Glasgow Communities support election of new representatives to the Scottish Youth Parliament

The Youth Engagement and Participation section of the Youth and Community Development team have supported 14 young people to be elected to represent their peers across Glasgow as Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament. MSYPs are aged between 14 and 25 and are democratically elected every two years, with two MSYPs representing each Scottish Parliament constituency.

The team supported the young people by providing training that helped them campaign on the issues that they believe in. As part of the election process, the team organised a Declarations Event at the end of January in the St Francis Centre in the Gorbals, which was attended by the young people standing, parents and friends, former MSYPs, representatives from GCC Education Services and Councillor Christina Cannon, Chair of the Education Committee at Glasgow City Council.

More than 350 young people voted for the successful candidates in four constituencies. The new MSYPs have just taken up their positions and are looking forward to bringing issues like education, poverty and health and wellbeing to the attention of local and national decision-makers in the coming months.

Harvey, aged 16 described his feelings on being elected: "I feel delighted to be an newly-elected MSYP and I'm looking forward to supporting the young people in my constituency. I want to work towards everyone living healthily and promote opportunities for young people in my constituency to do this. I'd like to thank the team at Glasgow Life for their support."

Andrew Olney, Director of Libraries, Sport and Communities said: "It's great that these young people have stepped up to represent their peers to voice the issues and concerns of young people in Glasgow City. We look forward to working with and supporting them over the next two years as we all work to improve the lives of young Glaswegians."