On February 7, 2014, the atmosphere at the Civic Centre was electric when over 80 young people came along to speak out about what’s important to Poole’s young people.

Many candidates stood, all with great ideas and interesting topics to debate from mental health to music festivals and transport.

Candidates came from all over Poole and delivered outstanding speeches. We are proud to have been elected as your new Member of Youth Parliament and deputy for this year and we hope to represent your views effectively and improve the lives of young people all over Poole on a local, regional and national level.

To begin with, here’s a bit about us:

I’m Francesca Reed your Member of Youth Parliament for the next year. I am really excited about my role as MYP and hope to represent you to the best of my ability as well as make a positive difference to young people’s lives here in Poole.

In addition to politics and volunteering work within the community, I also have a passion for the performing arts, especially singing and have been involved in a number of shows. I also love a good debate and am currently working towards my Gold Duke of Edinburgh.

I’m Thomas Rowledge the Deputy Member of Youth Parliament for Poole. I am honoured to have been voted in, and look forward to the upcoming year. I hope to be able to effectively represent what young people in Poole want, in order to make a difference – particularly in Mental Health which is a topic I feel strongly about. When I’m not at school or working I spend most of my time with various youth projects, although I enjoy Kickboxing and Karate, and I train on a weekly basis.

We started the year with a regional meeting in Taunton at which we met the MYPs and Deputies from all over the South West of England. During this meeting we were able to gain a greater understanding of our roles as well as take part in a question panel on the European Union with prospective MEP candidate James Cracknell and Neil Guild, Labour parliamentary candidate in Taunton Deane.

This was a great opportunity for us to find out more about how the European Union works and its significance to us as young people. For example, did you know that through being a member of the EU we are able to go to university and get a job in any other member nation such as France and Spain?

At the meeting we were also consulted on our views on rural transport by the government, and were able to present your views, such as the infrequency of buses serving rural areas, to decision makers.

Furthermore, at the regional meeting we were informed of the United Kingdom Youth Parliament’s national campaigns for this year which are: Votes at 16 and a continuation of last year’s campaign: A Curriculum for Life.

We want to hear your views, therefore we intend to hold surgeries throughout the year at secondary schools and other youth groups to find out what you want us to work on – after all we represent you so it’s your view that counts.

We have also created a survey asking you to select which issue you feel most strongly about, which we will distribute to as many young people as possible within the next couple of weeks.

This will allow us to determine the third of our local priorities. With regard to our other two local priorities these will be around mental health – developing existing support and reducing stigma and the promotion of youth involvement. This includes advertising of existing opportunities such as £5 tickets for certain shows at the Lighthouse and volunteering opportunities.

Together we look forward to representing you this year and hope we get the chance to hear your opinions and meet many of you.

Keep up-to-date with our work on Facebook: PooleUKYP or Twitter: @PooleUKYP