From campaigning for the Welsh Youth Parliament back in 2018, to recently joining Youth Cymru and the Carmarthenshire Youth Council, I’ve found myself rather involved and passionate about politics.

Back then despite how confusing all the details of how governments, councils and politics work was to me, I just desperately wanted to see some changes that I knew needed to happen, and what better way to do it than to be directly involved?

I think I’ve always had that “if no one else seems to be doing it, then why not me” kind of mentality, the whole “be the change” style objective.

 I felt there weren’t many hugely political or public Welsh figures who were specifically targeting LGBTQ+ matters and mental health at the time, thus I aimed to help bridge that gap myself through bringing awareness to these matters and searching for others who held a similar goal.

 Of course, there’s been a massively increased focus on LGBTQ+ matters and mental health discussions in recent years; which has encouraged me to continue being politically active since clearly, something is working, but as there’s still a lot to be done, I find myself still deeply drawn to being politically involved.

What pushes me more is learning about the experiences of others; from casual homophobia in schools to racial bullying and mental health stigmas rooted in old tired lies, these are real problems that real people face. I’d rather not be the one to sit idly as others suffer.

(I admittedly was also fueled by my aversion to some of the content of the Welsh Baccalaureate units, but that’s a matter for another time)

Laurie Thomas

Hello everyone my name is Cai and I am one of the first members of the Welsh Youth Parliament and among three elected from the Carmarthenshire area. I’ve been elected for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire. Lois Campbell has been elected for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr and Emliy Kaye has been elected for Llanelli. We’ve also had the privilege of being part of the Carmarthenshire Youth Council and we’ve received a warm welcome from everyone.

I was elected as a member back in December following an enthusiastic digital election. This innovative new Senedd provides a wonderful platform for young people to express their opinion regarding matters that are of national importance to them. There are approximately 60 members, with 40 representing Welsh constituencies and 20 members chosen by partner organizations, to ensure that this group is as inclusive as possible.

We held a plenary meeting at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay at the end of February 2019. The first meeting in the Senedd was special and included powerful, professional and personal speeches. It was certainly an eye-opener to hear people debating in a respectful manner

We decided to prioritize and campaign for three topics for the next two years, ‘Emotional and mental health support’, ‘Littering and plastic waste’ and ‘Life skills in the curriculum’.

It’s pleasing to see that Carmarthenshire Youth Council is already prioritizing these important topics through projects such as ‘Stori Harriet’ and ‘Real Learning For Real Life’. It demonstrates that Carmarthenshire Youth Council is effective in collating young people’s opinion and has reflected young people’s views across Wales.