News

Lewisham Education Request

Important information for young people aged 16-19.

Lewisham education service is very interested in what you are up to. To help us track what young people in the borough are doing, let us know if you are:

• In education?
• In training?
• Looking for work?
• Just got a job or an Apprenticeship?
• At university?

It takes less than 5 minutes to submit your details and entries can be made online or over the phone by calling Jay at 15Billion on 020 8536 8345 or 020 8536 8347.

YCP Live Event on Wednesday

This month's YCP Live Event gives you the opportunity to make some big changes to B-Involved.

We're recruiting for a team of young people who will be developing videos, podcasts and content for our new website. As well as making a significant difference to our website you'll be learning new skills which will be great for CVs and applications.

More info here - hope to see you at Catford Civic Suite on Wednesday from 5pm.

Coming Up in 2012...

Happy New Year! Here's a taster of some of the opportunities coming up in 2012 with the Young Mayor and Young Citizens' Panel.

• Have your say on Kieran's Young Mayor Budget
• Get involved with some new projects set up by former Young Mayors Kieza and Jacob
• Join the YCP and have your say on our new website, the London Olympics and London Mayoral elections
• Come along to Young Advisors every Monday and help change your borough
• Find the latest employment, training and volunteering opportunities and vacancies

We'll be keeping you right up to date here on B-Involved with all the latest news. Keep even more up to date and have your say by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

Intergenerational Carols & Cake

On Monday 12th December the Young Mayor's team hosted an afternoon of carols and cake for older people in the community.

The Seniors Choir performing some carols.

The event was well attended and gave people of all ages an opportunity to talk and perform. The Seniors Choir played a selection of carols inbetween peformances by young musicians from St Dunstan's College who also provided some magicians to entertain people while they ate.

Thanks to Councillor Peggy Fitzsimmons for helping to organise this event and also to the Local Assemblies Team who helped out throughout the day.

Discussing the Riots

This week Young Mayors past and present will be at various events looking into the causes and consequences of the summer riots.

Former Young Mayor Kieza Silveira De Sousa and Young Mayor Kieran Lang at the Deptford Green Youth Conference.

On Monday current Young Mayor Kieran Lang attended an event hosted by the Runnymede Trust discussing the events of the summer before joining his predecessor Kieza Silveira De Sousa on the panel at Deptford Green School's Youth Conference. There they were joined by members of the Sociology department at Goldsmiths College, local police officers and local councillors to answer young people's questions on the UK riots.

On Monday night former Young Mayor Jacob Sakil featured on BBC2's Newsnight as part of a roundtable discussion on the riots. You can watch this show on BBC iPlayer here

Later this week Jacob and first Young Mayor Manny Hawks will be attending an event hosted by Ed Miliband MP at the Karibu Centre in Brixton where they will be following up earlier discussions with the Labour leader around the summer riots.

Young Mayor Handover Ceremony

On Tuesday 29th November Kieran Lang was officially sworn in as Young Mayor of Lewisham.

Chezney Speed-Skyers was also sworn in as Deputy Young Mayor of Lewisham in a ceremony at last Tuesday's Council Meeting. The Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, paid tribute to last year's Young Mayor, Kieza Silveira De Sousa, and his Deputy, Jawan Sakil, who handed their badges of office over to their successors.

It capped off a busy day for the new Young Mayor and Deputy Young Mayor who, along with Young Advisors Lulu Fundi and Dami Benbow, had helped out at UK Youth's Hearing Unheard Voices event at St James' Palace in the afternoon. There they met HRH Princess Anne and introduced her to some of the award winners.

Positive Activities Fund 2012/13

Training opportunities are available for next year's Positive Activities Fund judging panels.

If you are aged 13-19 and you're available after school/college/work on Thursday 1st December then come to Catford Civic Suite at 4:30pm to find out more about becoming a Young Commissioner. For more information, see the flyer above or on the home page or contact Stephen Huie (stephen.huie@lewisham.gov.uk) or Valerie Gonsalves (valerie.gonsalves@lewisham.org.uk).

Apprenticeship Opportunities

The application deadline for the newest round of apprenticeships at Lewisham Council is Monday 31st October.

For a full list of apprenticeships currently available to 16-24 year old Lewisham residents click here

If you are intrigued by these opportunities you can get free advice and information at the Apprenticeships Team stand in Lewisham Shopping Centre every day this week between 12noon and 2pm.

The Future Of Black Youth In Britain Event

Newly elected Young Mayor Kieran Lang and his Deputy Chezney Speed-Skyers joined some Young Advisors at the Stephen Lawrence Centre for a Black History Month Event.

The panel for this Q&A event included former Young Mayor Jacob Sakil and there were lively discussions about what the community could do to help young black people in the area and how the community could work together better as a whole. Kieran and Chezney had their first taste of being in the public eye as many of the people present wanted to congratulate them and find out what they had planned for the year ahead.

Kieran Lang Is The New Young Mayor

Last night Kieran Lang was announced as the eighth Young Mayor of Lewisham.

Kieran will be supported by the new Deputy Young Mayor Chezney Speed-Skyers and Lewisham's new UKYP Representatives Valence Festus and Humza Raja.

Next week we will have a full report of the announcement ceremony up along with professional pictures. In the mean time here's a picture of Kieran giving his acceptance speech.

Congratulations to Kieran, Chezney, Valence, Humza and all the candidates who took part in this year's campaign.

18 Candidates for Young Mayor 2011/12

This year eighteen young people have put themselves forward for the Young Mayor of Lewisham elections.

The election day is Wednesday 12th October with the result being announced on Thursday 13th October. Throughout the next few weeks the candidates will be campaigning across the borough. If you want to see what each candidate is standing for then have a look here.

In other news outgoing Young Mayor Kieza Silveira De Sousa had his budget proposals approved by Mayor & Cabinet. In the next few months you can look out for:

• Working with young people with disabilities to improve awareness, access to activities and routes into work.
• Working with young people in the borough to organise a showcase to give young people with musical talent an opportunity to perform and to learn back stage skills.
• Working with young women in the borough to create a project including workshops and events to explore their interests and aspirations.
• Developing opportunities for young people to create Social Enterprises and develop their business awareness.
• A YouTube channel  to provide a focus for young people’s ideas, interests and concerns, and promote services and opportunities for young people in Lewisham.

Congratulation to Kieza, his deputy Jawan and the Young Advisors for all their hard work developing these ideas over the last year.

Become The Next Young Mayor

Today is the last day to get candidate packs in to stand to be the next Young Mayor of Lewisham.

If you still haven't downloaded your candidate pack you can do so here: http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/mayorandcouncil/youngmayor/Pages/default.aspx

In the mean time if you are unsure about how to start campaigning and writing your election statements here are the top four from last year to give you some inspiration. Make sure you check out the video messages too.

Kieza Silveira De Sousa - Young Mayor of Lewisham 2010/11

Riots 2011 - YCP Report

Below we have the full report from August's YCP Live Event which has since been passed on to the Mayor of Lewisham and, by request, to Labour leader Ed Miliband. We'd be very happy to hear from anyone who wishes to add to the ideas below. Thanks to everyone who came along on August 10th - a short interview with former Young Mayor Jacob Sakil was featured on BBC's Panorama. Here's a link for those of you who missed it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013xy9t

Introduction

Over the last few months we have noticed that the turnout for YCP Live Events has been decreasing and our original idea for August’s meeting was to see what we could do to attract more young people to get involved with the various projects in Lewisham. However, in light of recent events, it seemed far more appropriate to discuss how young people felt about the riots across England and what they thought had caused them and how we could work together to address these problems. Across the two hour meeting there were several ideas put forward which we have tried to present to you as they were delivered during the meeting. We have tried to organise them into categories so that they are easier to follow.

Reasons and Opinions

A wide range of reasons were offered for why the riots occurred and, in particular, why young people were seen to be heavily involved. The general consensus was that things had gone too far and there was no active support for those involved in looting and vandalism. However, there were many suggestions as to why people had got involved in the unrest. Here are the main points raised:

- Young people don’t care about the consequences of their actions as they feel they have nothing to lose.

- Young people have a lack of faith in each other and their community to support them.

- There is a strong opportunistic element to the looting as 80/90% of perpetrators won’t be caught.

- Motives for the original protests, such as the shooting of Mark Duggan, are being used as excuses to riot and loot.

- The group mentality of those involved overpowered the thoughts of individuals and people were swept along with the mayhem.

- People were influenced to loot by the fact that success is measured by material wealth.

- People from all ages and professional and cultural backgrounds were involved in the riots and looting and young people are being scapegoated.

- BBM (Blackberry Messenger) and Facebook broadcasts drew attention to several problems as they happened.

- There were elements of competition between different areas to see who could do the most damage and thus receive the most “ratings”.

- Wounds from previous clashes such as the 1980s riots have been reopened and historical problems have resurfaced.

- There is a culture of waste in business and people chose to vent their frustrations through looting.

- Problems arose in areas with Labour councils which have been worst hit by the national government’s cuts.

- Many of the more local incidents were copycat crimes fuelled by a combination of poverty, thrill seeking, greed and a desire for a quick fix to social and economic problems.

- Rioting and looting are very separate issues as the latter has no political or social motivation.

The Police and National Government

Unsurprisingly there were several references to the police throughout the meeting. Throughout various YCP events (as well as Young Advisors and Youth Advising Police meetings) it has been evident that several young people have a fractious relationship with the police and have been campaigning for greater understanding and respect between the two groups. Here are the main points raised about the police during the meeting:

- Some see the police as weak in the UK compared with other European countries such as France, Italy and Poland.

- The police fail to recognise the positive work that large numbers of young people take part in across Lewisham and beyond.

- There is a distinct lack of a relationship between the police and the community at large.

- Many parts of the community feel oppressed by the police and the national government.

- Solutions to the recent problems go beyond reliance on the police and could be solved within the community itself.

- There has been a chain of frustration with the government and police due to their lack of empathy for young people’s situations.

- Future attempts by the police to form better relationships with young people will be viewed with suspicion as it may be perceived that the police are only acting out of fear of future unrest.

- The widely publicised lack of prison space is reducing the deterrent to join in the looting.

- The national government has set a bad example by “looting” from taxpayers during the expenses scandal.

Family and the Media

Due to the focus on parental influence and control during the coverage of the riots it is not surprising that several points were made about issues concerning the home, education and media influence. Here are some of the points that were raised:

- The media has a lot to do with raising young people these days and they are easily influenced by what they see in films, music and television.

- Economic and social changes are causing depression and disillusion in families and households making it hard for parents to cope.

- Celebrities are a huge influence on young people and they could influence positive changes by showing that they love London and want to help rebuild it.

- Many parents are poorly educated and struggle to influence and discipline their children positively.

- Older people are setting a bad example with their involvement in looting and rioting.

- Media portrayal of young people is fuelling negative stereotypes and encouraging radical racist groups to retaliate to incidents.

Aftermath

As well as looking at the potential causes for the recent unrest the young people who attended the YCP meeting also highlighted some possible problems that may arise in the future. Here are some of the points that were raised:

- Communities will struggle to recover from the riots due to ongoing national and international economic problems.

- There could be further cuts made to funding for activities for young people as a reaction to their supposed involvement in the unrest.

- It is not unlikely that the riots and looting could happen again due to further cuts or incidents that upset the public.

- People are living in fear and feeling that they need to hide themselves and their belongings.

- There is likely to be a rise in taxes to pay for the damage.

- There is likely to be a decrease in tourism which provides a lot of the capital’s income and could affect the 2012 Olympics.

- It is possible that curfews could be put in place which would limit people’s freedoms.

- The good work done by local authorities for young people could be cut as many see it has been thrown back in their faces.

Solutions

Perhaps the hardest thing to do during situations like this is to look for positives and ways that things can be improved rather than just highlighting the problems. Despite this the atmosphere during the YCP was encouragingly uplifting and looking towards a brighter future. Here are some of the solutions to the recent problems suggested by the young people present:

- Prevention is often more effective than the cure and the police should look at ways they can improve to stop similar incidents happening again.

- It is important to look forward to making improvements rather than wallowing in the past and looking for excuses.

- There is a need to look at the reasons behind the rioting and looting but there is no condoning what has happened.

- Community is all about supporting each other and local communities need to work together to make the improvements they want to see.

- Education is key to improving society and young people need to be encouraged to work hard to get the things in life they want.

- Problems can be solved by talking to people face to face and sharing their morals and values to make positive and rewarding changes.

Conclusions

Above all the discontent and disappointment with recent events there was an overwhelming positive and committed atmosphere at this meeting and a genuine desire to get to the bottom of the problems that caused and arose from the riots and looting. What is important now is for these views to go forward and be considered so that the young people who attended feel that they have had their voices heard and that those in positions of authority and power are taking them seriously.

Great Expectations - European Training Project

Last week we had visitors from Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Germany over for a training project on peer leadership.

Throughout the week our visitors along with members of the Young Advisors and the Young Mayor took part in a series of workshops on creating international projects, tackling issues and how to be a good young leader. There were also visits to the Houses of Parliament, the British Youth Council, City Hall and a barbecue at Ladywell Adventure Playground.

It was really good working with new people and sharing ideas from different parts of Europe. We hope to do some more work with these groups in the future.

Young Mayor's Mid-Year Report

Have a look at what the Young Mayor's been up to so far this year.

If you're unable to read this then email a member of the Young Mayor team who can email you over a copy. Our contacts are available across the website.

Curated Conversations

Last week some of the Young Mayor's team took part in an interesting evening in Deptford.

As part of an experiment to see how people can work together and share skills members of the Young Mayor's team took part in some "curated conversations" with a wide range of different people from the local community over dinner. Participants chose from a list of questions laid out in the form of a menu and took it in turns to learn more about a randomly assigned partner.

For more information check out the London Muse: http://www.londonmuse.com/The_London_Muse/home.html

Bulgaria Trip

Some of the young people involved with the Young Mayor's Project have just visited Bulgaria.

On the steps of the Cathedral Alexander Nevsky in Sofia Bulgaria.

The week long programme took a small group out to Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, to meet with a group of young people from Bulgaria. We saw different parts of the city and took part in workshops where we got to design our own T-Shirts and discuss issues around culture and identity.

Mayor's Apprenticeship Scheme

This week the Mayor of Lewisham introduced his new apprenticeship scheme.

There are 40 apprenticeships available for young people aged 16-24 in a wide range of areas. Successful candidates will earn £14,350 plus a £500 bonus for completing the apprenticeship.

For more information on how to apply see http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NewsAndEvents/News/ApprenticeshipsAtTheCouncil.htm. Applications have to be in by Friday 10th June.

Young Mayor on YouTube

Young Mayor Kieza Silveira De Sousa has started work on his budget proposals with a sneak peak at his YouTube channel now available.

Here's the link - http://www.youtube.com/user/YoungMayorofLewisham . Make sure you subscribe for all the latest from Kieza during his year as Young Mayor. May is shaping up to be a busy month as work begins on Kieza's budget consultation and this year's Young Mayor Newsletter which should be available in early June. Keep up to date with all the latest news on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Visit To Medway STC

On Thursday 7th April the YCP were invited to visit Medway Secure Training Centre to talk with some young people currently imprisoned there.

Medway Secure Training Centre takes in young people aged 12-17 and currently has 76 rooms (55 male, 21 female). Young people are encouraged to turn their lives around and have 25 hours of education a week covering all the main school subjects as well as NVQs in hair and beauty and business studies.

As well as a tour of the facility we also had an opportunity to speak to some of the young people. Thanks to Tasha and Darren for being so honest and open during our visit and for all the staff at Medway STC who answered our questions and hosted us.