For the second year running Harlow’s youth councillors and adult councillors have taken part in an Apprentice TV show style activity.
The activity evening on Monday 18 March 2024 was delivered in the format of the BBC reality game show ‘The Apprentice’ and consisted of mixed teams of youth councillors and adult councillors working together.
For the activity teams were set a fictional budget of £100,000 to produce a new and creative idea that could help to make the town a place where women and girls feel safe during the day, in the evenings and at night time. Violence against women and girls is a much-debated topic at government level and in the media and is currently a priority for the Safer Harlow Partnership
Each team had 5 minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of judges made up of council staff and Essex Police, explaining why their idea should be chosen, a breakdown of costs showing how they had stayed in budget, and the name chosen for their idea. Once all pitches had been heard the judges decided which teams were fired and which team was hired.
The event was a great success with adult and youth councillors working together in teams. Although the activity had a fun element to it, the theme was a very serious one which was sharing ideas for how we can make women and girls feel safer in the town. Both adult and youth councillors have gained more of an understanding about each other’s roles and how they can work together on serious issues like this.
Harlow Youth Council is a locally elected group of 13- to 19-year-olds who live in or attend school in Harlow. As a group, the Youth Council represents the views and opinions of young people in the town.
Harlow Youth Council is not affiliated to any political party and is politically neutral. All young people can have their say, through their youth councillor, about issues that affect them.