Every year we promote and take part in Make Your Mark ballot run by Youth Parliament and British Youth Council. Every year, we focus on the results and feedback from Worcestershire’s young people, and we turn them into our campaigns for the upcoming year. This is known as a Manifesto. 

For 2024, the most important issues that young people decided on were: 

1. health and wellbeing - including young people’s experiences of hospitals, mental health support and support for young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)
2. crime and safety - including concerns around knife crime as well as improving online safety
3. culture, media and sport – focusing on equal access to arts and sports activities

Find out more about what young people said is important to them, and what we’re working on in response to this by reading our: 

• Youth Cabinet Manifesto 2025 (PDF)

Youth Cabinet meetings are held once a month and a wide range of issues that are important to young people are discussed. Members provide an update about what has been happening in their districts and discuss any projects or campaigns that are being worked on as well as any other issues that are raised. Often meetings focus on a particular theme, with officers who work in these areas invited along to hear the views of young people. 

We work with a range of services, groups and organisations to advise and assist them with relevant youth issues. This could be to:

• carry out a consultation on their behalf
• advice on accessibility of services and surrounding information
• share good practice of youth involvement

Any young person aged 11 to 18 can come along to our meetings.

Location

The meetings are in person at either Wildwood (opposite Worcester Woods County Park) or St Johns Youth Centre (opposite Sainsbury’s in St Johns, Worcester). You can also join online via Microsoft Teams. 

Of course, we also have lots of snacks! 

Official position

If you are interested in a more ‘official’ position, the Youth Cabinet has an official Chair who holds meetings and a Vice-Chair who is in charge in the event of the absence of the Chair. We are also invited to other events such as award ceremonies, interview panels and local district panels.

Members of the Youth Cabinet can also get involved with various other opportunities if they so wish. This might include giving presentations at conferences or events, attending meetings to represent the views of young people, or helping out with other relevant projects and initiatives. 

We also sometimes host informal meetings to plan and prepare for campaigns and events when they are needed. 

In the summer we also meet for a two-day residential where we have fun, plan and learn skills via workshops.

We have a responsibility to seek out the views of their constituents (young people of Worcestershire). 

This is carried out throughout the year using various methods: 

• questionnaires
• face to face interviews and
• surgeries through the county held in youth settings

You can join our mailing list by contacting us if you want to find out more about these sort of opportunities.