On the 7th November 2018 the Medway Youth Council was delighted to welcome young people from all across Medway to the Brook Theatre in Chatham for the annual conference entitled. Are You[TH] Safe?
Following Make Your Mark revealing ‘Ending Knife Crime’ was the most important issue selected by young people in Medway and then by the UK Youth Parliament nationwide, MYC felt it would be important to work on several issues that affected community safety.
The morning saw three workshops which young people participated in.
Workshop 1 – Does Gang Activity Make You Feel Unsafe?
Focusing on what YP think about gangs, their activity and whether certain music incites violence.
Workshop 2 – What is an Unhealthy Relationship?
Looking at whether young people can identify the causes/solutions of what an unhealthy relationship is.
Workshop 3 - When Does Substance Misuse Become Dangerous?
This workshop also was supported by Open Road and asked young people what they could confidently identify the different dangers of substances.
The afternoon saw young people come together and take part in a Mentimeter, a technology allowing people to respond to questions live from their phones; councillors were impressed with the use of this software. The data collected will be used for our report published later.
The afternoon session also saw a panel of Lawrence Pater (Kent Fire Rescue, Steve Holpin (Community Safety Partnership), Neil Howlett (CSP), Vincent Akinnawo (Open Road), Grace Beaumont (Youth Police Advisory Group) and Professor Harding (Criminology). Hundreds of questions were submitted by young people and the panel had chance to answer them directly.
Following the conference the Medway Youth Council will produce a report of the findings and recommendations from young people to help inform policy and decisions.
