CLIC Awards & 21 Years Of The UNCRC @ The Senedd

Posted by Kathryn ProMo from Cardiff - Published on 20/11/2010 at 17:10
10 comments » - Tagged as Culture, Dance, Education, Music, People, Technology, Topical, Volunteering

Yn Gymraeg

Young people from across Wales were invited to the Senedd in Cardiff Bay yesterday to celebrate the 21st Anniversary of the UNCRC. Cazbah organised the event for the Welsh Assembly Government, bringing together young people and organisations to celebrate children and young peoples rights and to focus on positive media in relation to young people.

Presented by Sam Ebenezer and our very own National Editorial Group member Paul Magee, the activities throughout the day provided young people with the information and knowledge to be able to access the media and put forward their own news, views and ideas.

Starting with a question and answer session using interactive voting pads, young people were asked how they feel they are portrayed and their knowledge was tested about the UNCRC the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child..and not the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Cat as a few people humorously answered!

Keith Towler, the Childrens Commissioner for Wales gave a lively and engaging speech for his young audience, at one point urging them to all make the loudest noise they could to ensure that the Assembly Ministers working in the building would most definitely hear the voices of children and young people! A clear message was conveyed that young people should feel able to express themselves without fear of negative stereotyping in the mainstream media.

A series of workshops then followed, with a choice of photography/design, journalism/reporting and an introduction to a media toolkit that has been developed to provide young people with the skills to access the media. There was also the opportunity to visit all of the organisations exhibition stands with CLIC inviting young people to be reporters and carry out video interviews on a topic of their choice. A short video edit linking all the interviews together was then shown at the end of the day.

Throughout the day, there was a fantastic mixture of entertainment provided by young people including a steel band from Oakfield Primary, Funk Fatale dance group, Cor y Cwm Choir, performing arts students from Neath Port Talbot College and yet another outstanding acoustic performance by Paul Magee. The VIBE Experience bus was also parked outside for young people to visit and explore.

Deputy Minister for Children, Huw Lewis focussed his speech upon the recognition that young people should receive for their positive achievements and accomplishments. He challenged the distorted images that are often given by the media, highlighting that these extreme examples are only based on a small minority of young people. However the impact of this is felt by ALL young people and affects every generations perception of young people.

Huw Lewis then went on to announce the winners and present the prizes for the U-News/CLIC Competition and Awards including Dylan Gallanders from Wrexham who wrote 'An Unfair Image' and the Vale of Glamorgan Youth Group for the 'Participation Rap'.

CLIC Most Inspiring Article

Chosen by registered users of CLIC, this article was voted unanimously as the most inspiring from a choice of 59 articles written by young people.

The article by Josh Lovell entitled “Give the Youth a Chance” questions why young people aren’t allowed to vote at age 16. Unfortunately Josh couldn’t be contacted in time to get him to the event so we are posting his prize to him.

Best Overall CLIC Contributor

The criteria for this award was a combination of the number of articles submitted and the young persons voluntary commitment to CLIC and its activities. The judging panel from CLIC found it impossible to choose between two dedicated and enthusiastic young people so decided that they both should win the award! Neither of them knew they had won, instead we sneakily told them that we needed them to give us a hand with CLIC on the day!

The first winner of Best Overall CLIC Contributor is Gareth John from Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Gareth was originally on a work experience placement at the beginning of CLIC’s development, during which he showed a keen interest in the project and gave ideas for developments for local county websites.

In June 2009 he was offered the opportunity to attend the first National Editorial Group residential in Denbighshire to develop the National CLIC website.

Since that time he has only missed one residential and when his local website was launched he became an active member of the Local Editorial Group for WICID.

He’s written 33 articles, regularly commenting on other young peoples submissions, offering opinions and encouragement.

Gareth is in regular contact with the National Editor for CLIC, always keen to become further involved in developments.

His article “PleaseRobMe - An Extreme Way To Prove Dangers Of Social Networking” was the highest voted article for a registered CLIC user in the Most Inspiring Article category, coming in at 2nd place overall.

He is now the Sub-Editor of WICID the local website in Rhondda Cynon Taf and presented their local developments at the recent CLIC Information Conference.

The second winner of Best Overall CLIC Contributor is Jess Preddy from Neath Port Talbot.

Jess also became involved with CLIC at the first National Editorial Group residential in June 2009 and has been instrumental in suggesting and instigating changes to our CLIC Info Section. Like Gareth she has continued her involvement and has also only missed one residential since.

She’s written 13 informative, thought provoking and inspirational articles, including one entitled 'Tarred with the Same Brush' which highlighted the way young people were portrayed negatively in media. She also regularly comments on the articles of other young people as well as promoting CLIC wherever she goes.

When the MEIC Advocacy, Information and Advice service was preparing to launch, Jess volunteered to help test the line and the advisors to ensure that they would be prepared to deal with a variety of young peoples concerns and issues. She continues to test this service from time to time!

Jess is in regular contact and readily volunteers her time and effort to assist with developments and activities.

As a presenter at the recent CLIC Information Conference, she put in an exceptional performance and developed the main presentation about CLIC and MEIC which is going on to be delivered in schools, youth centres, colleges and the next Funky Dragon residential in February 2011.

On behalf of the CLIC Team, well done and congratulations to the both of you!

All in all it was an interesting and fun day celebrating the UNCRC with a powerful and clear message the media need to switch their focus onto the positive achievements of young people, stop misrepresenting the majority and creating distorted perceptions. Give young people the credit they deserve.