I’m only 24 years old but I have a wealth of experience representing and campaigning for people and issues I care passionately about. I’ve taken part and led campaigns as diverse as preventing the closure of my local library in London, fighting against the closure of a centre dedicated to improving the lives of disabled people by allowing them to live independently, helping to secure funding for a young carers group to give their members a break, securing pledges from a local council (Greenwich) to protect and support young people, protecting talking newspapers and dial-a-ride services for Deaf and disabled/elderly people and campaigning against discrimination in all its many and varied forms.
I may not be a born and bred Stokie but I chose to come here for University and then I chose to stay after I graduated. I love living in Stoke and I sincerely hope to be able to stay here for a long time. I’ve contributed to Stoke I used to be a youth worker for the Council; I’ve done fund-raising activities for local charities (including having my head shaved a year ago).
I want to help improve Stoke by encouraging job creation and educational aspiration. One is useless without the other. I’d like to encourage entrepreneurs in Stoke; we have smart people with good ideas out there who just need a bit of help maybe with finance or a skill they lack. Why not help link them up with investors or people who have that skill? I’d like to try and continue a scheme I took part in through AimHigher where students go into local schools and colleges and give advice on further and higher education. I want to make sure the Council is offering work experience placements, internships and apprenticeships to people of all ages that are valuable and relevant to them and encouraging others to do the same.
I want to ensure that you are getting the services you need and that we can continue to provide them for you. The fact is we have less money, I wish we didn’t but there’s nothing I can do about it. However there have got to be places we can save money without cutting services. A case in point, why are we spending huge amounts of money on solar panels for the show lights at the civic centre? Why not turn the lights off? Secondly I disagree with some facets of the big society but I am passionate about encouraging volunteering, as someone who has been a volunteer virtually since I can remember. So why don’t we do more to encourage people to help their communities not as a way of replacing public services but as a way of making them better?
When all is said and done we’re wasting time with bickering and point-scoring when we should be pulling together and make sure we’re building a strong, secure and sustainable future whatever parties we may or may not be members of.
You lost me at “I’m only 24 years old but…”
If you’re a good enough candidate you don’t need to tell everyone your age and then spend the next 500 words justifying why you’re not too young. You won’t catch Brian Ward saying “I’m well over the hill and should probably be in a home, but…”
And don’t forget to mention Charley that you are standing for Sneyd Green because your party didn’t think you were good enough to fight the ward where you actually live
No I’m only joking of course. I welcome these young candidates coming forward from ALL parties and none.
Don’t let anyone on here have a go at you for your age and get away with it. It is the final refuge of people that have nothing constructive to say.
I hope young candidates accross all parties do well and we can finally lay to rest this ridiculous idea that people are not capable of standing for election until they are well into their 50s.
there’s a difference between me not being good enough and another candidate being better in that environment he’s been around longer, he knows more people and I have no problem with that. I used to work near Sneyd Green and spent a bit of time round there as a result so was happy to stand there when the need arose. I think it’s a lovely bit of the city particularly the nature reserve… I’ve spent some very happy time sat around there reading a book or whatever.
Thank you for not caring about age. The sad fact is there are far too many people out there who do think that someone my age couldn’t possibly have the life experience needed to undertake this role. You and I know that’s pretty much rubbish but there are going to be people going ‘you’re only 24 what could you know about life or representing people’ and others who think that my not having been born in Stoke is some sort of serious shortcoming which is equally rubbish.
The fact is I’m smart, hard-working and capable and have years of experience behind me to back it up. I care about people and I care about Stoke and if four words can lead you to ignore the other 496 (ish) then that’s a real shame.
Don’t matter about your age, or where you were born, you live in the city now, use the council and seem to care, good luck to you mate.
it isn’t possible to have a ‘wealth of experience’ of anything by age 24
I have 20 years expeience as a carer. I have a combined total of 7 years experience as an elected representative on varrious bodies. I have over 14 years of voluntary experience and over 17 years experience of activism and campaigning and I have 10 years experience of being a disabled person.
I’d definitely say I’m not doing badly experience wise. I know I’ve done more with my 24 years than some people 10-20 years older than me have done with theirs.