Belfast City Youth Council

Who’s in the Belfast City Youth Council?

Young people make up a third of the population of Belfast, making our city one of the youngest in Europe. 

As Belfast is home to so many young people, we thought it was time they had a say in how our city is run and show that they’re listened to by adults.

If you’re a young person, we’ve set up the Belfast City Youth Council to help make this happen.

The Youth Council is made up of 40 young people from communities across Belfast.

All of our members are aged between 13-18 (21 if you are disabled or have just left care) and are a Youth Council member for two years.

You can follow us on social media:

Twitter - twitter.com/belfastcity_yc (link opens in new window)
Facebook - www.facebook.com/BelfastCityYC (link opens in new window)
Instagram - www.instagram.com/belfastcity_yc/ (link opens in new window)

What was the Belfast Youth Forum working on

Belfast City Youth Council was formerly known as Belfast Youth Forum. They worked on a number of campaigns and projects including:

• ‘Any Use?’ research report focusing on young people’s opinions on Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in Belfast. Our Belfast Youth Forum created the report in partnership with Common Youth and Centre for Children’s Rights QUB.
• 'Elephant in the Room' research report on children and young people and mental health. This is part of a regional youth-led mental health campaign, organised by young people from Belfast Youth Forum and NI Youth Forum.
• Poverty: It’s not a choice research report on raising awareness about Poverty in Belfast.
• a research project which will look at Black and Minority Ethnic young people’s experiences of living in Belfast. The Youth Forum are working with youth worker Neil Symington and Dr Byrne from Ulster University.
• Heads Up! toolkit to help young people organise a mental health campaign project in their community and support them to campaign on local mental health issues. 

The Youth Forum have also completed projects including:

• a podcast with young people from Overton High School in Nashville. Belfast is a Sister City of Nashville (USA).
• the ‘Push it Home’ campaign to raise awareness of the levels of ‘hidden homelessness’ in Belfast
• The Youth hub - a pilot project to test shared youth spaces across the city centre.
• an intergenerational project with the Seniors Forum to raise awareness of poverty in Belfast.
• the #LiveLouder battle of the bands competition and concert in partnership with the Oh Yeah Music centre.  We gave the winners of this competition a £1000 bursary.
• the Digi Dragons Den app competition to help young people look after their mental health, and the environment. We gave the two winners of this competition a £1000 bursary each.

Members of the Belfast Youth Forum (BYF) met with Elected Members from the People and Communities Committee (link opens in new window) three times a year.  These meeting gave BYF members an opportunity to update Elected Members on their current pieces of work and the progress of their current campaign areas. 

If you would like more information on the youth forum campaigns and projects, email us or call 028 9032 0202.

The UNCRC

The United Nations Convention on the rights of the Child (UNCRC) is a list of rights created to protect all children and young people and make sure they have everything they need to live a happy and healthy life. 

The work of the Belfast City Youth Council is guided by the UNCRC, in particular:

• Article 2 - Children and young people should not be discriminated against
• Article 3 - The best interests of children and young people should be a top priority in all decisions concerning them
• Article 12 - Every child and young person has the right to say what they think in matters affecting them and to have their views listened to and taken seriously.