One month ago, I was elected by my peers at Medway Youth Council to be Member of Youth Parliament for Medway!
I was ecstatic to get going. I couldn’t wait to start campaigning and make a positive impact on our community.
So what have I done this July:
Attended the British Youth Council Conference on the 1st July where over 100 young people gathered to learn how to campaign and how to negotiate with influential people, such as councillors. We also heard from 3 local politicians in a debate which the young people ran. I also heard about campaigns that other youth councils were doing. One example was the Save Our Solent (SOS) campaign that Portsmouth Young People were doing.
That was my first Day on the Job!
Then on the 6th of July. I was seen in Keir Starmer’s social media. YES THAT IS CORRECT! Medway Youth Council were invited to hear Labour’s plans for the education system and I was able to meet the mayor and the leader of the council who are very supportive and enthusiastic of Youth Voice in Medway.
After having a crazy time being on the opposition leaders social media, I headed to the Chatham Carnival where I was able to promote to young people the Youth Council and make influential connections which have already come in use. I was also able to talk to Councillors very briefly about what I wanted to achieve in my role as a member of Youth Parliament.
After mingling with councillors, on the 13th of July I attended a training session which was run by Julie and Richard Firth from Story 22 who were fantastic and were very insightful.
Then on the 15th July I attended the Walk for peace. This is where I have a speech on uniting Medway’s diverse communities. It was a really well put together event done by Medway Inter-Faith Action.
On 16th took part in Morphs epic art adventure. This is an event where Whizzkids which is a charity who provide wheel chairs for young people. Their vision is a society in which every young wheelchair user is mobile, enabled and included. All the morphs are wheelchair accessible which is vital to make young people who are wheelchair users to feel enabled and included.
On the 19th I attended two events. The first was the Treasury select committee where I went as part of my work experience with the Financial Conduct Authority. It was really valuable for me to see how parliament committees work and talk to some MPs about youth voice.
In the evening I attended Medway Question Time which was run by Local Authority and there were valuable answers and the Vice chair of Medway Youth Council did really well and she should be proud how she represented our organisation
I attended Medway Mile on the 21st July. Where I handed out T shirts and helped hand out leaflets and had a go at doing the various activities which were dotted around Medway Park.
Oliver Tomlin