Young Citizens' Action Agenda

The Young Citizens' Action Agenda is a campaign led by the Institute for citizenship to give young citizens the voice and skills to produce solutions for the 21st Century. The campaign, which is supported by the BBC, BT, Mentorn Media (Question Time Producers), City of London Corporation, GLA, Parliamentary Education Service, Steljes Technology and The Evening Standard, aims to provide young citizens with the information and skills they need to face the challenges of the 21st Century. [http://citizen.org.uk/youngcitizens/agenda.html]

The Young Citizens' Action Agenda launched with the Young Citizens' Action Event hosted by Huw Edwards at Central Hall, Westminster on Thursday 10th July 2008 for 1,400 14-19 year olds. In the evening the audience stayed on for a very special edition of Question Time hosted by David Dimbleby, which was produced by 8 student producers who won the Schools Question Time Challenge (supported by the BBC, the Institute for Citizenship and BT). [http://citizen.org.uk/youngcitizens/youngcitizens.html]

The Event also featured guest appearances by an array of high profile opinion formers including Andrew Marr, Nik Wood, Mark Easton, Hardeep Singh Kohli, Ed Miliband MP, Iain Duncan Smith MP, Sir Mike Rake, Michael Cassidy CBE and the Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson. The Evening Standard called the event "groundbreaking" in an article about the day. Huw Edwards was also very impressed by the audience of young citizens who attended and took part in the day, "We have a generation who are enthusiastic about accepting responsibilities with their rights, which has got to be good". [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23515048-details/Knife+crime+tops+agenda+at+Westminster+youth+summit/article.do] In an exclusive article about the event the Institute for Citizenship's President, David Dimbleby, spoke about the importance of promoting Politics, Economics and Citizenship, "The importance of involving young people in political decision-making is greater than ever. Globally and locally we face new and complex challenges - it is important that everyone takes part in the debate." [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23514643-details/2%2C000+youth+envoys+draft+action+plan+for+leaders/article.do]

After the Young Citizens' Action Event the Institute for Citizenship created two Young Citizens Panels, one for London and one for the whole of the UK. These panels will use the information from the Young Citizens' Say Survey (provided by the audience) and the ideas from the Action Event to create Young Citizens' Action Agendas that will be presented to the Prime Minister and Mayor of London in October 2008. [http://citizen.org.uk/youngcitizens/youngcitizens.html]