I’m a Councillor 2008 – final report

Young people deserve a voice. The minority group we call youth includes the “hoodie” who nicked my mobile telephone, the 18 year-old winger your football team just signed, and the sixth former who will, some day around 2040, be elected Prime Minister. It’s unsurprising, then, that young people are eager participators in politics. All they need is a voice!

Our flagship youth engagement event, I’m a Councillor, Get me out of Here!, has finished for the sixth year. The event – featuring local councillors and young people from 22 counties across England, Wales and NI – put school pupils and youth group members in contact with local politicians live and online. Young people also met volunteers from abroad: a former MP from Taiwan, a political activist from Zimbabwe, a city politician from the Netherlands…

But, enough sales pitch. The best thing about  I’m a Councillor isn’t the event: it’s the young people, who logged in, read manifestos, asked questions, completed quizzes, attended live chats, and so on. For our final report, we’ll focus on the young people that are I’m a Councillor‘s heart and soul.

What gets young people going? What did they ask about? How did their local councillors respond? Quotes, and a final report on the event, in this extended entry.

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Atheist Bus Campaign

Chloe joined us last year to be our admin support for I’m a Councillor.  At the end of the contract she left us to work for The Bible Society.  One day, as happens occasionally, the conversation in the office turned to religion and atheism.  Chloe remarked that she never met Read more…

Blog Action Day – Poverty

I’ve seen poverty, but never experienced it.  Living in Bombay (as it was called back in 1985) the drive from the airport to downtown involved passing by shanty-towns and beggars with limbless babies pressing themselves against the window of the air-conditioned Mercedes as we stopped at the traffic lights.  We Read more…

Sucessful new technologies are socially inclusive

I went to see some dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum yesterday.  I was there because TalkWiki had gathered speakers such as Tom Reynolds, who blogs at Random Acts of Reality and others.  One of the others, Peter Kawalek, from Manchester Business School, mentioned a powerful idea almost in passing.  Read more…

“An introduction from Afghanistan” – DFID Blogs go Live

You probably think I’ve got a screw loose to be here, given the bad news you constantly receive about southern Afghanistan.  But I think I’ve got the best job in DFID.  I hope I can explain why – all the ups as well as the inevitable downs – through this Read more…

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