The National Youth Agency: Conference puts ideas into action

I went to the Local Government Association's Ideas into Action conference last week. The conference at LGA House was well attended and, with a well-balanced ratio of young people and councillors, never stuffy.

We started the conference with the Operation Black Vote awards. Operation Black Vote has been running a campaign to identify Black role models for young people in London. We celebrated these people, some fantastic role models who make a real difference in their local community.

Questions and answers followed. The panel looked at the relationship of political parties and young people and the role that parties play in attracting young people to politics. Some panellists were not convinced that political parties are the most effective or the only way for mainstream politics to engage with young people. I feel people can be first engaged in politics far more productively on a local level in an apolitical way.