The July Somerset Youth Parliament meeting was a packed session, where the advisory group looked at a whole host of different topics and welcomed some new members. Member of Youth Parliament, Emma Brown recounts what happened during the meeting.

Youth Parliament met on July 7 and focused on updates about the National Youth Agency, reflections on this year’s Children’s Parliament event, and our new social media guide. We reviewed our usage of social media and how we should conduct ourselves – this links so well with my campaign. My interest is around promoting safe use and guarding against mental health issues but also around respect.

As we had new members join us this month, we all introduced ourselves, then talked about how we were feeling currently. Many members are just coming out of mocks and exams, some are about to venture into work experience while some are going on their travels! We also shared our thoughts on the recent elections and hopes and concerns for young people.

After our news updates, we were informed that new host organisation for UK Youth Parliament will be the National Youth Agency, which will oversee the British Youth Council’s running of the UK Youth Parliament programme. We had a discussion about poor and biased careers advice in school but also diverse apprenticeship opportunities in Somerset.

We also discussed new website articles and the release of our Trauma Informed Practice video for the Somerset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership. This is a link to the film we helped create to help improve how workers hear young people’s voice, especially when they are most vulnerable: What does it mean to be Trauma Informed? (youtube.com).

Our guest this month was Darcy Warren Communication and Youth Engagement Apprentice, from the office of the new Police and Crime Commissioner, Clare Moody for Avon and Somerset Police. We spoke with Darcey about crime in our local areas, police support and the differentiation between in and out of school. She told us that Clare is creating a new Police and Crime Plan and is keen to engage young people. It was useful to explore how Youth Parliament can help to inform the police commission about young people’s opinions and experiences. We’re looking forward to more information about how we can get involved. In the meantime have a look at what young people told us recently in terms of their perceptions of violence and crime.

We had an in-depth discussion about the quality and bias of careers advice in schools and the diversity of apprenticeships available to Somerset young people, which students may not be aware of.

Finally, after a quick update from our elected Members of Youth Parliament, we finished with a quick debate on whether fines should be enforced if people don’t vote and had a discussion on lowering the voting age to 16.

If these kinds of topics, discussions or activities sound interesting why not give youth parliament a go?

Join Somerset Youth Parliament

Youth Parliament includes elected Members of Youth Parliament and an Advisory Group which anyone can join if they are between 10 and 25 years old, and they live, work or attend a school in the county.

To join us, visit our Join Us page and fill in our application form.