Cardiff Council Update: 06 May 2022

Here is the latest update from Cardiff Council, covering: if you're a young person in Cardiff, we want to hear about the topics that matter to you; our new pen pal scheme forging friendships across the generations; and coronavirus in numbers.

Cardiff Young Citizens Panel launches to engage young people on key local developments

Cardiff Council wants to hear from Cardiff's young people on key local topics that matter to them.

A Citizens Panel of local residents from across Cardiff, who give their views on a number of consultation topics throughout the year, has been in place for some time and now a Young Citizens Panel is being created for 11-25-year-olds who live in the city.

The council would like to engage with a younger panel with more specific topics and encourage young people to get involved from an early age in decision-making and local democracy. Having young people's views and input on important things happening in the city also supports the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 12: You have the right to be listened to and taken seriously.

Cardiff Council has already engaged and worked with young people when making plans around the city, such as with the One Planet strategy where they help shape the strategic response to the climate change emergency, the NextBike scheme and the Minecraft Education projects where young people have designed areas of the city for a range of strategic developments by using the virtual game platform.

Other important plans and strategies have also been developed and adapted with young people in mind, such as the Child Friendly Covid Recovery Strategy and Young People on Safeguarding where young people were heavily involved in the strategy's vision, principles, goals and the visualization of the animation. Cardiff Council also runs the Child Friendly Cardiff Pupil Survey across all schools to gather young people's views and help influence decisions about where they live, the services that they use and the future development of the city.

Young Citizens Panel members will have the chance to share their views by completing surveys and occasionally taking part in other activities like focus groups, workshops, or forums. They will be asked for their input on various things happening in the city such as transport, the environment, education, health, housing, major developments, active travel, the growth of the city, the future of work and employment opportunities and more.

Signing up to become a member of the Young Citizens Panel, young people will:

Help the decision makers in Cardiff Council and other services across the city, such as the Health Board, Transportation and Education, to make Cardiff a better place for children and young people to grow up in.
Realise their right to be listened to under article 12 of the United Nation's Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on the issues that they are passionate about.
Help the Cardiff Youth Council to advocate for positive change and children's rights across the city of Cardiff.
Have the chance to win a £50 voucher for signing up
Have the chance to win a £50 voucher for every survey completed

A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: "It's important to get children and young people involved in the process of helping to make decisions and have their voice heard on the issues that they are really passionate about. It will not only give them confidence and engage them by actively making a change to the city in which they live, but also encourage them to express their views and play a part in local democracy early on."

To find out more about the Cardiff Young Citizens Panel and to sign up please click here:
https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ENG/Your-Council/Have-your-say/Cardiff-Citizens-Panel/Pages/default.aspx

The Cardiff Young Citizens Panel closely aligns with the city's ambition to becoming an internationally recognised Child Friendly City, as recommended by the UK Committee for UNICEF.

Friendships forged across the generations in city pen pal scheme

The art of letter writing could be considered on the wane in our digital age but not for a group of Cardiff schoolchildren and residents of some of the city's care homes.

Children from Millbank Primary School in Ely and St Joseph's RC Primary School in Gabalfa have been putting pen to paper, exchanging correspondence, and building new friendships with older members of the community who live at The Forge Care Centre, Heol Don Nursing and Residential Centre and Ely Court Care Home.

The intergenerational pen pal scheme has been organised by the city's Hubs and Libraries service and is one of the many initiatives delivered by the service as part of the city's work to become more Age Friendly.

In March, Cardiff became the first authority in Wales to join the World Health Organization's Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities.

And last week, during the first Global Intergenerational Week and having exchanged letters over the past two years, the scribes finally came face to face when Year 6 pupils from Millbank visited the Forge Care Centre.

The two generations enjoyed the sunshine, playing games together in the centre's garden including tiddlywinks, Connect 4, Robot Boy, armchair golf and snakes and ladders.