What is a Youth Council?
A Youth Council is a team of young people, typically aged 16-24, who represent the population of young people in their area, making their views heard and becoming part of decision-making processes. In football, Youth Councils exist across the FA, County FA’s and clubs across the country. Each Youth Council has their own agenda, but ultimately aims to provide young people with a voice, to make change happen now and positively influence the football community.
Why are Youth Councils important?
Young people aren’t just the leaders of tomorrow, they have the energy, passion and skills to positively impact their community right now. Within football, having this representation allows organisations to make the appropriate and necessary changes needed to ensure all young people are able to access football equally and reap the benefits that the game brings. This is particularly important as young people are the largest stakeholders in the grassroots game, so we should have a voice in the decisions that impact us, as we like to say “nothing about us, without us!”.
Why would you want to be part of a youth council?
There are so many benefits to being a part of a Youth Council and for football organisations and clubs to have youth voice represented. For those of you considering becoming a part of a Youth Council, you can expect benefits such as increased personal development, having an opportunity to positively change your own and others football experience, networking opportunities, potentially representing your own County FA and many more. Football clubs and organisations can expect benefits too, including having increased representation allowing for more diverse views, increased support in tasks, events and workload and the young people can get experience whilst assisting you towards reaching your key objectives and KPI’s.
What is my role within a Youth Council?
My name is Millie Morris and I am the Community Engagement Lead (North) on The FA National Youth Council. The FA National Youth Council is a team of 15 young volunteers who work across the football national governing body, with the aim in ensuring that all young people have meaningful opportunities to develop themselves and positively impact the football community. My role specifically on the team is to support and develop the existing County FA Youth Councils to create a national network of young people. I look after all the counties in the North of England and my team, Harry Bland and Katie Sharkey, look after County FA’s in the Midlands and South respectively. We aim to have fair and equal youth representation and we want youth voice to be heard across all levels of participation. We are currently working on our webinar, which will be held in March. This webinar will allow County FA’s to understand how to build and sustain a best practice Youth Council and we hope to have as many people there, so that we can advise those who are seeking support in either creating their Youth Council or developing it even further. If you are a part of a County FA and would like to join us, please click the link here to sign up: https://project.tolunastart.com/s/Eo57M.
If you have any further questions or thoughts about Youth Councils after reading my blog, please share them in the comments below or ask them in the forums section – see you there!