What Matters to You(ng People)?

That was the question the Hansard Society asked young people at People & Politics day in Westminster last week. Organised by Unlock Democracy, People & Politics day brought some 1800 young people together with senior political figures, political parties and organisations such as the Hansard Society, aiming to make citizenship education personal.

Whilst discussing projects such as Y Vote Mock Elections and HeadsUp with participants, we were also asking what issues matter most to them. With our "blast board" and customised badges (both pictured) we hoped to bring ourselves up to speed with the concerns of young people today. Rather than asking young people to sign up to any particular cause, we wanted them to set the agenda  - mirroring the ethos of projects such as Y Vote and HeadsUp.
 

It's little surprise that most participants were by no means backward in coming forward. That said, some young people wanted to check if their chosen issue was "ok" before putting pen to paper - the first participant to flag up child abuse stands out, as does the young woman with concerns over the impact of size zero models.  This begs the question, who told you it wasn't ok? With a little encouragement, however, their thoughts were soon displayed on the blast board and pinned to their blazers.

So, what does matter to young people? The broad issues added to the blast board over the day, are shown according to the number of mentions on the graph below.