On Monday 3rd of December, the Wishaw/Shotts Youth Forum had their Annual General Meeting. Three pupils from our school, Christopher Winters, Wiktoria Orlicka and Leo Joseph are all part of the Youth Forum, Christopher being the Chair, Wiktoria being the Vice Chair and Leo being the Social Media representative. The Youth Forum has 8 members, 3 from St Aidans High, 3 from Coltness High and 2 from Clyde Valley High.
The Youth Forum invited a few special guests to the AGM, including Robert Owen, the new HSPO in our school, Robert Wilson, CLD worker for the Wishaw/Shotts locality, 3 members of the Wishaw, Mourdouston and Fortissat Community Forum as well as local MSP Clare Adamson.
The AGM was introduced by the Chair, Christopher Winters, welcoming all the guests. Then everyone was given a report from the Treasurer Scott Hamilton, where he told everyone on how much the Youth Forum has spend throughout the year.
Afterwards, Clare Adamson did a talk on her work with young people, and how proud she is that we as young people take time out of our day to help make a change in their locality.
Following that, Christopher gave the Chairs report, talking about the things the forum have done throughout the year, and how they took on the mental health issues in their area, to create their Mental Health conference and how we want to continue that work in the year ahead.
Next, it was time for the board to stand down from their roles.
Gordon Swinton, the support worker for the Youth Forum, has then called out for the interest of the roles for the next year, and it couldn’t have run smoother.
All of the members of the previous board stood for re-election and all took their roles back up.
Finally, Christopher concluded the AGM by once again thanking the invited guests and offering people a copy of both reports given at the AGM and inviting them to enjoy the hospitality provided by the Forum.
By Christopher Winters and Wiktoria Orlicka
It’s great to see how committed our students are to working in the local community.
Great to see Leo get so involved through his volunteering for DofE.
I am really encouraged by the enthusiasm of the young people in the locality youth forum. All the more so by senior pupils in St Aidans representing the school and the community. As a local resident I recognise the importance and necessity of having young people represented in the local and wider community and letting the voices of young people be heard.
Thanks for the comment Mr Owen.:-)