Live - young people

Youth Summit Every Child Matters workshop summary

billb — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:34:25 +0100

The five workshops involving young people and a range of policy makers and practitioners were a highlight of this two day event. Here is the report from the workshops, giving a rich amount of information

Rights Now - young people getting a better deal?

Becky Sharp — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:37:20 +0100

Right now the UK Government is reporting to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on its progress for children and young people's rights. Children and young people have basic rights that are protected by most of the governments across the world so that children and young people living in that country can get a better deal.

At the Youth Summit we have been asking people:

"If you were on the committee on the rights of the child and had the power to tell the government off, what would be your top issues?"

These were some of the answers:

Widening of equalities gaps – child poverty a huge issue

Educational under achievement for bottom 10%
Treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, especially unaccompanied minors
Children in care generally fail
Anti-social behaviour – unreasonably labelled children as criminals
The fact that we lock up more young people than anyone else

Too many young people in the poverty trap
Young people’s voice still not heard and a lot of tokenism – don’t always act on the advice and the recommendations they make
Don’t take young people seriously enough

Movement down of salary differences: successfully lower than 10 years ago
Not enough facilities
Public transport
Tuition fees
Sexual health services
Informal facilities for young people
The way we deal with young people who are in trouble with the police

What do you think? Let us know...

Look for more information on the files attached or follow the link to getreadyforgeneva.org.uk

Ramblings of a Conference Bod

Barney — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:13:53 +0100

I work at NSA
Making conferences everyday
The Youth Summit was the best
By far and away

Young People and policy-makers
Coming together like policy bakers
We've moved from words to action
Hopefully there will be some takers

So have we all understood
What it means to wear a hood?
And is the PM listening
Like a good politician should?

We've heard so much inspiration
Young People from across the nation
I'm sure it won't end
When they get to the train station

Many thanks to everyone involved. The NYA are doing a great job in continuiing to push policy for young people up the agenda. Thanks to Tim and the media crew for a wicked site and giving the Summit something different. I hope our organisation was good and we've looked after you well.
We look forward to seeing you all again,

Barney (age 28 and 1/2)