The UK Youth Parliament provides opportunities for those between the ages of 11 and 18 to use their voices, to bring about social change through meaningful representation and campaigning.
SSNC is proud to update you on the latest connection with our community and the HYPP (Hull Young People’s Parliament).
On Wednesday 5th April 2023, some attendees from our community headed over to the Freedom Centre on Preston Road for the very first HYPP ‘Roadshow’.
Attendee and member of Youth Parliament, Ryder Thompson. Shared a film that displaying the importance of all people having a platform, for change, and opportunity. The film focused on visibility for those people in the area belonging to LGBTQIA communities and a few of the barriers these people have come up against. In particular, the aim was in educating the room on the usage of pronouns and neopronouns when there are people who do not fit the societal binary in gender.
Some of our young people in attendance also took part in workshops that followed on from the presentations. They created a campaign tree, literally and figuratively expressing the various branching arms that happen when creating campaigns for the above film watched and discussed, as well as other campaigns that would benefit their community — SSNC included.
This stemmed onto the creation of a list of local actions they felt were important to the area. In particular, they highlighted the importance of the community coming together to support one another in the form of a Neighbourhood Watch group. They stated they felt schemes such as this should not just be funded and reserved for more affluent areas.
They also highlighted other points for their community for improvement of the safety and better mobility in the area, including:
*More bins around
*More street-lighting
*Big, safe parks
*Make main roads safer
*Transport issues (As a branch off main point from road safety.)
This list is by no means exhaustive in what branched from the topics. As you can see, they are very self-aware that their area does not always receive funding, that is equivalent or close, to more affluent parts of the city and surrounding areas. They know what needs to be done to help one another in the community, and they are using their voices through HYPP to help. They are astute enough to notice the fostering of currently inefficient supports in place as well. When they addressed issues surrounding their environment alongside their physical and mental well-beings.
What proved to be important was: free food for kids, the removal of plastic cups from school, and bullying – where those in attendance of local schools feel they should have more of a say as to what constitutes the label.
The young people showed again how astute they were in recognising their environment in respect of: looking after the welfare of one another, the state of affairs in leaving their carbon footprint, and views of relations between themselves and their cohorts (including other students, teachers and respective guardians).
And that’s not all. After taking part, as usual, the young people involved with the HYPP Roadshow were encouraged to give their feedback on the processes involved on the day.
Here is just one of the many previous campaigns our young people have been involved and voted on:
IN 2018, over 130,674 young people voted about the need to have a Curriculum for Life. What does this mean? Young people are saying that the education system needs to do a lot more to prepare them for life after school and college! (Something that’s still highlighted in many a debate to this day.)
The aim of HYPP (Hull Young People’s Parliament) then, was to raise awareness of the importance of a Curriculum for Life for all young people.
- To help schools know what young people need from PSHE.
- To keep young people at the heart of the changes being made to PSHE.
- Gain the support of decision-makers on our calls for a curriculum that prepares us for life.
- Every quarter, we at SSNC take up to 6 young people to youth parliament, giving them an understanding of the many layered processes involved in voting. The young people take time out of school in doing this, taking their educational traversing outside the walls of their classrooms.



During the month of October 2023, the SSNC were once again invited to bring along some of our young people into Hull’s Young People’s Parliament.
Four of our very own members came along to share their voices about local issues, as well as elevating the voices of their peers. You can see below some images, just a small selection of snapshots showcasing: their involvement, their engagement, their tenacity to come together for their local area, and their sheer enthusiasm for a positive future — to improve upon the world they would like to see set before them. This event is an opportunity to create opportunities for themselves. Well done team, we are super proud of you.
Edited by: Emma Penfold – Hall, 14th November 2023