Bolton Youth Voice

08/03/2026

This week, members of our School Council have been running the ballot box for the Bolton Youth MP elections.

Students have been watching campaign videos, casting their votes and learning first-hand about the democratic process, an excellent opportunity to see how elections work and how young people can have their voices heard.

10/02/2026

Voting officially opens TODAY 10.02.2026 🙌 It will be open until 13.03.2026.

The Participation team spent the day dropping off ballot boxes to schools & colleges and are available to support running elections to ensure young people have their voices heard in the 2026 Youth MP Elections 🗳
The candidates also have scheduled visits to youth clubs and schools whilst elections are running, so keep an eye out 👀

Good luck to all 10 candidates 🍀👦🏻👧🏻👧🏼👧🏿🧕🏼

Any schools or colleges that need support during the elections, please reach out to Grace via email: [email protected]

Thank you to for their support creating this video 📹 ❤️

09/02/2026

🗳Three B6 Students Delighted to Run as Youth MP Candidates🗳

Three B6 students were delighted to share with us that they are running as candidates to become a Youth Member of Parliament (MP).

As well as representing the children and young people of Bolton, nationally and regionally, Youth MPs sit on council meetings, Local Strategic Partnership meetings and Youth Action boards. They also meet with senior representatives from the Local Authority and partners to champion young people’s views. The current Bolton Youth Voice Youth MPs recently had the chance to represent the town at the House of Commons.

Full story: https://www.bolton-sfc.ac.uk/news-and-dates/latest-news/three-b6-students-delighted-to-run-as-youth-mp-candidates/

14/12/2025

Feedback Friday 🗓 💙

Youth Council - this week was Healthy Minds lead by Kajol and Pauline from MHIST and CAMHS who delivered a session with a focus on men and boys mental health and some discussions and feedback about Trusted Adults and all the work YC have been involved in regarding this. Great session 👏

Voice4U- this week the young people chose some colours they'd like to see in the future Care Leavers Hub. After this we played Grab the Mic and created festive mini rolls 😋🎤

NexStep - the young people got crafty making caks pops and festive mini rolls 🧁

YOFO - This was the last yofo of 2026 with voting for new steering group members and a focus on education. Congratulations to all the newly elected steering group members & our three young people from youth council. Everyones speeches we fantastic 👍📣

05/12/2025

Feedback Friday 🗓 💙

Another fantastic week for the Participation and Engagement team

Youth council - a HUGE congratulations to all 10 young people who have been shortlisted to run in the Youth MP elections. And a massive well done to all the young people who had the confidence to deliver their amazing speech. You all made it very tough to whittle it down to 10 and we wish we could have all of you run! To reiterate what we said on the night, you demonstrated your passion, ambitions and drive to make your community better; bring that same energy into youth council where there are plenty of opportunities to work on projects and step into different representative and leadership roles. We'd love to have you.

Voice4U - we spent the session creating cake pops. It was messy and fun and definitely a learning curve! We also celebrated a fabulous birthday for Mary Martin who leads Voice4U & NextStep. Thank you for all your hard work and showing young people the importance of using their voice.

NextStep- we treated the group to a lovely cheese board while we collated all the professional and young person feedback regarding the hub. You worked really hard these past few weeks, we really appreciate it

02/12/2025

Tonight's the big night for the Youth MP selection! We've got a bunch of eager beavers ready to dazzle Bolton Council's local councillors, Children's Services directors and many more.
Best of luck to all the candidates we can't wait to see everyone there! 📢

01/12/2025

👏👏💓

They joined 300 other members of Youth Parliament from across the country

28/11/2025

Feedback Friday 🗓 💙

Youth Council - Two youth council members have been working on a Discrimination Project since summer and this week, they gave an update and asked for some feedback from youth council to ensure they could be involved in the important project

Voice4U & NextStep - After both groups have worked so hard these past few months with the CPB and scrutiny projects they deserved some Christmas fun. We did pottery painting, bauble decorating, Christmas card creating and planning for sessions until the Xmas break

Next week we have lots more christmas fun planned, stay tuned 🎅🎄

26/11/2025

CARE LEAVERS CELEBRATION EVENT
Last night was a blast! The Participation and Engagement team pulled out all the stops this November for Care Leavers month, wrapping up with a fun-filled celebration event. We had partnerships from lots of organisations; Bolton at Home, NHS, 0-19s Service, Virtual School, Leaving Care, Targeted Youth, GMYN, House of GB Training Academy, and more, who all provided table top activities to engage with the young people.

We had a talented young person wow us all, teaming up with to host the night with his epic DJ skills. And who could forget the Great Bolton Bake Off? A massive shout-out to our own very skilled youth voice member who snagged the Show Stopper Award with her scrumptious creations.
Hats off to all the raffle ticket champs! The prize list was epic: Bolton Wanderers game tickets, Archie's, Amazon and cinema vouchers, shiny new Manchester City football tops, jerseys worn by the latest Bolton Wonders team, paintballing passes, makeup brushes, hair curling wand, Lynx sets, and a brand new bike! Plus, every young person walked away with goodie bags and snazzy JD bottles. Everyone filled up on pizza and pop, creating memories to treasure.

For our first-ever Care Leavers event, I'd say it was a smashing success! Huge thanks to our sponsors for helping us show our Bolton's care-experienced young people just how special they are and for providing the prizes, knowledge, fun, and so much more!

14/11/2025

We're bringing back the weekly Feedback Friday !!!
And what a busy week it's been...

Youth Council - began brainstorming and planning to deliver training to mental health professionals around the importance of listening to young people regarding their wellbeing. At 7, the youth council members and other keen young people headed upstairs to the first information session for the Youth MP role, while some of us decorated cupcakes 🧁

Voice4U- had their first scrutiny meeting with the Director of Children's Services, Sandra Bruce. We discussed an important topic specific to care experienced young people and developed questions for Sandra to take to panel on their behalf. Great work guys!

NextStep- we celebrated a birthday with Bueno brownies made by an amazing and very talented staff member 😋🍪 and the young people worked really hard, staying late to complete their presentation for the Corporate Parenting Board Care Leavers Takeover 2025 next week. I can't wait for these wonderful young people to showcase a project they've worked so hard on 🙌

We have so much coming up... stay tuned to see the excellence Bolton young people have to offer!

12/11/2025

Thank you to everyone who came to last night's Youth MP information session, we hope you found it valuable! 👏

The next session will be held on Tuesday 18th 7pm at Castle Hill Youth Club🗓
This will be the last information session, so make sure you register your interest with Grace to secure your place📢

See you next week😁

11/11/2025