kickin' off

Don't Whinge, Get Active!
by Kris Woodall, aged 22

As someone who's been homeless on and off for two years, I know how important it is to have the chance to change things that affect our lives, our city and our society.
People are always whingeing in Hull - and a lot of the time it's about not being able to change things.
The most popular whinges are either about the city council or young people.
So I want to ask older people to give us a chance and I want to ask young people to become active citizens. That means getting involved!

Fighting racism

I'm a music volunteer at The Warren, where we started doing a World Music Day in our café. The first one attracted about 60 people. Now, a few years later, there are loads of different agencies involved and we now hold it in Queen's Gardens because this year over 4,000 people came, of all ages and of all different communities.

If you don't like it, challenge it!

We also organise a regular Rock Café at The Warren where loads of young people come to listen to live rock music by local bands. On one occasion, young people waiting to come into the event were suddenly told by the police that they could not sit in Queen's Gardens because there was a dispersal order (part of the ASBO stuff). We were challenged by a Warren worker whether we were just going to whinge or actually do something. So we called a meeting, got support from Hull Youth Council as well as The Warren, and set up our own campaigning group - the Coalition of Hull's Young People (CHYP). We did a petition, had meetings with the police, city councillors and officers and they agreed to drop the order. CHYP now meets monthly and one of the things we're doing at the moment is trying to get the Government to let a young Afghani asylum seeker, and Warren volunteer, stay in this country. The petition has now got over 1,200 names and we're organising campaign gigs this month.

How do you get involved?

At The Warren, which is mainly for 16-25 year olds, we have 'The Thing,' our own weekly parliament.
I'm a Thing representative on the Warren Management Committee and at the moment I'm also standing to be a Warren representative at Hull Youth Parliament, which I think is amazing because every agency that works with young people can send its own representatives. (See pictures of the first-ever Hull Young People's Parliament on next page. The next one takes place on October 18 at The Guildhall, by the way). Wherever you live in the city, the Youth Council has a local forum so there's no excuse for not getting stuck in.
I admit that being involved can be frustrating at times and sometimes there's arguments and conflicts (The Warren has a slogan - 'See The Person, Not the Problem' - which helps a lot when you're about to lose your cool).
But being involved can also be really interesting because there is so much to learn and overall I think you feel more of a total human being.
As long as you can listen to others, you can enjoy finding your own voice and being heard as well, and that means working together to change our city into something to be proud of. So don't whinge, get organised!

To get involved call the Hull Youth Council on 585297 or email hullyouthcouncil@hullcc.gov.uk
For more information about the Warren call 218115 or email empower@empower.karoo.co.uk