Celebrating Universal Children’s Day at the Young Wales Festival 2022

On Saturday, 19 November 2022 Children in Wales celebrated Universal Children’s Day at our annual Young Wales Festival event at St Fagans, Cardiff. The event was open to all children and young people in Wales and provided an opportunity for them to engage directly with decision makers, including the Deputy Minister for Mental Health & Wellbeing, Lynne Neagle MS, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Rocio Cifuentes, and Senior Civil Servants from Welsh Government. The event was kindly supported by the National Museum of Wales, Amitech IT, Limegreen Tangerine, Citrus HR and Darwin Gray LLP.

Our young volunteers, acting as Chairs and Presenters, had this to say about the event overall:

“It was about connecting young people and decision makers.
The culture of children’s rights was flowing through the event and grounding the conversations.”
 
“It was nice to meet young people from other parts of the organisation and hear about what they have been working on.”
 

The day began with some amazing performances from Anthem. Music Fund Wales’ young people and the bussling exhibition area was full of stands that had something different to offer and share with everyone. Throughout the day, our Young Wales volunteers gave presentations on key priority areas to the audience and officials from Welsh Government. Attendees also had the chance to ask the volunteers and officials questions about the issues raised after the presentations.

Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the survey that the group co-created with Young Wales staff, which gave children and young people across Wales an opportunity to have their say on a range of important issues. If you would like to learn more about the UNCRC and Children’s Rights in general, please follow this link.

The National Participation Standards Young Inspectors discussed what their roles mean to them, and their experiences of being Young Inspectors. After the event, one young inspector said “I enjoyed meeting different people and the Welsh Government.” If you would like to learn more about the Standards, please follow this link.

Education and Social Justice Special Interest Group (SiG) members spoke about the SiG’s main priorities – mental health, poverty and gender identity and discrimination - as well as Welsh Government consultations that the group have been involved with.

 

UN Committee Report group members talked about the United Health and Social Services SIG/National Youth Stakeholders Group (NYSG) members discussed the groups’ priorities and suggested next steps to Lynne Neagle MS, on how to improve mental health support for young people. One young person who delivered in this session said “It was good showing everyone that was there what we had been working on, like the COVID 19 toolkit and the Reading Well List.” The young person Chair of this group said “It was fun to network and talk to the Ministers and show Lynne what we have been working on around mental health.”

The delegates also attended interactive workshops delivered by experts on issues relevant to young people. Some saw how young people have influenced the focus of St Fagans, whilst others learnt more about the UNCRC from the Young Wales team. Following this, some heard about the impact of nature on health and how they can protect and engage with nature, while others discussed the concept of global citizenship and its relationship to issues like climate change.

The Welsh Government Children and Young People’s Plan, released in March 2022, was the focus of the Young Wales exhibition stand. Complete with a big colourful target, a bouncy ball, and lots of fun prizes, our Bullseye game explored the 7 young-person-centred goals of the CYP plan. The stall opened up conversations with young people about the UNCRC, as well as the work carried out by Young Wales and Children in Wales. It even led to more in-depth discussions with visitors to St Fagans about volunteering opportunities at Young Wales.

Our exhibition stand was one of many that young people could visit during the day to learn more about the various charities, projects and programmes that support children and young people in Wales, including our Museum Project display. Young people from across Wales submitted their photography, poems and artwork to the project, all based on the theme, ‘What do children’s rights mean to you?’ Our Young Wales volunteers presented the fantastic submissions to Rocio Cifuentes and Welsh Government officials and showcased all the hard work that young people from across Wales had put it.

 

Overall, the Young Wales Festival offered a wonderful day out in honour of Universal Children’s Day. It provided our volunteers with a platform to share their amazing work, get involved in some great workshops, and a chance to meet significant Welsh decision-makers. Most importantly, it celebrated the rights of children and young people, ultimately resulting in a “good day, a good experience.”