Leon Hollinrake elected to the Youthforia Leadership Committee

Leon Hollinrake, (bottom, second from the left) joins the other victorious candidates from around the North West

Leon Hollinrake, Rochdale borough’s Member of the Youth Parliament, has been elected to the Youthforia Leadership Committee.

Leon,18, a former Kingsway Park High School student, was unveiled as the new leader for Greater Manchester North during the Youthforia AGM at Bury Town Hall on Sunday 13 July. He will now sit on a committee with local youth representatives from across the North West.

An overjoyed Leon said: “The Youthforia forum is attempting to combat youth apathy through promoting a reduction in the minimum voting age. We are also campaigning to raise awareness of the significant mental health issues affecting our young people.”

Having defeated candidates from both Bury and Oldham, Leon, a vocal activist on youth matters, now has a further platform to address the issues facing Rochdale’s young people.

Councillor Donna Martin, the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services at Rochdale Council, said: “I wholeheartedly congratulate Leon on his election to the Youthforia leadership committee; his recent success reflects his remarkable dedication to regional youth politics. He is a credit to the people of Rochdale borough and I wish him well in his period of office.”

“Young people represent the lifeblood of this region, it is their ideas and ability to work cooperatively which will see this region prosper in the years to come. Initiatives such as the Youth Parliament and Youthforia represent an opportunity for young people to promote local concerns on a national and regional level and they can only be commended.”

At the Youthforia AGM, candidates for the leadership committee were required to give a speech and explain why they wanted the responsibility of chairing Youthforia once a year and why they desired to support the interests of young people regionally. Leon also went on to showcase his support for the Bury ‘Rainbow Walk’ – an event celebrating local diversity which took place in the AGM’s lunch hour.

Youthforia represents a ‘North West Regional Youth Work Unit’ project designed to “enable young people from across the region to work together to improve the life experiences of young people and to have a collective voice”. It meets 11 times a year in order to promote campaigns, projects and to share ideas on how to approach and tackle local issues.