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Throughout the city, children and young people are actively involved in youth groups, constituency forums and interest groups ensuring that their voices are heard and influencing decisions made about youth issues at a local level.
On 15th October 2008, as part of Local Democracy Week, the Council House, the seat of power in Birmingham, was taken over by 101 children and young people creating a very powerful group bringing youth issues to the very heart of politics in the city.
Key decision makers in the city heard how young people are engaged in decision making processes. The children and young people outlined their plans for the parliament becoming an integral part of the city’s decision making process on youth issues.
This all started in August 2006 when 60 children and young people met with Tony Howell and Councillor Les Lawrence at the Council House to discuss the best ways for children and young people to have their say.
Birmingham is changing the way it listens to children and young people.
Click here to view the adult model document.
Click here to view the children and young people model.
Lots of work has been done in schools, youth groups and clubs across the city to come up with new ideas.
Click here to view the results (pdf document).
From this work a Framework for Participation was written.
Click here to view the adult framework.
Click here to view the children and young people framework.
A group of young people have been working hard to develop the way that the new Birmingham Children and Young People’s Parliament (BCYPP) will work and have come up with three versions.
Click here to view the three versions (pdf document).
On 10th May some of the children and young people that have been involved in the development of BCYPP met with Tony Howell and Councillors Les Lawrence, Jon Hunt and Reg Corns and got their support. Here’s what Tony had to say about the event.
Click here to view Tony Howell's Brighter Futures article.
The BCYPP was launched on the 15th October 2008, when voting took place on the Best Model. The result was that Version 2 was chosen. Click here to view Version 2.
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