Case Study

Arun Youth Council

At a meeting in November 2005 the Arun Youth Councillors discussed whether, how and why they felt they "belonged" to their own communities. As a result of this, they came up with the seven bullet points of the charter which they took to a meeting of the full District Council, and later to a meeting of the Local Strategic Partnership, who asked their  permission to use it as the basis for their annual "State of the District Debate" workshop event in October 2006.
At this event, delegates worked in seven different teams to carry out some specific tasks, each one based around one of the seven bullet points. Arun Youth Councillors helped in the planning of this event, and facilitated the workshop groups on the day. The charter has also been distributed amongst schools and other organisations. The belonging charter may be used by others as long as acknowledgement is given to the Arun Youth Council as the creator. The Belonging Charter  22Kb

More information about the Arun Youth Council:
Around 30 young people aged between 11-19, mainly elected to the youth council by the members of their own school councils, they come from the six secondary schools across the Arun district, and work closely with the adult council, the local strategic partnership and many local organisations. Their terms of reference, written by themselves can be found below. Information about the Arun Youth Council, including recent conferences and meetings, can be found on http://www.arun.gov.uk/cgi-bin/buildpage.pl?mysql=307

Arun Youth Council Terms of Reference  154Kb