THREE RIVERS DISTRICT COUNCIL

Notes of a meeting of the Youth Council held in the Penn Chamber, Three Rivers House, Northway, Rickmansworth on Tuesday 6 October 2009 from 5.30pm to 7.05pm.

Attendees

Rachel Marber (Chairman) / Amy Hardstaff / Jessica Marber
Georgina McCooke / Jack McCooke / Tejal Mehta
Elsie Ring / Laura Thompson / Zoe Whitman

Three Rivers District Council:

Councillor Ann Shaw OBE

Councillor Paula Hiscocks

Emma Robinson

Sarah Haythorpe

1.WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

The Chairman, Rachel Marber, welcomed everyone to the Youth Council and thanked them for their attendance. Members were asked to introduce themselves.

2.NOTES OF THE LAST MEETING

The notes of the last meeting held on 23 June 2009 were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

3.ANN McDONNELL – COUNSELLING AVAILABLE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The Chairman introduced Ann McDonnell, a School Counsellor, who would be providing information on counselling services available for young people. It was noted that earlier in the year, the Youth Council had raised the subject of suicide and requested a speaker come along to talk about the help that was available for young people who need somebody to talk to.

Ann McDonnell advised Members on the various issues involved with people thinking of committing suicide, the support and counselling services which were available to young people, some key facts on the number of suicides in the UK and the reasons why young people werecommitting suicide and the impact this had on friends and family.

Members asked a number of questions including why didyoung people try to kill themselves, what impact did this have on friends and family, the stigma attached to committing suicide, should someone have noticed, not being able to say goodbye and could I have stopped them from committing suicide. Ann McDonnell advised that often people who commit suicide are depressed, lonely, feel sad, feel no one would care if they were dead, were angry but could not find someone to talk to, can see no future, have a drug or alcohol problem, are unable to talk to someone about how they feel and see no alternative.

In response to a question by Ann McDonnell on the support and counselling services available to Members at their school, some Members advised that they were unsure who they could talk to at their school, one school could talk to their Matron/Head of Pastoral Care and another school did have a Counsellor but they did not know their name.

It was agreed that contact telephone numbers for the various Counselling and support services provided for young people would be circulated to Members including details on the drop-in service provided by a local organisation called Signpost in Watfordon Saturday mornings.

Ann McDonnell said that currently she was seeing around 30 young people over 3 days a week and she was also looking to take on a Trainee Counsellor. Most students were referred for counselling services by the Head of Year, Headmaster or the students would come along and call in with a friend to request a meeting. The counselling sessions were organised due to a number of reasons including parents breaking up, bereavements, death of a school friend or misbehaviour in class.

The Chairman thanked Ann McDonnell for a very interesting talk.

4.YOUTH COUNCIL GRANTS

The Youth Council received a paper setting out applications for grants from five organisations, with information about the purposes for which any grant moneys would be used.

After a full discussion, it was agreed to make the following grants:-

Rickmansworth Waterways Trust-£300

Watford Mencap-£100

StripesAcademy-£300

Sealion Swimming Club-£300

The Youth Council agreed that the organisations which were awarded a grant would be invited to attend the next meeting of the Youth Council to talk about how the grant money had been used.

ACTION AGREED:-

that the organisations which were awarded a grant be invited to attend the next meeting of the Youth Council to talk about how the grant money had been used.

5.CAREERS ADVICE – APPRENTICESHIPS, COLLEGE, WORK!

The Chairman introduced Luke Armstrong, a Lecturer at CassioCollege in Watford, who gave a presentation on the options available to students post the age of 16. The key parts of the presentation included:

Education Levels

Where can you go after your GCSEs

School Sixth Form

Further Education Colleges

Apprenticeships

Work considerations

In response to Members questions on how to apply for part-time positions, Luke Armstrong advised that most stores had vacancy boards with details of the current vacancies, you could apply directly on the store’s website or alternatively look through the local paper. He suggested that it would be beneficial to put together a short one-page CV to hand into the local shops. A Member of the Youth Council advised that you could only apply for jobs at Marks and Spencer on their website and Sainsbury’s would not take on any student until they were in Year 11.

It was noted that some of the most successful people in business started at a junior level and progressed through the company to CEO level. Members noted that continually promoting internal staff in an organisation could make the organisation stale and it could be beneficial to appoint external people into an organisation to bring new ideas. It was noted that the number of qualifications you obtained would influence the level and pay you would receive when being appointed to a job vacancy. There was nothing to say having a degree would provide a guaranteed career as when students completed their degree at the age of 22/23 they may not have had experience of the working environment.

The Chairman thanked Luke Armstrong for his presentation.

6.CHAIRMAN FOR THE NEXT MEETING

Two nominations were put forward to Chair the next Youth Council meeting, Ami Hardstaff and Elsie Ring. On being put to vote, Elsie received 4 votes and Ami 3. It was agreed that Elsie Ring be appointed as Chairman for the next meeting of the Youth Council.

7.DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Youth Council would be held on Tuesday 9 February 2010 at 5.30pm.

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