On 8th July, Mike Freer attended a number of constituency events aimed at increasing youth participation in Politics.
The first of these two events was a Digital Surgery with a group of Year 9 students from Christ’s College Finchley. The Digital Surgeries Programme is organised by a charitable organisation called The Politics Project, which aims to give young people access to their elected representatives.
Later that day, Mike attended a Q&A session with Politics students at Henrietta Barnet. The event was organised by a sixth form politics student who is passionate about younger people being more actively involved in politics and the democratic process.
Following the two events, Mike Freer said: “Both my visit to Henrietta Barnet and the Digital Surgery with Christ’s College were an excellent opportunity to speak with young people within my constituency and see them engage so passionately about political issues: local, national and international. In my view, this represents a broader shift since I was first elected in 2010 whereby younger people have become a lot more engaged in politics and issues affecting their lives, which can only be a good thing.”
“With organisations like The Politics Project facilitating sessions like this between young people and politicians, the burden is shifted away from schools and ensures that surgeries like those delivered by this fantastic organisation can reach more and more pupils. The fact that it can be organised online also means that hard-to-reach communities are not cut off from this valuable engagement with the country’s democratic representatives. Similarly, the fact that teachers at Henrietta Barnet offer their pupils the opportunity to use their initiative in arranging events like this is a great way of improving youth participation in political issues.
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