YLT attend Diana Awards

 

The topic that I felt most engaged in and related more to was on the issues that prevent young people from volunteering. Most young people had strong opinions on this and some of the barriers brought up were transport, lack of motivation and poor promotion of volunteering to young people. When asked what the solutions to these problems might be, young people thought that it would be more helpful if schools played a major role in encouraging young people to volunteer more and possibly make it part of the curriculum. Also offering incentives like getting their transport paid for or getting vouchers could also encourage them to take on volunteering roles.

Accreditation like the v50 volunteering award could also be given as a sign of recognition to the young volunteers.

 

Another topic discussed that was closer to my heart was on how young people could tackle the negative perception on them in the media. This is because everyday there is always something bad about a young person revealed; in the newspapers, news magazine, just everywhere.

I enjoyed myself at this session and would definitely urge people to attend events like this because you never know what impact you will be making just by being there. All the action points we spoke about were passed to an MP who will pass it to the next government to consider. It was awesome!!