Child Friendly Redbridge Action Plan Launch!

The Child Friendly Redbridge Partnership launched its Child-Friendly Redbridge Action Plan in partnership with Unicef UK and Redbridge Council on Saturday 26 February.

The launch event was planned and delivered by the Child Friendly Redbridge Youth Ambassadors. It came about as a result of 18 months of conversations with children, young people and their parents, identifying their concerns and looking at ways to work together to find solutions. These groups shared their thoughts on what they want to improve in Redbridge for children and young people and ways they could work with services and professionals to make this happen.

The Action Plan was approved by Cabinet in December 2021 by Councillors, with two of the Borough's Child-Friendly Redbridge (CFR) Youth Ambassadors sharing statements about why the Action Plan was important to them.

The launch event revealed how children, young people and families will work together over the next three years for the next two to three years.

The launch was very well received with Redbridge Mayor, Cllr Roy Emmett and the leader of Redbridge Council, Cllr Jas Athwal opening the event and sharing why Redbridge joined the Unicef UK Child Friendly Programme. The CFR Ambassadors then took over, providing further insight into the programme combined with leading a tour around the town centre, highlighting some of the changes that the Council and partners have implemented with children and young people. These included:

• Showcasing a Billboard at Space Studio’s created by artist Djofray Mukumbu and co-designed with young people from Hainault Youth Centre
• Initiation of greening works on Wilderness Street to create a vibrant space for activities and workshops in the summer
• New play equipment installation chosen by children from local primary schools
• New mosaic art installation created by local artist Sahra Hersi in collaboration with young people.

There was also a presence of the local police cadets, with one of the CFR Youth Ambassadors highlighting role of Police as partners in the Unicef programme to address safety concerns, raised by young people.

Councillor Jas Athwal, Leader of the Council, said: "Obtaining UNICEF UK Child-Friendly status for our borough is a key milestone in our mission for Redbridge to be a borough in which children and young people, regardless of their background, thrive. This action plan provides all of us with a collective opportunity to build upon the great work that has been achieved or is in progress and push youth participation, involvement and influence across the council and our partners in the areas that matter most to children and young people”.

Yusuf, a Child-Friendly Redbridge Youth Ambassador, said: "I got involved as UNICEF Child-Friendly Redbridge Ambassador because I believe young people deserve to grow up in an environment that lets us aim high and achieve our goals by reaching our potential. The council must embed a commitment to our rights in every decision it makes. Children and young people need and deserve a voice. You won't hear us unless you listen to us. We need to be included in important conversations"

As part of the launch, the Youth Election 2022 announcement was made by Cllr Elaine Norman. Over 12,000 young people voted to elect members of Youth Parliament (MYP) for 2022-24, who represent Redbridge nationally and run the Redbridge Youth Council as well as working on their manifesto promises. A big thank you to our previous MYPs, Ahmed Rahman and Faizan Ahmed and deputy, Raul Andrei-Tinca for all their hard work over the past 2 years, especially during the pandemic. We would like to welcome our newly elected Youth MPs, Abdul Mateen Riaz and Annmarie Jaxen, and Deputy, Aarav Prabhakar.

Partners including Vision Libraries, the Ilford Exchange, Ilford Business Improvement District (BID) and Space Studios all joined in the fun, providing lots of free activities for children and young people, including:

• A digital makerspace
• Tech activities for all ages
• An eco-conscious Repair Café
• Hungry Caterpillar finger puppet crafts and Children's Library trail
• A Keith Haring-inspired craft workshop
• A chance to talk to the organisers of the Redbridge Youth Festival 2022 and let them know what you would like to see included in the festival.
• The chance to speak to Redbridge’s Community Hubs team

A very big thank you to everyone that was involved in the organisation and participation of the launch, which was an absolute success attracting many people from the community!

We would like to express our gratitude to our colleagues at Redbridge Council and partners who helped us to reach this stage, these includes Redbridge Safer Neighbourhoods Team, Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure, Redbridge Institute, Redbridge Youth Service and Centres, Frenford Clubs, Essex Boys and Girls, Mill Grove and the Rose Walton Centre, Children Centres in Redbridge, Redbridge Safer Transport Team, North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Barking Clinical Commissioning Group, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, Redbridge Young Adult Carers Project, Redbridge Community and Voluntary Service and their Young Advisors, Redbridge Healthwatch, New City College Redbridge, Local Primary and Secondary Schools (especially our Young Ambassadors representing young people from their schools), Barnardo’s, Citizens Advice Redbridge and their Youth Forum, Ilford BID and Ilford Exchange.

You can find out more about the Child Friendly Redbridge Programme here and the people involved here: https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/childfriendly/child-friendly-redbridge/

You can also follow what we are doing on the following Instagram accounts: @redbridgeyouth and @redbridgecouncil and via Twitter @redbridgelive

Please do follow, like and share using the hashtag #childfriendlyredbridge #youngredbridge or #cfr