Sandwell’s new Youth Cabinet has been elected after a massive poll in the borough’s schools and youth centres.

5th March 2010! A date that meant so much to 32 candidates from Sandwell who stood for election onto Sandwell’s Shadow Youth Cabinet (SSYC) and United Kingdom Youth Parliament (UKYP). This date was the culmination of weeks of hard work including writing candidate statements, attending an information evening and a training day in order to prepare themselves to campaign.           

The candidates unlocked their creativity and came up with innovative ideas to campaign, such as talking to their friends, sending out leaflets, creating Facebook pages, putting themselves out there on the Sandwell Learning Gateway, in schools and youth groups.          

Their efforts during the election dates, 1st – 4th March 2010, were recognised by almost 4,000 young people who exercised their right to vote for a candidate of their choice after reading the individual manifesto statements. Voting also took place on real issues that affect us as young people. All in all there were 28 polling stations in schools and youth provisions across Sandwell and young people were also given the opportunity to vote on the Learning Gateway.        

Not only were the 32 candidates standing for election onto the Shadow Youth Cabinet, but a record number of 20 candidates also stood for four places for the UK Youth Parliament, which consisted of two places for Members of Youth Parliament and two places for deputies. These young people felt passionate about representing the voice of Sandwell’s young people and fought for a place to represent their views at a regional and national level.        

After an exhausting week of campaigning, the results were announced on the 5th March 2010, where the candidates gathered with a number of young people and adults from the council for a ceremony at The Council House, Oldbury, to hear the all important results being announced.        

Sylvia Heal MP (Madam Deputy Speaker for The House of Commons) announced the results for the United Kingdom Youth Parliament after speaking about the commitment and energy that the current members and deputy members of the Youth Parliament had shown during their term of office. The successful members of Youth Parliament are: Maryam Jabeen, Callum Casey and the deputies are Joshua Singh and Wasim Ali.        

Their role will include; attending a training residential, attending annual sittings and regional meetings to represent the views of their constituency. During their one year of office the D/MYPs will aim to work with young people as well as develop working relationships with key people to ensure that the views of young people are listened to by decision makers through a range of meetings, organised events, campaigns, debates and conferences. Elected UKYP representatives, Maryam Jabeen and Callum Casey commented that being a UKYP representative would provide them with a good platform to listen to and act upon the voice of young people.        

Sandwell Cabinet member for Children and Young People Cllr Ian Jones announced the successful young people voted onto the Youth Cabinet after congratulating the retiring members on their achievements during their term and in representing the voice of young people in Sandwell. The 15 young people who have been elected onto the Youth Cabinet are: Taz Singh, Faizul Islam, Mohammed Rohim, Ben Hancox, Adam Price, Daljit Kaur, Zain Sadique, Aisha Akhtar, Latisha Richards, Arpan Bedi, Usman Hussain, Robert Gilbert, Kathryn Jukes, Kelly Bloomer and Sara Fletcher.

Gearing up for new role

The Youth Cabinet is now gearing up to taking over its new role of representing the young people of Sandwell. They have a training residential session in early April, where they will be analysing the consultation feedback from young people on issues affecting them, gathered on the back of the ballot papers. This will then lead to the development of their manifesto which will help them to prioritise the issues that young people want them to address. Look out for the next issue of Voice 21 to find out the issues that have been voted for.        

Cllr Jones said: “I am amazed at how many young people got involved in the elections and the energy and commitment the candidates have shown. The retiring youth cabinet has worked hard in ensuring that the council and the cabinet listen to young people and take their views seriously.  I look forward to working with the new youth cabinet and hope that they will continue to build on this success.”