Dara Farrell, 17, Ashford, Kent
Aspiring politician Dara comes from a single-parent family and believes he would never have had the courage to pursue a political career without the support of youth workers.
"I live on a council estate, the sort that was described by the Daily Mirror as 'social concentration camps', and just to have somewhere else to go and someone to listen to you is really important," he says.
If it wasn't for his local youth club, Dara says he could have easily fallen in with the wrong crowd, "who don't do much except hang around outside McDonald's".
He first got involved in XC youth club aged 12 because he wanted to play football. Five years on, and he is now chair of Kent's youth council as well as a member of the UK Youth Parliament.
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