WAY & UKYP Election 2012 Nominations Are Open!

Downloads

WAY & UKYP Nomination Form - Elections 2012

Download this form to apply to become a candidate in the next WAY & UKYP Election, 2012!

We can provide free transport to and from your chosen training session. If you need help with this please can you add a note on your form, or email hayley.bambrough@wiltshire.gov.uk to let us know. Please email your form back to Hayley, or post it to her at the Bridge Centre address listed.

It's that time of year again, folks! We are now taking nominations for the next round of WAY (Wiltshire Assembly of Youth) and UKYP (UK Youth Parliament) elections, due to take place in February 2012.

If you think the voice of young people deserves to be heard at the highest level, if you're driven and motivated to work to make positive changes for young people across the county, if you think you can represent your friends and peers on a county-wide platform...

THEN WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!

Any young person living or attending school in Wiltshire is eligible to nominate themselves for these elections – you don’t have to be chosen by your school or youth centre. All you need to do is fill in a nomination form and attend a training day – very simple. You can download the nomination form on this page, but there is a lot more than that involved if you do get elected and you need to consider this before you decide to stand.

WAY

If you decide to go for a position on WAY and get elected, you then become a representative for other young people in Wiltshire. This means you are in a position where you will be asked to represent the views of other young people; often to powerful decision-making panels within local government or other organisations in Wiltshire. You will need to keep talking to other young people; at your youth centre, in your local town or community to make sure you can fairly represent young people’s views – not just your own personal ones. WAY meetings are held on a monthly basis and this is where you have a chance to work in smaller groups on the issues you feel most strongly about and try and bring about change. WAY members also sit on a variety of decision making panels to make sure young people’s opinions are heard at a high level. The time commitment needed from WAY members us broken down like this: A monthly WAY meeting, one hour a week which may involve things like checking and responding to emails and attending other meetings (plus other opportunities if you want to get more involved). There is also a residential once a year for three days of training. This is the minimum that WAY members do – but many of our current members do a lot more than this but you don’t have to as it is understood that young people have busy lives!

UKYP:

If you decide you want to get involved in promoting young people’s opinions at a national level then UKYP might be for you. Every area in the UK has young people representatives who are elected locally to put forward the issues that are important for their local area. You automatically get a place on WAY if you are elected as a UKYP  Deputy Member. There are 3 places for UKYP in Wiltshire and each of these members also has a deputy to help with the workload. After your first year on UKYP as a Deputy, you have the option of becoming the Member of Youth Parliament for your area for a further year. The work is very similar to what we have outlined for WAY members but you get involved in regional and national meetings too. The time commitment involved in being a UKYP rep is: approximately 2 hours a week (again, this could be spent checking and responding to emails as well as other meetings); 3 weekends a year for residentials, one regional meeting every 6 weeks and monthly WAY meetings.

If you're interested in finding out more about WAY or UKYP, why not fill out a nomination form and come and talk to us at one of the training sessions in December.

Date Posted: Monday 31 October 11

Author: Hayley Bambrough-Bailey

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