Who are the Youth Council?
The Youth Council are a group of 16 young people aged 13-18 who all live (or are educated) in Bideford. Our aim is to give young people in Bideford a voice that adults in the community are required to listen to, and help make Bideford a better place for young poeple to live in.
We work in the same way that the adult Town Council does, in that we have monthly meetings where all our business gets discussed and all our projects get agreed on. We also sit on many outside organisation groups so that young peoples views are heard in many different areas.
When did the Youth Council First Start?
Bideford Youth Council was officially formed
at its inaugural meeting on 30 November 2005. This followed a formal
election process for those candidates who lived or were educated
in Bideford between the ages of 13–18 with each candidate
putting forward their campaign in the form of a speech at a hustings
held in the Pannier Market. The idea was to shadow the current
Town Council and, following the election on 21 November 2005, 16
youth councillors were elected to serve on the Youth Council.
During the run up to the elections a number of workshops were held
so that candidates could get together, and with assistance from
a number of organisations, were given guidance on how the youth
council would work and what was expected of them.
In all, 10 meetings were held during the year in school term only.
The formulation of the Youth Council has been very successful as
it has representation on a number of committees and groups such
as the Bideford Regeneration Initiative, Leader+ (Youth Grants
Panel), Underage Drinking Working Group, East-the-Water Youth Committee,
Public Transport Working Group, Sports Forum, Neighbourhood Wardens
Scheme and a Y-SMART project.
Get Involved
There
are two ways that young people can getting involved with the Youth
Council:
1) At the annual elections put yourself up for a seat and hopefully
become one of the 16 councillors who will be representing the 3000young
poeple in Bideford for that year (elections take place through
the 3 main schools in bideford and the pill youth centre)
2) Get hold of a Youth councillor and give over any ideas or views
you may have about things going on in the community