Youths celebrate parliament’s party

Jul 1 2009 by Jackie Grant, Dumfries Standard Wednesday

THREE members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) from Dumfries and Galloway were recently involved in celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Kirsten Cannon from Dalbeattie, MSYP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, John Brown from Dumfries and Sam Kerr, representing LGBT, joined other young people and MSYPs from all over Scotland to take part in debates, discussions, voting, and the birthday celebrations.

Saturday, June 13, kicked off with a debate on Scotland’s future before a march against climate change took place down the Royal Mile to Holyrood.

Sunday’s events consisted of elections for the SYP board members as well as conveners for each of the 10 subject committees, details of which will be updated on the SYP website over the next couple of weeks.

Dumfries and Galloway is due to run elections in November this year to elect the four MSYPs for the region.

Young people aged 14-15 are eligible to stand and nominations have to be in by September.

MSYPs and young people from the region who are involved in the SYP are supported by the council’s Youth Issues Unit.

Anyone who is interested, or would just like more information, contact the Youth Issues Unit (Rhona Stafford) on 07920528219, or email rhona.stafford@dumgal.gov.uk. You can also visit www.syp.org.uk.