Since being elected, one of my goals was to increase participation from all of our young people not just in politics but within our communities.

I have had the pleasure of hosting over 400 young people in the city chambers since being elected, I regularly visit our primary schools and talk to young people and have had the pleasure of working closely with DRC Youth Project and Linkes.

Some recent local and national youth lead movements have really had a profound impact on me as we are seeing our young people unite with one voice on specific issues and one of the most evident has been the climate strikes.

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Our young people are standing up with one voice, forcing change but some of the most profound changes happen in our communities. Corpus Christi Primary asked me to help them with Eco Week, we arranged for every pupil in the school over two days to spend time in Knightswood Park, learning about our nature environment and other users of the park. We conducted probably the largest litter pick in the park’s history and I took time with some P7s to do an audit of the park.

All of this was impressive, but what really showed me that these are future leaders are actually leading now. Each P7 has written me a personal letter raising issues that are important to them and local changes they would like to see.

This is echoed in another local school Clyde Primary, where their P6s attended the climate strikes and I contacted them to tell them of my admiration and invited them in to chambers to talk with me and senior officers. This has now resulted in me visiting the school talking to the class and having the meeting this week, looking at local air pollution, and recycling just to name a few.

We have a lot of work to do but our young people are leading the change that has to happen to ensure a bright and health future for them and for our planet.