You elected me - now I'll do my best to support you
By Chikira Smith-Richards
Monday September 26, 2011
Hello everyone. My name is Chikira and I am the Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) for Hammersmith & Fulham.
Elections were held in February this year and after more than 2,800 young people across the borough voted I was elected MYP with 1,027 votes.
For those of you who are unaware, UK Youth parliament (UKYP) is made up of young people aged 11-18 from across the UK who have been elected to represent the views of young people in their boroughs and campaign on issues that affect them.
In the London region we have meetings almost every month where we have borough updates and work on our campaign issues together as well as any upcoming events.
The campaign I am focusing on is keeping young people safe, so I am working with the Borough Youth Forum to make a teaching resource with safety tips for young people.
Once a year, all MYPs from across the UK meet up at the weekend annual sitting, which was held at Leeds University this July.
We created and voted on our manifesto for the year, took part in a number of workshops where I picked up lots of useful skills and campaigning tips and we started to prepare for the House of Commons debate on November 4.
We (MYPs) are the only other group of people apart from MPs that have been allowed to debate in the Commons - so it's very exciting!
As a sign of respect to a group of young people with similar aims and aspirations as us, UKYP held a minute's silence for the young people murdered in Norway.
If you want to fi nd out more see www.ukyp.org.uk (opens new window) or if you have any ideas or anything you want to say email Chikira at youth_involvement@lbhf.gov.uk.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham.
