We are looking for young disabled people to join Welsh Youth Parliament

Are you a young disabled person interested in being a Welsh Youth Parliament Member and representing the views of other young disabled people?

Wales will be launching the first youth parliament in January 2019 and Engage to Change lead partner Learning Disability Wales will be one of the partner organisations supporting young disabled people to have a voice.

Some of the key facts about the Welsh Youth Parliament:

• 60 young people will make up the Welsh Youth Parliament.
• 40 young people will be elected from constituency areas.
• 20 young people will be elected through partner organisations.
• They will be the Youth Parliament Member for 2 years from January 2019 to December 2021.
• Young people must be aged 11 to 17.
• Young people must live in Wales or be educated in Wales.
• Learning Disability Wales will be electing 2 young people to represent young disabled people.

Getting involved with the Welsh Youth Parliament

There are many ways young people can be involved:

• Standing for election in the constituency seats (40 young people).
• Getting in touch with the partner organisations to get involved through them (20 young people).
• Registering to vote for your constituent member.

Getting involved through Learning Disability Wales

We are busy getting ready to find the 2 young people who we will support to be Youth Parliament Members. This is our plan for how we will do that:

• During September we are meeting with groups of young disabled people to find out what skills and qualities they think the young person representing them should have. By the end of this time we will have created a job description.
• On October 1^st we will launch our search by sending out the job description and asking young people who are interested to send us a video, audio or written application letting us know why they fit the description and would be a good choice.
• We will close those applications on 26th October.
• A panel of young people will then select 4 applications to be made public for voting.
• Voting will run from 5th November to 16th November.
• We will let the Wales Youth Parliament know who has been successful and they will announce the names during the week beginning 10th December.

Please note – votes will be taken from members of Learning Disability Wales. There will be one vote per organisation or member.

If you are not a member and would like to be involved our membership is free so please get in touch. You can find out about the benefits of being a member of Learning Disability Wales on our website.

If you have any questions and would like to find out more please get in touch with Zoe Richards, Young Person and Carers Manager. Email zoe.richards@ldw.org.uk or phone 029 2068 1160.