Highland Youth Conference at Badaguish
Highland Youth Voice, the elected youth parliament for the Highlands, meets from tomorrow until Friday at Badaguish Outdoor Activity Centre, near Aviemore.
The conference has been planned by young people with a theme of “Being Heard” and will see young people from across the Highlands consulted on a wide range of issues that affect their lives. A major focus of this conference is to find out what young people think of living in the Highlands and how to make it better for them.
With a new intake of Highland Youth Voice members, part of the event will contain new member training to ensure HYV members can represent young people from all backgrounds in their communities. Members will take part in a job fair hosted by MFR and there will also be two major consultation events focusing on the Highland Council budget and Northern Constabulary.
Highland Youth Voice members will hear from and have the opportunity to question Highland Council Chief Executive Alistair Dodds and Cllr Dave Fallows the Chair of Highland Council’s Finance, Housing and Resources Committee, on what young people want out of the budget consultation.
Councillor Fallows said: “I am looking forward to the opportunity to hear what the young people think about our budget savings ideas. During the consultation in 2010 the feedback we received from Youth Voice members was both helpful and insightful. We have made it easier for people to comment on our budget consultation by hosting a budget blog. We hoped that this would also appeal to younger people to make their comments. Some of the questions we are consulting on especially relating to education are directly relevant to young people and I look forward to seeing more feedback on the blog over this weekend at www.highland.gov.uk/budget2012.”
Highland Youth Voice members will also get the chance to put forward views and questions to top Northern Constabulary police staff including Chief Superintendent Julian Innes, who will seek out what young people think of the police service across the North of Scotland.
Highland Youth Voice Chair and Inverness MSYP Ainya Taylor said “It’s great that Highland Council are taking young people’s opinions into account and involving them in the budget consultation and are listening to what we think.”
HYV Vice Chair Alexander Macleod commented on the police consultation “It’s great that Northern Constabulary really want to get the views of young people and hear what issues young people have and then to act on them.”
There will also be sessions on raising awareness about disability from Celia Baxter of Highland Children’s Forum and how to engage young people who are only in the community for a short time from Highland Council’s Interrupted Learning Development Officer Karen MacMaster, as part of the new member training.
An ‘Open Mic’ session and area workshops will give Youth Voice members the opportunity to discuss other issues of importance to young people in Highland at the moment. HYV members will take back information from the conference and issues raised to other young people in schools, youth groups and communities in their local areas.
HYV Members will also take part in a fitness session run by world acclaimed fitness instructor Steve Agyei who has worked with big names ranging from Beyoncé to Tony Blair and has starred in number of Nike commercials, with this session taking place before the Health and Wellbeing session delivered by High Life Highland’s Lynn Johnson.
Highland Youth Voice is managed by High Life Highland’s Youth Services team and gives young people a chance to have their say and meet decision makers.
