Highland Youth Voice - What We Do
Highland Youth Voice - www.hyv.org.uk
I thought, by now, (for anyone interested which is probably very few) it's time to explain to people what Highland Youth Voice actually is and what we do to explain some of those "unanswered mysteries" since I'm posting neverending messages on here in relation to Highland Youth Voice. I also hope that this post will encourage people to allow Highland Youth Voice representatives to represent them whether it is issues from young people on their community or issues that adults/ parents want delt with which have direct impact on their family/ relations.
What is Highland Youth Voice?
Highland Youth Voice is a youth parliament for the Highlands and is an elected body of 100 members. 70 members are directly elected from schools and the remaining 32 are elected through Youth Forums in the Highlands. There are 2 / 3 representatives for each school, dependig on the school roll. Each area then elects 2 members to join the Executive Committee (Xec).
What do we do?
Highland Youth Voice meets as a whole parliament in November at Badaguish Outdoor Centre, near Aviemore and in June at the Sabhal Mor Ostaig Gaelic College in Skye. At these meetings, members get a chance to meet each other and take part in workshops on the things that affect young people and at the same time have fun! Through the rest of the 2 year term, members then become a representative of young people in the community and take issues forward, together with their colleagues, Youth Workers and Executive committee members.
Youth Voice gives young people a chance to influence the decision makers in the Highlands. If there are issues about your school or the health services, or that you feel that the education system in Scotland could be better - then Highland Youth Voice allows young people to be heard by the right people.
What is the Executive (Xec) ?
The Highland Youth Voice Executive Committee ensures that the work of HYV carries on between main meetings. They meet regularly in Inverness to ensure the issues arising from HYV meetings are followed up with action. They also attend relevant meetings of decision-makers including heads and directors of Highland Council Services, and play a major role in the planning, development and smooth running of the full parliament meetings. Each Executive member takes the role of representing their school/ youth forum representatives between full parliament meetings. There are a maximum of two Executive members per each Highland area.
What is Apprentice day?
This is a day where individual members of the Highland Youth Voice executive shadow key officials from within the council and partner agencies such as the Fire Service, the Police Service, NHS Highland and SNH and has worked well in the past with everyone finding the whole experience beneficial and enjoyable.
The aims of the day are to -
- Raise awareness of Highland Youth Voice and local youth forums.
- Allow young people to explore the relevance of the range of services to them-thereby allowing issues of interest to be identified by young people themselves.
- Allow key officials/WBA partners to gain an insight into young people’s perceptions of the services they provide.
What is SNO patrol?
SNO (Service Nominated Officers) Patrol is a group of nominated officers from each service who will meet as a group (3-4 times per year). The purpose of this group is to:
- enable services, the Youth Convener, Highland Youth Voice members and the Youth development team to routinely discuss issues, policies and developments within council services affecting young people
- develop the capacity of services to engage with young people
- enable SNOs to pick up issues of relevance to young people and seek out opportunities to engage in with young people
- enable the Youth Convener and Highland Youth Voice members to participate more effectively and appropriately in committee meetings or consultations across the services.
- allow each service to achieve better service design for young people and to promote citizenship.
Who do we have contacts with?
Highland Youth Voice have direct contacts with the Directors of Education, Social Services, Planning and Development and all other directors of Highland Council Services. They also have contacts with Parliament and Government through these officials and also many other organisations which assist in the development of young people and children, including the Highland Childrens Forum which HYV members designed posters for which will be distributed through schools in the near future.
Highland Youth Voice takes all views from people seriously and which act appropriately to resolve any arising issues from young people.
