National Youth Council Conference 2003

DCYPC bravely decided to host last's year's National Youth Council Conference at Ushaw College in County Durham and finally bring an event to the real North!

The event was held from October 31st to 2nd November and offered the opportunity to come together to celebrate and promote the work of young people.

The event was centred around the theme of 'diversity' and aimed to give young people the opportunity to explore these differences and share their experiences with others.

There was workshops on: African storytelling, music and dance

                                                   Asian costume and dance

                                                   Mask Making, Tie-dying and Batik

                                                   Racial Diversity & Equality

                                                   Global Diversity

                                                   Refugee & Asylum Seeking

We may be divided by sex, appearance, religion, culture etc. but in the end we are all young people living in the same world.  This was a fab opportunity to get away and spend time with a group of amazing people.  A full report from the conference with photos will be posted here shortly.

Young people from DCYPC and Police officers from Durham Constabulary have been working together over the past year to develop a resource and activity pack.

The young people and Police Officers involved in creating this pack felt that relationships between young people and Police Officers are often based upon negative stereotypes and stories.

The young people at DCYPC feel that most young people who hang around the streets in groups do so because it is a place they can be with their friends, independent of adults. The young people of DCYPC also recognised that many Police officers do care about young people and the issues that affect them, but they often don?t have time to talk to them or don?t know how to talk to young people.

DCYPC felt that there is a communication problem between young people and the Police and have designed the Police Pack to try and improve relations between Police and young people. The pack can be used by Police Officers with any groups of young people and includes icebreakers and other tried and tested activities to get young people and Police Officers working together.

Each area Police station has been sent a copy of the Police Pack and other copies are available from DCYPC and extracts can be looked at on the DCYPC website on the resources page.

On Saturday 7th September a joint project between DCYPC and Article 12 took place at Leech Hall in St. John's College - an event about Children's Rights.  During this event we held workshops based around children's rights but also it was for young people to have fun.  The fun workshops we decided on were: dance, drama, circus skills and art.  The serious workshops were about: learning about school councils done by Stanley School of Technology School Council, debating the issues around children's rights, done by Article 12, a workshop on having a Children's Commissioner in England by Right Here, Right Now and our own workshop on young People and the Law.

Carol Nevison, of Save the Children, and DCYPC members also did a workshop on children's rights for adults and at lunchtime we had stalls set up by national and local organisations who wanted to give out information to young people as well as henna tattooing and face painting and lots of balloons.

The aim of the event was to make other young people aware of their rights and how they can be used.  There were a lot of positive outcomes of the event as all the evaluations came back with positive comments and people went out with a smile on their face having had fun and knowing they had rights.

If you would like to find out more about your rights why not e-mail us for more information and leaflets or contact Article 12 - you can find their website on the links page.

In 1998 - 1999 DCYPC worked with Investing in Children to become a Transport Group and together wrote a report called 'Fares Fair'. This raised the issue of why young people were expected to pay full fares from the age of 14, unlike other areas of the North-East. The group spoke to Arriva and Go North East and asked if they could lower bus fares for under-16s. As a result of this work the Durham County I.i.C. card was produced entitling young people aged 14-16 to half-price fares. A result!



DCYPC thought that a lot of materials used in schools to tackle this subject wasn't really working. We wanted to make a video that that was honest and helped people talk about what it's like to be both a bully and a victim. The video was successfully launched at an event at New College Durham in October 2000. Members of DCYPC were the writers, cast and crew for the filming. We also wrote a booklet that goes with the video which can be used with the video to start discussion and get young people to come up with solutions to the problem themselves. If you would like a copy of it just go to our resources page.



We worked with Investing In Children again on the issue of leisure facilities in 1999 - 2000. Together we researched the quality, accessibility and availability and price of leisure services for young people in County Durham. A report was published on this and given to the County Council. Copies are available from Investing In Children.



In 2001 we held a debate on drugs and drug use in County Hall in Durham. Over 60 young people from all over County Durham came to the event where they heard speakers from the Drug Action Team, North-East Council on Addiction, Durham County Council and an ex-drug user and asked them questions. Lots of organisations also set up stalls and gave out leaflets and information to the audience. We would have liked more young people to attend but we still thought the day was a success in giving young people the chance to hear from experts on the issues and have their own say about it.

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