A new youth engagement website has been launched by the Government.
The Join website allows young people to access information on funding and opportunities around youth engagement and was launched in response to the recommendations made by the Youth Citizenship Commission. The purpose of Join is to facilitate young people’s engagement in citizenship.
Through the website young people can find out about getting involved in politics and how to influence issues that matter to them by campaigning on issues, developing community projects or by volunteering. The website has a message board where young people can discuss issues and information on registering to vote.
Speaking about the new website Dawn Butler, minister for youth citizenship and engagement, said: "I want young people to have their say. Whatever their ideas, we will be listening. If young people want a Citizenship Day, opportunities to volunteer, or to have their say on the big issues like lowering the voting age to 16, they need to tell us."
The Government, in ‘An Agenda for Youth Engagement’, its response to the Youth Citizenship Commission final report on engaging young people, said it was not clear that lowering the voting age to 16 would have widespread support, even among 16- to 18-year-olds, but supported the commission's recommendation to engage young people through electoral registration in schools for 16- to 18-year-olds.
The British Youth Council (BYC) have responded to the Government’s report calling for greater financial security for youth councils to enable young people to have greater influence over local decisionmaking.
Speaking about the report Alex Delaney, British Youth Council chair, said: “We welcome the minimum benchmark for young people’s involvement, such as 25% of budgets by 2018. But empowering young people is not cost free! An increased role for young people is terrific but must be matched with proportionately more funding for staff, elections and expenses, and certainly not cutbacks to the local youth services, and third sector organisations who support hundreds of youth councils across the UK. At a time when local and national budgets are uncertain in the face of a General Election and public sector funding restraint, we call for a commitment to protect and sustain the fantastic progress made to date, with increased investment.”
Fri, 05/02/2010 - 12:17
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A new package to develop local staff to support and train young people to conduct objective assessments of local services and support recommendations for service improvements.
