CYCLe is the County Youth Council for Leicestershire.
CYCLe members are young people who have worked with council services, aged 11-18 representing all Districts of the County.
CYCLe is a place for them to have their say on issues that affect young people in their community.
CYCLe aims to represent all young people of Leicestershire. We are:
- inclusive
- not party political
- all members who work or have previously worked with member of Council staff for a variety of reasons
- young volunteers, devoting our time to be part of this Council
CYCLe Charter (PDF, 192 Kb)
Why don't you take a look at our group Charter? It tells you what we are all about as a youth council. We are happy with it, because we wrote it.
CYCLe gets involved
CYCLe meet every fortnight to tackle issues that affect young people from across the County and make changes young people want to see happen. We are asked to be involved in diverse and creative projects all the time, from working with Leicestershire Fire Service to reviewing accessible Council documents. We also:
- attend Children and Family Partnership meetings to present what we have been doing every 6 months
- take part in interview panels to recruit staff working with children
- get involved in charity campaigns
- help with members of Youth Parliament social action projects
In summer 2023, some of our CYCLe members were asked to be involved in a short film about Comfort Cases. These are bags given to children in the care system so that they can pack their stuff to move without judgement.
CYCLe is proud to support and promote this, and our members really enjoyed the experience. As a result of CYCLe's involvement, 200 comfort cases were given to Leicestershire County Council for children in care.
This film is not an easy watch for everyone. It was made by an independent charity and can be viewed online. We think it's important to think about the issues some children in care can face.
"We are so proud of our CYCLe members for raising awareness of this issue and their work resulting in such a positive outcome to support young people in care across Leicestershire" - Sophie, Youth Worker
We hope you have a better idea of what CYCLe members get up to as a youth council!
More news on the projects we have been involved with recently - coming soon...
CYCLe members had the opportunity to complete media training with the council's Communications team. We wanted to highlight this because between our project work and our social events, we do get the opportunity to learn new skills and do some training - very helpful for the CV!
"One of the highlights of the year with CYCLe for me, I really enjoyed it" - Emma
CYCLe social life
Don't think it's all work, work, work though - CYCLe is a really good balance of using our voices, supporting positive change for young people AND having a laugh together!
Recently we went to Treetop Golf for a team building day. If you haven't been we highly recommend it!!
We are all involved in CYCLe for different personal reasons - the social stuff really helps us to bond as a group, have a chat and a giggle, and just have some fun together away from the serious side of the council and the responsibilities or stresses we might have at home
