Hadyn Cutler MYP

As of writing, I logged off of the BYC convention 15 minutes ago. So here’s the update.

We started off with a workshop on inclusive leadership, with speakers from Ambitious About Autism and Whizz-Kids making us question who does society see as a leader?

This formed discussions about the barriers many young people face in their journeys to taking leadership positions and what needs to change so we can ensure that all young people have a seat at the table.

After a spot of lunch, the discussion shifted to the Make Your Mark result and how we can narrow the broad category of ‘Health and Wellbeing’ down to what our local communities care about.

Enter stage left, focus groups. We received training on how we can effectively run a diverse and representative focus group that inspires conversation on what exactly the terms ‘Health’ and ‘Wellbeing’ mean to us, as well as whether the current healthcare system needs change to be better for the youth.

A break ensues, and after that we talk about the Votes At 16 movement along with the Be Seen Be Heard campaign. This involved breakout rooms involving how we could contribute and campaign.

An interesting question came from a fellow MYP, being that their MP said that they wouldn’t be supporting votes at 16 unless more young people wrote to them concerning it. This sparked an interesting discussion about campaigning and how to make ambivalent decision makers to support our cause.

The meeting quickly drew to a close, with some ending slides about upcoming opportunities.

And that’s it! That’s the update. I’ll update you all when I have more news either expanding on this or on other news I have. But, for now, it’s time for me to go have a snack.

Thanks for reading!