Harrison Carter - First Blog - My thoughts.

Hello everyone reading this, I'm one of the five MYPs blogging about the UK Youth Parliament House of Commons Event.

I thought I'd begin by telling everybody a bit about myself. I'm Harrison Carter, 16 years old, from Sheffield. In Sheffield, we're running two local campaigns regarding Mental Health Facility Accessibility - Looking at the difficulties young people face when accessing Mental Health Facilities. These difficulties could stem from lack of confidence, lack of awareness of the facilities, how they help or their location. The other campaign is Political Participation - This is investigating through a series of events, how engaged young people are engaged, and how they could further engage in politics.

The UKYP House of Commons event is something that astounds even the most sceptical of people. It's something that, although you may not feel it, is truly making history. It's a given that many of us will one day become politicians or perhaps work in a environment surrounded by politics, policies and the co ordination of services in the country. This may at some point give us the chance to debate in the House. What makes the 30th October more special than that, is that we're young people. We're the ones some people believe to have lost it, to work against everything good and to cause problems in our local neighbourhoods.

So, in relation to that false outlook many people have, it's important for us to fulfill three objectives. The first one is to set a standard for all young people. We may be politically engaged and therefore appreciate the importance of this event. Many young people aren't, so we must set a standard showing what we can achieve and showing other young people what they can achieve.

Second, we must represent the views of those we were elected by. This means it's important to talk to local young people, get them on board, and get their views heard in one of the most famous debating chambers in the world.

Third, we must show and prove that young people are willing to work for their views to be heard, that we have the ability to represent those our own age, and take discussions and debates right to the end. We need to first break a stereotype and we can, I know we can!! Let's influence policy makers, influence the general public, and more importantly, influence the passion for change in other young people.

Get in contact with your local press, newspapers, radio and TV news. Show them how important this is, and on a national scale, this kind of press coverage will really show we will change what we believe needs to be changed.

Thanks,

Harrison