Why a Youth Council??
A steering group was created for a future Youth Council in 2005 as a result of young people expressing the need to be represented and to be involved in decision making when the outcome could affect them.
Young people expressed this need through citizenship lessons ran by officers from East Hampshire District Council. One of the main ideas was that young people with any worries relating to their community could communicate this to the Youth Council through their Youth Councillor representatives.
How we started
In 2007 18 Youth Councillors were elected in through a text voting system. Around 500 votes were received. Young people delivered a campaign to Councillors on how much the EHYC should allocate to young people as their budget. The campaigners demonstrated to District Councillors that if every young person in East Hampshire is allocated 21p this totals the £10,000 that they believed the young people should have as their annual budget.
The campaigners also stated that half of the budget would be allocated to grants so young people from groups in the community could benefit from the Youth Council budget too. This received Cabinet approval and the Youth Council received this amount in its first year- 2008/2009.
In mid 2007 the Youth Council decided that they needed more support as the staff allocated did not have the time to fully support projects, transportation and follow up work after meetings. The Youth Council Coordinator role was created to give young people the support they needed.
In January 2008 Lara Nolan started in this role and was tasked with getting the Youth Council up and running.
Where we are now
We have had our first AGM and chosen our projects for the following year. For more info click here
