Benny’s June Blog: The Youth Council

At the end of May, the Five Rivers Board attended the Youth Council meeting via Zoom and I was lucky enough to get insight into the meeting. This gave the young people a chance to raise any proposals or topics of discussion for the Board to consider. I was beary excited about how much the young people wanted to influence the future. There were 17 children and young people all enthusiastic about being the voice of people in care and improving the care system.

The Youth Council is a democratic group run by children and young people who are fostered with Five Rivers. They have regular meetings where they will raise issues and represent the views of young people in care across the country. The Five Rivers Youth Council is integral to making sure they give the best experience they can to young people in their care.

The young people listed a range of great projects that they intend to work on in the next 12 months. They spoke about how they would celebrate the next bear day…oops, I mean Care Day…in schools to raise awareness of care experienced young people in schools. For them, it is so important to fight against the prejudice that some young people in care can face.

Creating a buddy system for young people in care was also mentioned. That way, they will have someone that will be available to them to give them support and to just chat with them in general.

The Youth Council members decided they enjoyed meeting online and they would like this to continue. As a result, they will be running a ‘Catch Up meeting’ on the first Thursday of every month to socialise, plan events and have some fun. During these meetings, they will also be discussing the need for specialist groups such as for LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, or any other groups that would benefit from having their own space to talk openly.

I am so excited to see how the projects from the Youth Council Meeting progress and hope I can attend more meetings like this in the future. I have loved learning so much about the young people and seeing how passionate they were about current topics.

Love Benny

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