Eastbourne Borough Council launched the Eastbourne Youth Forum in June, with young people from all over Eastbourne invited to attend.
The first meeting was a lively discussion about activities the young people would like to take part in through the summer; they then filled in application forms to fund the activities through a new government initiative, the Youth Opportunity Fund, which is being administered locally by ESCC.
Eastbourne Borough Council Cabinet Spokesperson for Housing, Health and Community Services, Councillor Sandie Howlett says, “I am so pleased to see the positive start to the Youth Forum and hope all the young people enjoy their trips and encourage others friends to come along to the next meeting of the Youth Forum. I am delighted that so many applications were successful.”
The government have introduced the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF) and the Youth Capital Fund (YCF) to provide young people with opportunities to decide which types of positive activities they would like to be involved in. Young people of Eastbourne applied for fun, exhilarating activities and were extremely successful in receiving funding.
The following applications were successful and will take place throughout the summer. A joint application from Eastbourne Youth Forum and the Youth Development Service Duke of Edinburgh group based at Eastbourne Technology College received £1,068 for a trip to Thorpe Park. Young people in Willingdon Trees applied for £2,443 to go overnight fishing and go-karting. A group from Hampden Park put in a bid to go on a camping trip that would include outdoor activities such as rock climbing and abseiling and have obtained the £2,046 to start planning this trip. Kingsmere attained £1,690 to go fishing and go-karting over the summer holidays. Numerous other young people who applied through other youth organisations throughout the town were also successful.
The future of the forum is in the hands of the young people who attend as they can decide what the forum will be called, how future meetings should be structured and what topics should be discussed.
It was suggested at the first meeting that future meetings should be linked to a fun activity.
All local secondary schools will be invited to send a representative to the next forum meeting due to take place during September. Any young person aged between 13 – 19 years of age wishing to attend future forum meetings should contact Eastbourne Borough Council’s Community Services department on 415441.
