General Election: Youth workshops to target apathy

So far, 70 election workshops have been held or planned for 10- to 24-year-olds in youth clubs and other venues since the election was called, following the training of 27 youth workers as freelance democracy workers.

The workshops, which are run by The Electoral Commission's Do Politics team, tutor young people in thinking about how politics affects them and the importance of their vote. They are running alongside the Y Vote Mock Election project, which has so far involved half a million young people in 1,800 schools and youth organisations.

The project, run jointly by The Electoral Commission and the Hansard Society, encourages young people to form political parties, write manifestos and hold campaigning events as part of a mock election for under-18s to coincide with the 5 May poll. The Hansard Society is also running "Turnout or turn off?", an online election forum on www.headsup.org.uk, its political debating site for under-18s.