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History of the Young People's Parliament
On Wednesday, 19th October 2005, the first ever South Tyneside Young People’s Parliament (STYPP) held its official launch during the Local Democracy Week celebrations at South Shields Town Hall. The launch was the culmination of four month’s work of research and development by Youth Service project manager Tracey Moore and the Community Network STRIDE.
STYPP has and continues to be developed in line with recent changes to local and national priorities and plans including the Comedia Report, Community & Local neighbourhood Renewal Strategy, South Tyneside Multi-Agency Youth Strategy and the Every Child Matters and Youth Matters Green Papers.
STYPP has developed links to the Regional Youth Assembly, UK Youth Parliament, LSP Task 8 Priority Group for Youth, Stronger Communities Priority Group, Participation, Involvement and Engagement group (PIE), Children and Young People’s Alliance Consultation and Involvement Sub-Group, Regional Youth Work Unit and Transformation, South Tyneside’s Local Strategic Partnership, through Youth Champions Karen Wood and Vince High.
STYPP is funded until the end of March 2008 through the “Youth Consultation and Citizenship’’ theme of the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) Lifestyle, Behaviour and Citizenship Programme. The parliament is ran by the Youth Service.
The ethos of partnership and multi-agency working at a strategic level is also evident at delivery level. The structure of STYPP was developed through the inclusion of key workers, staff and young people from a broad range of local agencies including the Youth Service, STRIDE Youth Team, Groundwork, Detached Connexions, Youth Inclusion programme (YIP), Millennium PHAB Club and the Bangladeshi Youth Organisation (BYO).
The STYPP structure has been set up with the help of the Council’s Corporate Development Information Services Team, who provided detailed maps, boundaries and youth population figures per council ward and Community Area Forum. STYPP is made up of a total of 25 young people from across the borough’s six “young people’s areas” based on the geography of the Community Area Forums.
The structure is such that all 18 of the Council wards are represented, with young people from ‘under represented’ groups such as BME and disability groups sitting on the parliament, with an additional two young people from the school council also involved and making up the 25 strong STYPP.
The launch night was a great success attended by representatives from all of the partnership agencies and parliament members who saw STYPP officially opened by the Mayor of South Tyneside Cllr Bill Lynch who was on hand all night to welcome guests and give the young people a tour of the Mayor’s Study and the Council Chamber.
The aim of the STYPP is to provide comprehensive referral mechanism to give young people a collective voice and access to the decision making process in South Tyneside as recognised by the Local Strategic Partnership and the Task 8 Priority Group for Youth as the ‘Representative Young Peoples Group’ outlined in the Multi Agency Youth Strategy. In its first month the STYPP members have been working towards meeting this aim in several ways.
A delegation from the STYPP took part in a debate with the Older People’s Parliament, young people from the Youth Inclusion Programme and members of the general public at the town hall during Local Democracy week. Organised by Youth Participation Officer Zelda Heney from Corporate Services and Anne Best from Democratic services those attending viewed a DVD produced by the Youth Inclusion Programme before looking at the subject of Anti Social Behaviour in three mini workshops that informed the larger debate in the council chamber.
The night was well attended with some positive actions being identified including the possibility of the STYPP meeting regularly with the Older People’s Parliament to discuss local issues. As well as the official launch and attending the Anti Social Behaviour debate, the first month of STYPP saw a delegation from the parliament attend a meeting at the Regional Youth Work Unit around young people’s transport issues as well as a group from the STYPP appearing on the second part of the Anti Social Behaviour DVD produced by the Youth Inclusion Programme that will be viewed by young people across the borough.
Exactly a month from the day of the launch - Saturday the 19th of November - will see the young people attend their first residential outing at Boggle Hole Youth Hostel near Whitby.
The aim of the residential is to build team skills and to undertake a training course accredited through Edinburgh University based on types of committees, committee skills and the roles and responsibilities of committee members. Skills learnt through this training will help the young people in their role as STYPP members over the coming months when they will be active in their communities working on a range of consultations and youth issues with and for the young people of South Tyneside.
For more information please contact:
Tracey Moore
Youth Participation Officer
Central Library
South Shields
Tel: 0191 4247718
0788 151 0842
0751 568 3773
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