Young YMCA residents have their say in Parliament

A group of young people from YMCAs across the country travelled to Westminster on Tuesday 9 December to take part in a national debate on the issue of youth homelessness.

The Youth Homeless Parliament has been set up to give young people who have experienced homelessness an opportunity to influence national and regional policy and services. It is made up of young people aged 16-25 who are homeless or who have experienced homelessness.

Young people from YMCAs including YMCA West London, Romford YMCA, YMCA Black Country, YMCA Worcestershire, Doncaster YMCA, City YMCA London, YMCA North Staffordshire and YMCA Bedfordshire all took part in the debate, and addressed fellow members of the group along with Government Ministers.

Together the young people presented a manifesto, which covered 10 areas including involvement, education, employment, training, support, housing, heath, benefits and criminal justice.

In the same week, five young residents from YMCA Birmingham also attended the House of Commons to put their own experiences of homelessness, debt and education to ministers including Jack Dromey MP, John Bercow MP and Tristram Hunt MP, Shadow Minister for Education.

Sabrina, a young resident from Romford YMCA who attended the Youth Homeless Parliament event said: “It was a fantastic experience to be able to talk to Government Ministers and for them to hear some of our stories. It isn’t often young people going through homelessness have an opportunity to say how we’re feeling but through the Youth Homeless Parliament we really did get that chance. I hope the Ministers read our recommendations and do something about them – as it is genuinely what we think would improve our situations.”