Agenda and minutes

Welcome by Chairman Matthew Carter and Vice Chair Falak Hussain

Matthew welcomed Youth Councillors and Officers to the meeting, he also introduced Falak Hussain as Vice Chair for the evening meeting.

Apologies of absence

Abigail Akers Furbank, Sydnae Smith.

Youth Councillors paid their respects to the late queen and shared stories about their visit to the memorials in London.

Youth Councillors spoke about the latest youth project for 2022/23, the Cost-of-living crisis  (COLC) They have produced a 12-question survey and will be conducting street interviews during half term. They will be present at the Essex Police and Epping Forest District Council, Community Day of Action, on Wednesday 26 October. Youth Councillors will conduct the survey and talk to residents about the Cost-of-Living crisis

The survey will also be conducted with delegates attending the Youth Voice conference on 22 October and at the Southend Youth Council meeting on 25 October. The survey will be available to all schools after half term, to enable Epping Forest district pupils to complete.

The aim is to assess how the community are feeling about the Cost-of-Living crisis, how it is affecting everyday life and to get a better understanding of how services can help the community.

The Youth Councillors received £1k to educate young people about Scammers, they have purchase 800 booklets ‘The Big book of scams’ to compliment the project. The book has been produced by Thames Valley police and is a valuable resource to avoid being scammed and losing valuable money. The Youth Councillors will arrange a presentation in their own school to deliver a presentation and hand out the booklets. The book is also available online.

https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/central/advice/thames-valley/fraud/little-book-big-scams.pdf

Di spoke about inviting the Citizen advice to a Youth council meeting, to talk about budgeting, to help them and their families with the cost-of-living crisis.

Di reported that the Jack Petchey Foundation exist to inspire and motivate young people to achieve and to recognise their achievements. Climate change is an issue that young people feel passionate about, and young people across London and Essex are doing amazing things every day, to help protect their local environment and campaign to help build a greener tomorrow.

This year, JPF have launched the Jack Petchey Environmental Award to give special recognition to the young people working hard in their communities to create a sustainable change in their local area. Members of the public can nominate an amazing young person they know who is doing great things for the environment for a Jack Petchey Environmental Award. Winners will receive a special certificate, badge, and a letter from Sir Jack Petchey himself. They will have the opportunity to apply for a Jack Petchey Environmental Grant of £300 towards an environmental project they are involved in.

Matthew was nominated by Di for his work with fellow youth councillors to host the Epping Forest Climate Action Youth Conference.  67 pupils and 6 teachers attended the conference. The event was deemed a great success as the focus was on Climate Action and young people’s engagement to make a difference in local democracy. The Chairman and Councillor Aniket Patel, the Community and Regulatory Services Portfolio Holder, attended the event and both commended the event as a great success with the focus being on the young people and the environment.

The Youth Councillors hosted a youth debate chaired by Matthew, the topic of the debate was this house believes the blocking of roads and other disruptions, is the right way to get climate action. The results of the debate were 60% Against 40% For

Matthew is also an elected member of the Environmental Group at the New City College (Epping Campus).  His work includes campaigning and supporting other students, to reducing single use plastics in the college, bringing in reusable bottles and introducing water filling stations. He is also campaigning for Green Education - a programme to be launched at BTEC level, and planting 100's of trees on the college campus's (Hackney, Havering, Tower Hamlets, Redbridge, and Epping Forest). Matthew is also working on a resource able food project, such as Meat Free Menus, sourcing locally and minimising transport to reduce the colleges carbon footprint. Matthew is a local Tree warden, this entails when out walking his dog, he reports fallen or damaged trees to the parish council.  In the home Matthew is working on his parents to buy an electric car.

Congratulations Matthew. Anyone doing great work can be nominated so please inform your schools & families.

Sarah has met with 2 members to help them set up their social media Instagram.

Update from schools - All Youth Councillors

Braeside

Chigwell

Davenant

Debden Park

Epping St Johns

Ilford County

King Harold

New City College

Roding Valley

The Ongar Academy

West Hatch

Braeside school  – Izzy, Sophie

They have no heating in school, their boilers broken. Pupils are not allowed to wear coats in classrooms. There is an upcoming Belgium trip. 

Chigwell school – William

School council is doing a reform and elections are in process for this. Heating is on in school. There is also an upcoming football trip for girls to Barcelona.

Davenant Foundation school – Erika, Martin, Oscar, Olu, Paarth, Suki

The school heating is on in business block. Pupils are not allowed to wear coats in the building. School council should be up and running soon, the school is struggling for teachers.

Debden Park High school - Krish

Also, no heating in school and coats are not allowed in the building. There is a trip to Flanders field soon.

Epping St Johns school – Falak, Henry, Oscar

Open evening for year 7 on Thursday 3^rd November and no heating in school. 

King Harold business academy – Sarah, Scarlett

Lunch times have changed, and Key stage 4 pupils have limited food and choices after KS3 pupils have finished.There isn’t a lead teacher in school to raise the profile of the Youth Council, as Ms Williams has left. Di suggested speaking with Mr Pisani.

New City College – Liam, Matthew

They have heating and are allowed to wear coats most of the time. The Youth Council contact has left. Matthew is the President of the NCC student Union, the college have mental health days & lessons on budgeting.

Roding Valley High School  – Abigail, Ahiyan, Eylul, Kirill, Natalie, Sydnae

Had a visit from Ofsted recently, heating is allowed on and if needed allowed to wear coats. Student voice applications have gone out and have noticed the price of food in the canteen has risen.

Katie will be organising 1-2-1 Teams call with parents. These meetings are to look at your development and training needs, discuss attendance and praise achievements.

i)               Dementia Fayre Feedback.  Falak, Izzy and Erika volunteered at the Dementia Fayre in Epping on 1st October. A letter of thanks has been received from, Roy Aanstad, Essex Fire, and rescue Service

I wanted to pass my praise to the young ladies that were helping on the day, I believe they were Youth Ambassadors, or Youth Commissioners or something similar. They were very polite and professional and spent the entire time walking around engaging with people and making sure everyone had everything they needed and plenty of refreshments. In a time and age where young people sadly don’t seem to want to help in their communities, it was fantastic to see these young people being so positive and energetic. Could you please pass my compliments to the relevant person and please make sure they receive some positive feedback. We are all very quick to complain when something goes wrong, but we rarely provide positive feedback when something goes well. I look forward to attend future activities and events.

ii)         Independent Advisory Group

Feedback from Matthew, Izzy & Sarah, the Youth Council representations who attended the IAG meeting on 3rd October. The group meet 4 times a year, they are currently looking for youth representatives from the Brentwood area as there are four reps. for Epping Forest. Harry from Davenant school has suggested producing a survey about safety for the schools, the IAG members supported the idea.

iii)        Epping Forest District Council Police Team

Youth Cllrs would like to invite Sargent Neil Ross and his team to a Youth Council meeting in january, to learn about the work of the EFDC Police Team.

iv)        Climate Action Challenge Fund for schools

The EFYC would like to thank Tom and Liam from the Essex County Council Climate Commission team who ran a workshop for them on 27 September. It was a reminder that schools can still apply for £20k each to carry out a climate project in their school. From rain pools to Bee friendly gardens, to composting and solar energy, contact Tom for further information   www.bit.ly/EssexClimateActionFund Voluntary and community sector organisations, community groups, parish councils and schools in Essex can apply for up to £20,000 of funding to deliver activities that respond to key climate challenges in Essex. You can apply by completing our application form (DOCX, 238kB) and emailing it to climate.challengeprize@essex.gov.uk.

Funding is available until 31 March 2023 or until funds are fully allocated - whichever comes first.

v)         Safer Epping Group

youth Councillor Falak will be attending the Safer Epping Meeting on the 7 Nov at Epping St Johns Church

vi)        A formal letter of complaint was sent to Sadlers about them being late and going to the wrong addresses. All Youth Cllrs using the taxis service must be ready and waiting for their taxis. They will charge EFYC a waiting charge so please do not waste the EFYC budget.

vii)       Youth Voice Conference at Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford on sat 22 Oct. EFYC have been invited  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.