Agenda and minutes

Apologies received from Wiktoria and Lissy. Cllr Anna King is in meetings today but will be joining us later.

Started with icebreakers; human bingo and debate game ‘This and That’ to get to know each other. Winners of human bingo: 1. Charlie 2. Louis 3. Tasnim

2018/19 overview by young people

Feedback from Youth Summit residential

Mary, Louis, Tasnim, Zach and Ayo told the new members about the past year and what they have been doing as the youth forum: Holocaust Memorial Day, UKPW, International Youth Day, Heritage Tours.

CEO George Candler & Cllr Jonathan Nunn

George Candler (Chief Exec.) talked to the forum about who he is, his previous work in theatre and what his role now as chief executive involves.

Cllr Jonathan Nunn, Leader of the Council, spoke about his background and about what both elected members and officers of the council do and are responsible for. Cllr Nunn talked about coming changes in the council, such as Unitary, and how important the youth forum is for shaping Northampton going forward.

Young people were asked about their thoughts on Northampton:

Young people don’t have enough to do. MK have better shops/restaurants.

Good vintage shops in Northampton but aren’t often well advertised. Need more online information and word of mouth.

Christmas activity and decoration in the town is a positive.

Ping Pong parlour works really well - would like to see more of this with different activities.
Action: Aimee to feed this back to Grosvenor. Look to invite Grosvenor Centre manager to a future meeting to discuss youth activities.

The group discussed the towns transport and fed-back positives and criticisms: Some areas don’t have enough provision for the volume of people trying to use the bus, particularly in peak travel times (mornings). Often journeys that need 2 buses or more aren’t synchronised so it means you often miss the 2^nd bus. This has improved a little over the past year but still not brilliant.

The Chief Exec explained that some initiatives are being explored with the county transport department to tackle these issues.

Council has declared a climate emergency and need young people’s views and ideas.

Community safety raised as an issue. Discussed initiatives in place and additional police resource currently in the town centre.

Young people told about Fearless.org, this is a way of reporting crime anonymously to the Police. It cannot be traced back to you so make sure you give as much information as possible as they cannot contact you to ask more questions.

Items to cover in future meetings:

·         Northampton Forward

·         Climate Emergency

·         Youth Activity

Led by Youth Forum

Meet the Mayor

Mary led the forum on a short tour of the Guildhall with support from Louis, Zach and Tasnim, finishing in the Mayors parlour. The Mayor, Naz Choudary chatted with everyone and answered questions.

The Mayor suggested there is an opportunity to twin with a person from Marburg in Germany (Northampton Twin town), like a pen friend. Action: Aimee to get further information on how you can get involved.

Chair and Vice chair role

Secretary role

Every young person put their name forward a role and completed a ballot slip.

The results of the Youth Forum election:

Chair: Jay

Vice Chair: Josh

Secretary: Zach

Discussed lanyards and t-shirts to identify young people at events. Forum would like lanyards to show they are youth forum. Action: Aimee to explore.

Young People worked in small groups to mind map key issues for young people in Northampton and discussed these as a larger group.

Everyone is keen to be involved in the annual events on the action plan and would particularly like to do something around knife crime. Action: Aimee to bring upcoming projects and initiatives to the next meeting that the forum can be involved in a support. Everyone is happy to support an action from last year’s plan (not completed) should this go ahead - an event to educate parents and other adults around social media.

Forum advised that UK Parliament week takes place this month but the planned event has had to be cancelled. Everyone keen to revisit the event along with a possible courts visit in the New Year. Action: Aimee to explore and arrange.

Project to develop an app or site for young people

Helen and Holly (comms team)

Unfortunately the Communications Team were unable to attend at the last minute.

Action: All forum members to think about how they find out about things to do/youth activities and what the gaps are. If you were designing an app/website/other how would it work. Bring some ideas to future meetings.

Action: Aimee to invite Comms and Digital Team to a future meeting to discuss how we can develop this.

Thursday 19 December, 4-6pm: Updates and Christmas social.

Future meetings will take place on Thursday’s during half term. Any additional meetings that take place after school will be on a Monday wherever possible for maximum attendance.

The next meeting is on Thursday 19 December, 4-6pm (Christmas social), meet at the Guildhall.

Upcoming events to note:

Holocaust Memorial Day event – Monday 27 January, details to follow.