Youth Manifesto
The Youth Manifesto was launched at a special meeting of the Worcestershire Youth Cabinet on Tuesday 17th June 2008 in the Council Chamber at County Hall, Worcester.
The Manifesto grew out of an idea of the Youth Cabinet members back in 2005 who were concerned that, although they aimed to represent the views of young people across Worcestershire, they were not always clear about what other young people thought about different things that were important to them.
They decided to design a Big Questionnaire to find out the views of young people across the County on various issues so that they could then tell others what young people think and fight for what they need and want. Their Big Questionnaire was completed by 8,623 young people - a massive response from the young people of Worcestershire.
The results from the Big Questionnaire had the most influence on the development of the Youth Manifesto, but information has also been collected and used from:
- The Health Related Behavior Survey of Young People, 2007
- The OfSTED, Tell Us 2 Survey, 2007
- The Children & young people’s Plan Consultation, 2008
- Youth Cabinet Members’ Election Manifestos, 2007/8
The Big Questionnaire has already been influential - it has provided crucial information to decision makers in the revision of the Worcestershire Children & Young People’s Plan and continues to be a key reference point for those needing to take young people’s views into account when planning and delivering services.
Most of the work in producing the Youth Manifesto was carried out during a Youth Cabinet residential on 28th to 30th March 2008 where the group agreed on the main issues, identified what young people thought about these, what they wanted to see happen and who would be able to help them with taking this forward.
Now it’s time to take what’s been identified and make a change.