OYC Meeting Minutes – 03/04/2024

Welcome, apologies and icebreakers: 

Icebreakers will be held before every YC meeting to get to know new people, to promote new conversation and to prevent polarisation between groups. 

Today’s ice breakers were: 

Two Truths and a Lie. 

Speed dating. 

Letter to the Speaker of the House

In light of the closing of 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), letters were created during last week’s priorities. These letters were combined to form a full letter, which was presented for final tweaks before it is sent out tomorrow (4th April 2024). 

Everybody understands the importance of BYCBritish Youth Council – A Youth Lead organisation representing 11-18 year olds across Great Britain. More and agreed on the tone and agreed that it flowed correctly. 

Peter was asking about clarification of lines on the paper, these were notes made by the business admin asking for an extra check on grammar. 

Grammar and slight wording changes were made by Joey, Peter, Maryam, Leah, Charlotte, Sheikh, and Lucy. 

A clause was added to mention explicitly that as we (collectively as a youth council) cannot vote, which we believed needed to be pointed out. 

It was added by Charlotte to include other youth councils, rather than only OYCOldham Youth Council More. 

This letter will be sent out from the OYCOldham Youth Council More email on the 4th of April to Lindsey Hoyle (Speaker of the House of Commons), Jim McMahon (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 for Oldham West and Royton), Debbie Abrahams (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 for Oldham East and Saddleworth) and Angela Rayner (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 for Ashton-under-Lyne). 

YCllrs are encouraged to send the letters to the above people using their personal email to create more traction. 

The letter will also be forwarded to other northern youth councils.

Following an open letter, the Minister for Culture says that something for BYCBritish Youth Council – A Youth Lead organisation representing 11-18 year olds across Great Britain. More is being sorted ASAP. 

It has been confirmed however, that North West MYPs will have a full programme for the full term of office. 

Future plans

New figures for Make Your MarkA Nationwide campaign, run by UK Youth parliament, that gathers information on what is important to the youth of the United Kingdom. More were revealed – last week it was at 10,127 and now it’s 13,500. 

This did not change the order of issues, just the number of votes for each. 

The top three issues locally: 

1st – Family and the Cost of Living. 

2nd – violence and knife crime (this got 600 more votes than last week, which we believed said something about Oldham as a whole). 

3rd – stopping vaping. 

YCllrs were asked to come up with ways of tackling this issue creatively, thinking of things to put forward to full council. 

The suggestions were as follows: 

Anayah – performance about crime and safety but to make it interactive. 

Charlotte – shared that job fairs do not work in person, so suggested a website looking like a marketplace with a pixel character which people can explore options. This creates a  virtual job fair to use in colleges/schools. Something like this was created years ago, so it is possible to do it again. 

Phoebe – Tour of schools to do a performance, where we can target certain age groups. 

Leah – Needed an emphasis on cutting down stereotypes, which – suggested by Penelope – could be a starter activity. Charlotte agreed on the principle of this but it should not be the main focus. 

Ying – creating video content to be shared, which was inspired by another youth council. She also added that the main reason people carry knives is because they are scared, so more emphasis on safety rather than scare people. 

Leah – Statistics may not be the best choice as people will not listen potentially. 

Penelope –  a reflective art piece, where schools and colleges prepare their own art piece, like a jigsaw. 

Joey – knives should be targeted towards specific groups, so calls for more restrictions on knives. Chris highlights the issues with international laws and lots of stabbings are done with knives towards specific trades. 

Maryam – regarding school tours – speaking from experience, nobody took notice. Something like a fair may be better. 

Ying – focus on children’s concerns and make it more of an open discussion on their own experiences and focus on the root of the problem. 

Chris – are young people who carry knives less likely to be engaged in activities? 

Poppy, Peter, Zoya, and Asad – amnesty box where people can hand in their knives without fear of judgement or being caught. 

Leah – could bring about a dangerous situation?

Chris – some people take things literally – cooking knives?

Hassan – work more with the detach team to understand the issues and to understand more how we can get children to feel safe. 

Events and trips

Fast fashion workshop and trip to The Arcade Club next week – email Dayna if interested. 

Youth Scrutiny Panel has been moved to the 30th of April. 

YouthForiaAn organisation in which youth councillors from the North West meet up and work on campaigns and training. More residentialA trip with an overnight stay More – checking if forms have been signed, there may be extra spaces for people on the reserve list, so those on the reserve list please keep an eye on your email. 

AOB

Peter – checking spelling of people’s names on the letter to the Speaker of the Commons, Chris assured him that the names are coming from management, so they are the correct spelling.