of three meetings, we held internal elections for our roles. One meeting for vice chair, one meeting for DMYP and one meeting for officer roles & GMYCA representatives.
On the 26th of January, we held a vice chair election. This election also marks the time where the current vice chair moves to chair (Charlotte Clasby) and the current chair moves to Youth Mayor Elect (Hamra Hanif-Ali), who becomes the Youth Mayor in the following municipal year (end of June). The candidates for this election were:
- Prem Raghvani
- Yousef Qureshi
- Humaira Mahmood
- Aaliyah Ahmed
- Isaac Quinn (successful)
On the 9th of February, we held our DMYP elections. In Oldham, the term of office for a DMYP is 1 year and then they move on to be the MYP in the following year, which is different to what most other constituencies do, where MYP and DMYP have 2 year terms at the same time. Oldham has 2 MYPs, therefore there were 2 DMYP roles available, however we additionally held an election for 1 MYP role, as the previous person had to step down due to age constricts. The candidates for the MYP election were:
- Louie Wild
- Prem Raghvani (successful)
And the candidates for the DMYP election (2 roles elected) were:
- Louie Wild (successful)
- Tom Penketh (successful)
- Lily Stones
- Dylan Davison
On the 23rd of February, we held elections for our officer roles and GMYCA representative roles. For GMYCA, we elect 2 representatives. For GMYCA role, anyone could run except for MYPs, DMYPs and people in the leadership role, and for the officer role, anyone could run except for people in the leadership role. Unfortunately, the list of all candidates isn’t available, however the people who succeeded were:
- Callum Oliver – GMYCA Rep
- Ying Shi – GMYCA Rep
- Prem Raghvani – Communications Officer (also the MYP)
- Zoe Cummins – Inclusivity Officer (also the MYP)
- Tom Penketh – Priorities Officer (also the DMYP)
- Aaliyah Ahmed – Events & Wellbeings Officer
- Joshua Aspin – Campaigns Officer
NATIONAL ISSUES
Our Make your Mark results are here: https://oldhamyc.com/blog/2022/06/14/make-your-mark-2022/
Our MYPs (Prem & Zoe) represent us at a national level, attending events such as an annual conference, an annual sitting at the House of Commons, and YouthCon/YouthForias, which are events with the local region (in this case, the North West). So far, there have been 2 YouthForias, one in April 2022 held in Oldham and another in June 2022 held at Liverpool.
MYP Prem Raghvani has pledged to keep things transparent, therefore you can see what he is doing at https://myp.premraghvani.xyz/
REGIONAL ISSUES
Our GMYCA Representatives (Callum & Ying) represent us at a county level (Greater Manchester) alongside other young people representing the metropolitan boroughs of: Manchester, Salford, Trafford, Tameside, Rochdale, Stockport, Bury, Bolton & Wigan
LOCAL ISSUES
Our Make Your Mark at https://oldhamyc.com/blog/2022/06/14/make-your-mark-2022/ also highlight what young people believe the issues are locally (as well as nationally). From that, we have been developing campaigns on the top two issues: street harassment & tackling racism and xenophobia. These campaigns are still currently being developed, so watch out in the following months.
