HYPER
(Horsham’s Young Peoples Empowered Representatives) is a Youth Council where
young people meet regularly to share issues which affect them in the Community.
Working together, we try to make a change and positive impact on the lives of
young people within the Horsham community. There are currently 14 members, but
more people are joining each month. We would welcome more members, so that we
can progress and get involved with more projects for young people. Although our
title is Horsham Youth Council, we are not directly involved with Horsham
District Council, but come under the umbrella of HTCP (Horsham Town and
Community Partnership), which means that we are mostly self-funded and all
adult workers are volunteers and have help from Community Youth Work (CYW).
Over
the past year we have been very busy doing lots of work such as raising money
for charities that benefit young people and investigating issues such as
lighting in the park. We feel strongly that young people need to have a voice
in their community and that their opinions need to be heard with regard to such
issues which affect our daily lives. It was arranged that someone from Horsham
District Council came to speak to us to explain their side of the argument with
regard to more lighting in the Park, and it was during this meeting that we
realised that it was not just a yes or no decision. The problems of
wildlife and cost were discussed which gave us more understanding of both sides
of the argument. After hearing both sides, we are hoping to come up
with a solution which meets with the agreement of all parties.
We
have meetings every 2 weeks where we will target various issues and share our
opinions. However it is not all about meetings, as recently we had a training
day where we all learnt about the work of the Parish, District and County
Councils, and how to be better representatives. Through HYPER you can see the
world of youth politics and can learn how the political system works. You can
also move onto more youth councils like the West Sussex Youth Cabinet and the
Youth Parliament. I myself, through HYPER, have been able to speak with many
decision makers such as MPs and Councillors.
Have
you ever thought that something needs to be changed for young people? Well
maybe you should join HYPER. If you are interested please use our contact form
on the home page.
Dominic
Member of HYPER
