Creating Community Conversations - Gallomanor

I'm a Councillor 2008 - final report

Young people deserve a voice. The minority group we call youth includes the "hoodie" who nicked my mobile telephone, the 18 year-old winger your football team just signed, and the sixth former who will, some day around 2040, be elected Prime Minister. It's unsurprising, then, that young people are eager participators in politics. All they need is a voice!

Our flagship youth engagement event, I'm a Councillor, Get me out of Here!, has finished for the sixth year. The event - featuring local councillors and young people from 22 counties across England, Wales and NI - put school pupils and youth group members in contact with local politicians live and online. Young people also met volunteers from abroad: a former MP from Taiwan, a political activist from Zimbabwe, a city politician from the Netherlands...

But, enough sales pitch. The best thing about  I'm a Councillor isn't the event: it's the young people, who logged in, read manifestos, asked questions, completed quizzes, attended live chats, and so on. For our final report, we'll focus on the young people that are I'm a Councillor's heart and soul.

What gets young people going? What did they ask about? How did their local councillors respond? Quotes, and a final report on the event, in this extended entry.

Good Morning Wales

Cllr Hefin David and Gareth Lewis, a student from Caerphilly were interviewed on BBC Radio Wales this morning. 

Starts at 24 minutes into the broadcast.

I'm a Councillor, Get me out of Here! kicks off

On Monday 6th October, our event I'm a Councillor, Get me out of Here  started up for its sixth year. You can read about the event, its structure, aims, and history - click here.

Cllr John Williams grapples with a (bearded) dragon

IAC 2008 has been up and running for two and a half days, and the event website is already buzzing. Some statistics and quotes follow the break. Point your browser to bigvote.org.uk, press the "Guest Access" button, and take a look around for yourself - after you log in, you can switch councils with the dropdown box on the top right corner.

I'm a Councillor International - An update

Last month, I posted here about international volunteers for I'm a Councillor 2008.

Massive thanks to the five good people who have volunteered already:

• David Bly returns to represent the USA. David represents his local district in the Minnesota House of Representatives. His website is http://davidbly.com.
• Harris Nyatsanza from Zimbabwe; geography teacher, human rights activist, and co-founder of Medical Justice. We were introduced to Mr. Nyatsanza by the Refugee Council of Great Britain.
• Sven Illing, from the city government of Tartu, the second-largest city in Estonia.
• Mariano Rayo Muñoz, who represents the Unionist Party in the National Congress of Guatemala. Thanks go to Renata Avila for her hard work and help in Guatemala.
• Stephan Antuma, who represents the party "Student and City" in Groningen, Netherlands. Stephan studies Law at the University of Groningen. We have the assistance of Stephan thanks to the kind help of Michiel Zijlstra.

We may have another international councillor on board by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

If you would like regular updates on the international section of our I'm a Councillor event, or would like more information, please contact me at ben@gallomanor.com.