Highland Youth Voice Conference – Making Change Happen!
Highland Youth Voice, the elected youth parliament for the Highlands, meets this week (9th-11th June 2011) at Sabhal Mor Ostaig College, Skye. The conference has been planned by young people with a theme of ‘Making Change Happen’ and will look at changes impacting on young people and ways in which young people can influence change. Workshops and presentations will cover political, financial and societal change.
HYV members will hear from Highland Councillors Jaci Douglas, Michael Foxley, Drew Millar and David Alston about their role in influencing change, and will be given a chance to quiz the experts via a ‘Question Time’ panel.
Teams from Inverness Campus and Inverness College will be running ‘Your Campus, Your Future’ interactive workshops with the young people and consulting with them on ‘what’s good and what’s missing’ from the current plans.
Ruaraidh MacNeil, Project Director of Inverness Campus, said: “Set to open in 2014, Inverness Campus will offer multiple options for further and higher education, as well as business and leisure opportunities.
“Gathering feedback from these youngsters on the Campus and Inverness College plans will be hugely important. Their input will help shape a Campus that is fit for students.”
Newly elected MSYPs (Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament) for Highland will be holding constituency surgeries and Alison Clark, Policy Officer for Highland Council, will be explaining how young people can get involved in community councils. Iain MacDonald from BBC Scotland will give guidance on the use of media in influencing change, before HYV members are set a ‘One minute to make a difference’ challenge – filming a 60 second video bite to raise an issue they are passionate about and get change made.
An ‘Open Mic’ session and area workshops will give Youth Voice members the opportunity to discuss other issues of importance to young people in Highland.
HYV members will take back information from the conference and issues raised to other young people in schools, youth groups and communities in their local areas.
Ex-members of HYV will join the conference to give a presentation on ‘A decade of change’ as part of the HYV 10 year anniversary celebrations. There will be entertainment too, with ‘Changes – The Quiz!’ arranged by HYV members and a ceilidh with local musicians.
Highland Youth Convener Gemma Mackintosh said: “This will be my last conference as Highland Youth Convener and I am extremely excited about this year’s topic. The young people will be hearing about change within society and politics and also have the opportunity to learn about today’s financial change which I feel is important for young people to know about.”
Highland Youth Voice is managed by The Highland Council Youth Services team and gives young people a chance to have their say and meet decision makers.
For further information, please contact Ian Abbot, Senior Youth Development Officer, Education, Culture and Sport Service, The Highland Council on 01463 702043.