Darlington’s youth parliament representatives elected
Young people across Darlington have chosen their next Youth Parliament representatives.
Four candidates competed for the roles of Member and Deputy Members of Youth Parliament with 4,487 votes cast by young people aged 11-18 at schools across the borough.
The votes were counted and the winners revealed at a special ceremony at the Town Hall last month when Stephen Adenuga, 16, of Carmel College Sixth Form, was revealed to be the next Member of Youth Parliament (MYP).
His first duty as MYP was to announce the Deputy MYP, Jack James, 13, of Longfield Academy. Each of them will serve a two-year term.
Stephen said: “I feel great, really. I just would like to thank everybody who helped me and supported me along the way. I hope to be able to get a lot done and achieve change for the young people of Darlington.”
The pair will also become part of a new youth cabinet, established by Darlington Borough Council, to work alongside the other candidates to serve the young people of the borough.
The other candidates were:
- Charlie Cela, 13, Longfield Academy
- Jack Parvin, 17, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
The Youth Parliament vote forms part of the Make Your Mark initiative, run by the British Youth Council with the support of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, offering young people the opportunity to let decision makers know the issues they’re most affected by.
This year, more than 500,000 votes were cast across the UK – 100,000 more than in 2022 – and the top issue was again Health & Wellbeing. In Darlington, 3,440 votes were cast for Make Your Mark this year with the top three issues being Health & Wellbeing, Culture, Media & Sport and Jobs, the Economy & Benefits. The top three in 2022 were Health & Wellbeing, Education & Learning and the Environment.
Photo caption L-R: Jack Parvin, Stephen Adenuga (MYP), Charlie Cela and Jack James (Deputy MYP)