Omar Kassam’s Blog

Today, I had the pleasure and privilege of being a panel speaker at the Scaling Up to reach Net Zero conference, organised by the North West Net Zero Hub & Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. There were four panel sessions during the day: Climate Urgency; Scaling Up; Finance; and Leadership. I sat on the Scaling Up panel. I spoke about the lack of climate education in the UK curriculum, and the importance of teaching these topics to all ages. Many people don't know the reality and the dangers of climate change, and why it is essential that we do everything we can as individuals to contribute to the Net Zero targets. From my point of view, climate education is just as, if not more, important than the content on the PSHE curriculum. For many people, information around this topic is inaccessible due to the amount of jargon, and in many cases the formats of the information that are available. Policies are accessible online, but many don't know where to start when reading ...

Today, the National Youth Combined Assembly (NYCA) met in-person for the first time, in Friends' Meeting House, Manchester. The agenda included a redefinition of the purpose of the national organisation, which brings together Youth Combined Authority members from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire, as well as representatives from Greater London Youth Council. We will adopt a new strapline,  Young Changemakers , which provides a basic definition of our work, and what we hope to achieve as an organisation. NYCA has previously worked on projects involving Transport, Net Zero Carbon, and Votes at 16. A number of topics were brought up today, and we've agreed on Employment and Opportunities as an umbrella term for our work, from which projects can be arranged.

2022 has been a year full of opportunities which I'm so grateful to have had. I'm extremely proud of all that I've achieved this year, and would like to thank my family, friends, teachers, youth workers and colleagues who are always there to support me. 2022 was the year that we were able to get the Liverpool City Region Youth Combined Authority up and running. At the time of writing in December 2022, the YCA have settled in extremely well since we first met in August . We are looking forward to working more closely with Mayor Steve and policy leads in the new year to help feed into the CA's policies. Liverpool City Region Youth Combined Authority, September 2022 Over at Liverpool City Council, the Child Friendly City campaign was relaunched, and we're working to promote this as best we can in 2023 as we progress with the steps to gain CFC status for the city. I also had the absolute privilege of chairing Young People's Question Time  at Liverpool Town Hall , wh...

Today the newly appointed young representatives from Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral met with Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram. This was the first meeting of the Liverpool City Region Youth Combined Authority. The Youth Combined Authority will serve for a two year period with our contracts lasting until July 2024, with the potential to renew by reapplication and reselection for the next cohort. It was amazing to meet so many new inspiring young people today, as well as catch up with colleagues, and I hope to get to know them all better and begin working with them properly in September. Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region and leader of the Combined Authority said: The Youth Combined Authority is all about giving a platform to the nearly 350,000 young people who call our city region home – and making sure their voice is heard. Too often, young people have been overlooked by decision makers, excluded from the debate on important decisions that ...