Visit to Oldham Youth Council
09 September 2009
On Wednesday 2nd of September, ten members of various Youth Groups in Bolton headed down to Oldham to see how their Youth Council is run.
We did this because Bolton is planning to create a Youth Council of our own in the nearby future.
The Oldham Youth Council has approximately 60 dedicated members who have been involved in a number of projects in their local area, such as making an E-safety and digital rights charter, being involved in project Safe Space, Youth Proofing Literature and meeting with the Homelessness Strategy Group – and that’s just to name a few. I and several of the other visitors think that Oldham Youth Council is fantastic, some of the things I found particularly impressive where the fact that member from all walks of life are involved (i.e. members of different faiths, LGBTQ’S, looked after children ect) , and the way the different roles in the group are delegated.
I also felt that this youth council were not just ticking boxes and they believed in all of their campaigns. The campaign I felt most moved by was the Chris Dale Campaign. Chris Dale was the brother of one of the members of the Youth Council and he was killed on a road. Now the youth council are fighting for better road safety in Oldham.
The Oldham Youth Council also have campaigns in youth image (a campaign which has been going on for three years), transport (another ongoing campaign) and mental health (which is a fairly new campaign).
Whilst I was at the youth council I took part in the mental health group. It is a very interesting group that tries to breakdown the stereotypes surrounding mental health. When I visited them they had a guest called Roland Yori who is a recovering depressive. He gave a talk on how he disapproves of some psychiatric techniques such as Electric Shock Therapy and how Smarties are a better form of medication than all depression drugs.
I greatly enjoyed visiting the Oldham Youth Council. I hope that when the Bolton Youth Council is formed we will have the same level of commitment shown by its members, the same level of diversity in the group, the same high calibre of campaigns and the same community spirit the Oldham Youth Council has.