Commissioner commends Youth Health Conference

In her opening remarks the Commissioner commended the young people who organised the event and linked the importance of the conference theme "Health Matters" with aspects of work at her organisation NICCY. The Commissioner highlighted how her work ensures the voice of young people is heard by key decision makers and how the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child plays a major part in ensuring children and young people's rights are met.

Work-shops delivered in the morning at the conference included the themes of Teen Pregnancy, Road Safety, Alcohol Awareness, Positive Mental Health and Anti-Bullying. The work-shop themes were developed by a planning group of Youth Council members from across the WELB area and delivered to their peers by them on the day. The quality of the work-shops was evident in the feedback at the end of the day and by the recommendations coming forward which will be fed through to key decision makers.

This did not go unnoticed by the WELB Head of Youth Service Gerard Doran, who, in his address to the conference, highlighted the truly vocational nature of the commitment being given by Youth Council members. This was in regard to the establishment of a two year cycle for all Youth Councils in WELB and the associated dedication and commitment required by all involved.

The afternoon session helped the delegates to focus on lobbying and campaigning skills and provided creative thinking on how to bring forward recommendations from the conference work-shops.

Members are presently working on developing a conference report and a strategy for delivering key recommendations to decision makers.