Make Your Mark is the largest national consultation of young people, powered by the British Youth Council (BYC) and supported by local youth councils across Europe.
The ballot gives young people aged 11–18 the chance to have a say on the biggest issues facing them today to make change for their futures. You can support Milton Keynes Youth council (MKYC) by registering your schools, colleges, youth clubs, project or other group were young people attend, no later than Friday 8 December 2023. It only takes 5 minutes.
Register at this link: British Youth Council | Make Your Mark - UK Youth Parliament (byc.org.uk).
If your group will be taking part in the ballot, please email Lisa Thompson our Democratic Participation Officer, so we can keep track of ballot submissions.
Resources such as the timeline for voting and tally sheets/videos etc can be downloaded from 15 Jan 2024 at: British Youth Council | Resources for Make Your Mark - UK Youth Parliament (byc.org.uk)
A video has been prepared that can be shared with a younger audience.
Voting is between 29 Jan to 8 March 2024. Administering a ballot can be done in three ways shown below:
1. Use a downloadable tally sheet for a quick vote in your classroom, assembly, project etc.
2. Online
3. Printed Ballots from Milton Keynes City Council. Email us to so we can send them to you.
Young people will be asked to vote from 10 issues on the MYM ballot paper. The three topics with the most votes become the youth parliament campaign for 2024 and the top two local issues become the MKYC campaigns for 2024.
We ask you to submit your own results online by 8 March by 6pm, alternatively you can share your results to MKYC no later than 6 March for us to submit on your behalf.
In 2022, the MYM campaign saw 434,000 young people participate in voting on the ballot issues, with Health and Wellbeing coming out as the top issue (Feb 2022) and in the November youth Parliament sitting 2023, Health and Cost of Living was identified as the priority subtopic known as the “Food for learning campaign’ you can find out more here: British Youth Council | UK Youth Parliament Campaigns | Food for Learning: the Campaign for Universal Free School Meals (byc.org.uk). Over 200 members of Youth Parliament will be attending the House of Commons sitting on 17 November 2023 to debate and vote on the topics to create a youth-led Food for Learning bill supported by Child Poverty Action Group to help put it into action.