Conferences 2012- Liberal Democrat Brighton
Last week, members from the Youth Board attended the Liberal Democrats conference in Brighton.
Arriving on Sunday morning, we started by giving out leaflets advertising our fringe meeting, which was to be held on Tuesday afternoon; the topic of the meeting being ‘Cost of Crime to the Government’.
Inside the conference, Kids Count was set up in the ‘Youth Zone’ along with other organisations geared towards young people. The atmosphere at the conference was buzzing with the media reporting on what was happening – as a young person, this environment was not only new, but exciting.
Kids Count teamed up with CYP Now to bring young voices to the conference. We also had support from members of the Community Channel. I was involved in the filming and interviewing of people in the Conference Zone along with other Kids Count members, Aleks and Jinal.
In our filming, we asked questions such as: “What is your view of young people in the UK?”, “Have you ever been directly or indirectly affected by a gang before?” and “How can we change the perception of young people in the media?”. The responses were informative and being part of a media team was thrilling.
On the final day we set up the Youth Zone for our fringe meeting. This was the most important day for us. The panel consisted of two Kids Count Youth Board members, MP John Leech, Lord McNally, two Police Crime Commissioner candidates and a youth worker – the opinions that were expressed were certainly thought provoking.
The turnout was a success, we had a full audience and people eager to participate in our question-and-answer.
Being only 17, I found the opportunity to go to the conference enriching and educational. It enabled me to understand politics in a different way and have the responsibilities of an adult.
A big thank you to CYP Now and the Community Channel, but most of all to Kids Count for giving us this opportunity and for believing in us. Watch this space for the next blog post.
Loresa Youth Board member
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