Throughout November and December 2023, we ran nominations and elections for our newest Members of Youth Parliament. Somerset’s three Youth Parliamentarians and their deputy will represent Somerset at the national UK Youth Parliament. Each MYP’s term of office will run for two years up until February 2026 and during their term will run a campaign on a particular topic that’s important to the young people of Somerset.
Your MYPs for the 2024-26 term and their campaigns are:
• Ellie Bealing – who will be running her campaign on ‘Young People – Strong, Healthy Lives’, looking at the increased numbers of eating disorders among young people, raising awareness, promoting conversation about it and finding ways to educate people on it.
• Emma Brown – whose campaign is on the topic ‘Young People and Social Media’, where she will be addressing the impact of social media on the mental health and wellbeing of young people, raise awareness of the negative impacts of social media on young people and produce resources to help young people with it.
• James Lawson – who will be campaigning about ‘Young People and the Fragile Environment’, where he will be addressing the climate crisis, raising awareness of environmental challenges, produce resources to encourage people to treasure the natural world around us, as well as liaising with local services, youth organisations and projects to identify ways in which we can do our part locally to create a positive impact globally.
In addition, Josh Lancaster was named as Somerset’s Deputy Member of Youth Parliament and will be assisting all three MYPs during their term.
You can keep up to date with our MYPs on our new website. The Somerset Youth Parliament website will be your one stop shop for all things Somerset Youth Parliament, featuring information on your MYPs, updates on their campaigns, the latest news on everything else that Youth Parliament is involved in and how you can join the Advisory Group or how you can get involved with the group. The Somerset Youth Parliament website can be found by visiting: www.somersetyouthparliament.org.uk
