Archive Section - The Big Intr

The Big Intro

The Youth Citizenship Commission

The Youth Citizenship Commission was set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008 to look at ways of developing young people’s understanding of citizenship and increasing their participation in politics. The 13 Commissioners were asked to find out what Citizenship means to young people and how our political system can best listen and respond to their concerns.

You can find out more about the Commissioners taking part in the debate by clicking on the Who's listening link on the left.

What happened in the first debate?

HeadsUp held the first debate on the Youth Citizenship Commission in November 2008 - and all your ideas, opinions and suggestions were fed into the Commission’s final report – so you’ve got to tell Gordon Brown what you think through this Commission!

You all said in that debate that you found politics boring, too complicated and not relevant to your lives. The media was also blamed by a lot of you for making Parliament and politics seem much more complicated than necessary. Many of you said that the lack of clear, simple information available for young people intensified the idea that politics wasn’t for you or that adults were purposefully excluding you from politics. There was little awareness that citizenship was compulsory in secondary schools or that it was linked to politics. All of you SHOULD be taught citizenship but not all that many of you thought that you were. More political education was one of the solutions suggested by you on the forum to combat apathy or ignorance.

Why are we having a second forum?

The Youth Citizenship Commission has been carrying out more and more research into the subject of engaging young people in Citizenship and politics. In particular, the Commission has been looking at the crucial role of community engagement – which basically means getting everyone involved in doing things together for their local area to make it a nicer place to live.

The first week of the forum and the Fuel for Thought BackUp section will give you some information about what the Commission found out through their talks with young people up and down the country. It will also give you the opportunity to discuss their findings and ideas with other HeadsUp users, politicians and the Commissioners.

In the second week the Commission will be reporting their recommendations directly to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. They will then be sharing with you what they think should happen next to improve citizenship and how young people view politics. The Commissioners want to know what you all think of their suggestions and whether you think they’ll work in your area.

HeadsUp is here for you to have your say about the Commission’s suggestions. Visit the forum and tell them what you think….

Key questions in the forum

The threads in the forum focus on what the Youth Citizenship Commission found out about the problems young people have with citizenship and politics. In the second week a fourth thread will be opened to talk about the recommendations as they are launched.

Your community – how do you want to be involved in your area? How could your local area be improved for young people? How can the adults in your community involve you?

Generational trust – do you feel that older people look down on young people? Do you think it’s important to hear from older people and for them to hear from you? Would you like to volunteer with older people? Do you think they would trust you more if you did?

Citizenship education – do you think you get citizenship education at your school? Are you taught what you need to know about politics? How could your teachers encourage citizenship at your school? Have you done any good projects in Citizenship classes? Are citizenship lessons active enough?