Young people from the TR14ers in Cornwall have influenced human rights policy for the Council of Europe.
Members of the dance group from Camborne addressed the Council of Europe chamber in Strasbourg about their experience. It was part of a review of the Council of Europe’s Enter! project about the access of young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to social rights.
Enter!
In 2011 the TR14ers Community Dance Charity attended the Enter! Youth Conference at Strasbourg and made recommendations on young people’s access to their social rights in disadvantaged areas to the Council of Europe which were adopted in 2015.
Recommendations
They were invited back to the Enter! Youth Week in July 2019 to discuss how the recommendations have been implemented in the 47 member states.
Amber and Alex, two of our young company directors and trustees, presented findings from the University of Exeter Medical School research into the effect TR14ers has on young people’s physical and emotional health.
“It was a real privilege to be invited to the Youth CoE’s ‘Enter! Youth Week’ with the TR14ers,” Amber told C2.
Awesome opportunity
“It was such an awesome opportunity to meet people who are so passionate for youth, and for our access to our rights! The people we met came from all different backgrounds, cultures and countries and it was such a phenomenal experience to meet them all in one place, all wanting and fighting for one thing.
“We came back with many ideas for how we can be fighting for our young people in today’s world from people all over the world. And with the confidence to do so too!
Freedom
“The freedom to express how we really felt about our current access or lack of fulfilled access to our rights especially in disadvantaged areas like our home town Camborne really allowed us to look into and ask more questions, as to why people aren’t able to access their rights currently and what we think our governments should be doing to help that.
“For many of us, it was a great feeling to be included and for our voices to be heard in such a big way. Thank you to the Youth CoE for giving us the platform and helping us be heard!”
Struggles and solutions
Alex said: “Enter! Youth Week was one of the best experiences of my life, it was an amazing week to understand other peoples struggles and their solutions to them, it gave me massive insight about the world we live in. Not only that but making new friends from around the globe was insane and definitely a newbie.”
Enter! ‘is a project of the Council of Europe to identify and support youth work and youth policy responses to violence, exclusion and discrimination affecting young people in Europe, especially in disadvantaged neighbourhoods’.
top image: Amber and Alex from the TR14ers at the Council of Europe
