A couple of weeks ago now a number of members, including our Youthforia representative Glen, met with our MP Sir Tony Cunningham for a chance to discuss his work, As well as this we're recently gone into full production of an event we're looking to hold in the near future.

We met with Sir Tony at the Inspira Workington office to discuss his work, such as his United Nations work on landmines, the inner workings of Parliament, and his drive to give young people a say in local government. In addition we discussed what he's done for young people in the area, and what we could to to get more young people involved with local government in the area. 

In addition to this he gave us some funding ideas, including how we could get some funding for an event we are looking to hold in the near future: a 'celebrating youth' event. This would be a chance to get together some of the people that facilitate youth work and engagement in Allerdale, as well as handing out a number of grants on behalf of Cumbria Council.

Although more information will be released in the very near future, as well as invitations to a number of recipients to the event, we can confirm that we have a sum of money to distribute to a number of worthy receivers in the area, and have been looking at  number of  local venues to hold the event. Invitations will be distributed shortly.

In the coming days all of our sites will be updated to our new logo. In the process of being finalised by the designer, as well as some of our members, it will give us a chance to revamp our image as we move forward.

We've had a couple of new members join us over the past month or so, and some of our existing members have recently had a chance to move up the ladder, attending events such as Youthforia (the Northwest Youth Forum) as well as Cumbria wide events. These events are a great chance to meet other young people from around the country who share a similar passion to make a difference at all levels, be that locally or nationwide.

One such opportunity is the UK Youth Parliament's "Curriculum for Life" campaign, which aims to ensure that PSHE and Citizenship is taught to a national level to all students. In regards to this we helped to publicize the campaign as well as distributing the petitions to schools across the borough. One of our members, Glenn, was lucky enough to provide the highest number of petition signatures in the North West and therefore got a very nice chocolate cake, which was promptly eaten by other youth council members.

In terms of events we've now gained a better understanding of just how far in advance things need to be planned when hoping to get into events such as Solfest, whilst looking to hold a stall there we found out that we simply need to get in there earlier when it comes to bookings. However we were lucky enough to get a place at Wigton's "Something for the Summer", where we'll be holding a free prize draw for anyone who enters our competition, it promises to be a good day,Saturday 3rd August is a date for your diaries if you're in the Wigton area!

At today's Youth Council meeting, held at Cockermouth Methodist church, we elected 3 of our members to Cumbria Youth Council. Congratulations to Hannah, Kerry and Leon. We look forward to seeing what impact we can have at the County, and even higher, level!

After a year of working with Allerdale Youth Council our youth worker, Rachel, has decided to move on to bigger and better things. Everyone at AYC wishes her the best.

We also look forward to working with her replacement, who is been interviewed at the moment, who will be starting in December.

With only 3 days to go until A Very British Affair the pieces are beginning to come together, The venue, St Micheals Activity Centre, has been booked; Most people have been invited, and the supplies are being bought as we speak.

The venue will be set up on Friday, with the final work being done on the Saturday morning. It should be a great event!

The event will run from 12 - 3pm on Satyrday 9th June, it will have a 1950's theme with a lot of gamea and activities for both younf and old to enjoy. The catering has been provided and we have a great local artist, who works in theraputic music, to provide the entertainment for part of the day.

Here we will try to keep you up to date with what we are doing at Allerdale Youth Council.