My name is Yasmin Rufo and a few months ago I was elected to be Ealing’s 5th Young Mayor. So, what is a young mayor? Put simply, a Young Mayor is a young person who is elected by other young people and my job is to make sure that they are fully represented in all local decisions affecting them. To achieve this I regularly attend meetings with councillors, work with other local community organisations, and help the youth council consult young people.
Young mayors are important in local communities as they raise the visibility of local young people and awareness of the issues affecting them. They are a high profile demonstration that the local authority is serious about changing the lives of young people in the borough.
At the Speak Out 2013 conference in Ealing
A Young Mayor acts as a stimulus for corporate commitment to and action on involving and taking account of young people within an authority. The act of having a Young Mayor crystallises the need to reference young people across services and departments. Young Mayors link individual – and communities of – young people directly with their elected representatives. They increase the influence that young people have on local decision-making: direct access to a high profile young person who has been democratically elected across the borough is a powerful tool to change the minds of opinion-formers.
Overall having a strong youth service in any local authority can have many benefits. The young people involved in the projects learn many new skills and have the opportunity to get an insight into local and national politics. Not only do the young people involved in the youth service benefit, but so does everyone else. Schools, youth services and young people themselves can get involved in electing their local youth representatives and are therefore already getting involved in the political system by voting in local elections.
I want to give young people in my community a voice, and as youth mayor, with the support of my local council, I can.
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