About the Hackney Youth Parliament

In 2008 the first ever fully-democratic Hackney Youth Parliament elections took place. Fifty young people undertook training on how to represent young people in Hackney. They each developed a manifesto and these were distributed to all secondary schools and youth clubs in Hackney. The hard work the candidates put in resulted in 3000 young people voting. Who says young people aren't interested in politics!

This year the elections take place in October 11th -15th. Watch this space if you want to find out how to stand as a candidate.

Youth Parliament aims

• To be the voice of and represent the views of young people in Hackney
• To regularly consult young people in Hackney on their views
• To be involved in decision-making with the Council, Councillors etc.
• To have an impact and make positive change
• To keep young people in Hackney informed on things affecting them

HYP values the commitment of its members, working together, listening to young people, being inclusive and tacking the issues that matter to young people.

HYP believes every young person has the right to have their say and get involved regardless of gender, religion, race, sexuality, origin, identity, disability or for any other reason will have their membership taken away.

What have we achieved over the last two years?

Over the last two years the Hackney Youth Parliament has been very, very busy! Here's a short list of what we've done:

• We developed a constitution for HYP
• We made Freedom and Choices – Hackney Youth Parliament does US Democracy.
• We worked with the Council to gain funding to renovate and build youth clubs for young people in Hackney. This resulted in the launch of the Young Hackney Youth Centres and a NEW youth centre in Stoke Newington.
• We visited Downing Street on many occasions, met Gordon Brown (who was interested in getting our help to develop the government's youth and Alcohol policy) and government ministers, like Ed Balls, Harriet Harmon, and MP fo Hackney South Meg Hillier. We also met some celebrities, such as Ashley Cole.
• We took part in many projects that help improve facilities for young people, and give them more things to do, such as the Youth Opportunity Fund project and the Youth-led Inspections project.
• We also undertook peer research projects on Child Poverty and Anti Social Behaviour.
• We organised youth events such as One Hackney and met with the Police and local councillors to ensure young people’s voices were getting heard around issues such as Stop and Search.
• We also attended many national youth events up and down the country representing the young people of Hackney.

Minutes and manifestos

You can download agendas/minutes from HYP meetings by clicking on the date.

Click here to see what the papers and newly elected Members said

Click here for Candidate Manifestos’ 2008

Current Projects with the Council

Child poverty

Anti-social Behaviour 

Campaigns

HYP campaigns for 2009 are:

• Crime
• Health

Check back soon for more info and launch dates

How to get involved

• yuo could stand as a candidate in the 2010 HYP Elections 
• join your Area Youth Forum
• email us your issues, opinions, ideas at hyp4you@googlemail.com
• come to a meeting

HYP meet fortnightly at Hackney Town Hall. The Parliament takes responsibility for the running of their meetings.  If you would like to attend a meeting please email an HYP officer:

Chair hypchair@googlemail.com

Vice-chair hypvicechair@googlemail.com

Secretary hypsecretary@googlemail.com

Comms Officer hypcomms@googlemail.com

Finance Officer hypfinance@googlemail.com

Links to other useful organisations

British Youth Council – advice and support for setting up a Forum or Youth Council

www.byc.org.uk

UK Youth Parliament – Find out about the young people who represent you nationally

www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk

UK Parliament - Official UK Parliament website; contains everything you need to know about the world of Westminster!

www.parliament.uk