Young People's Question Time event - November 2022

The Council Chamber, Liverpool Town Hall, full of young people who joined us to ask the panel their questions.

Yesterday evening I was absolutely honoured to MC the Young People's Question Time event at Liverpool Town Hall. It was such an amazing experience to host the event and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to do so.

The evening was centred around the UNICEF Child Friendly Cities initiative (you can find out more information about this here), and the badges that Liverpool City Council needs to earn. These are: Co-operation and Leadership; Culture; Communication; Healthy Living; Equality and Inclusion; and Place.

Our panel consisted of professionals from each area and who represented each badge:

  • Dr Rob Noonan, Reader of Health at University of Bolton
  • Sonia Bassey MBE, Chair of Mandela8 and Africa Oye
  • Councillor Harry Doyle, Cabinet Member for Culture and Visitor Economy
  • Stephen Reddy, Head of Children and Young People's Services at Liverpool City Council
  • Gill Bainbridge, Director of Merseyside Youth Association
  • Sergeant Maciej Matusiak, Merseyside Police Community Engagement
A massive thanks to Councillor Frazer Lake who opened and closed the event, and for being so supportive when I was planning the event. It was great to finally meet!

The panel

The turnout to the event was incredible; we had almost a full council chamber of young people eager to ask their questions to the panel! We were overwhelmed with the number of questions asked, and I really do apologise if you had a question and weren't given the opportunity to ask it. I hope in this case, you either wrote it down and passed it to one of our team members, or emailed it to us on CFC@liverpool.gov.uk. Your questions really are important to us, and we will make sure every question we received is sent to the panel and the answers fed back to you.

#YPQT2022

Finally, thank you so much to everybody who made the event possible. Especially the Targeted Services for Young People team, the Child Friendly City Engagement Team, and the Town Hall staff.

Again, I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to not only plan this event but also to host. I really hope the future sees more similar events happening, and that I'm able to have a role in planning these too!


My opening speech:

Good evening everybody, and welcome, again, to Liverpool Town Hall! Thank you so much for giving up your time this evening to attend our event, we really do appreciate it. Thanks also to those who are joining us online via the live stream. 

My name is Omar Kassam, and I will be the Master of Ceremonies for tonight's event. [I am a former Junior Lord Mayor of Liverpool, a member of the Liverpool City Region Youth Combined Authority, a young advisor to the Child Friendly City team and a student at Liverpool College.] Most importantly, I am passionate about youth voice which is what brings us here today.

This evening’s event is centred around the UNICEF Child Friendly City status, which Liverpool City Council is currently working to achieve. UNICEF defines a Child Friendly City as a city committed to improving the lives of children within their jurisdiction by realising their rights as articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This is an opportunity for young people to ask questions based around the six badges that the city needs to earn in order to be considered Child Friendly. These are: Co-operation and Leadership; Culture; Communication; Healthy Living; Equality and Inclusion; and Place.

As this is a youth voice event, no questions from the adults in the room will be answered. For those who have joined the event online, if you do have any questions at any point during the evening please put them in the chat and I can ask these on your behalf.

Please share that you’re attending on social media using the hashtag #YPQT2022. You can also tag @YouthVoiceLpool, who are organising the event, and myself @OmarKassamLCR.

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