On February the 11th, some of our leaders (Amy, Ciara, Luke, Adam, Shane and Daniela) attended the Vote@16 conference organised by the National Youth Council of Ireland in order to get informed about the topic, hear politician’s opinions about it and talk about wether and how they want to achieve a lowering of the voting age.

Vote@16 would mean that 16 and 17 year olds get the right to vote and thereby make their voices heard. The NYCI gives 7 reasons for why the support this:

1. If young people aged 16 and 17 are granted voting rights they will have a direct say in our democracy and will have a stake in determining the future of their local community and our society.
2. Young people are best placed to advise and inform decisions which directly affect them, a vote is one of the best ways for any citizen to influence what happens locally and nationally.
3. NYCI believes that if a 16 or 17 year old can leave school, seek full time employment, pay taxes or be detained at a detention centre, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
4. Unlike previous generations, young people are much more informed as they undertake subjects at school such as the Civil, Social and Political Education course. Also young people today have access to a wide range of media including the internet where they can get information and  engage in discussions on issues and politics.
5. Currently there is a big problem with the voting registration system. Up to 25% of young people aged 18-25 are not registered to vote which is partly due to the fact that at 18 the vast majority are moving away from home to college, training or work and they fall through the administrative cracks. In constrast the vast majority of youth aged 16 are in school, so it would be very easy to put them on the register.
6. There is a global and European momentum towards extending the right to vote to young people at 16 and 17 years old. Austria has lowered the voting age for all elections to 16, seven of the 16 lander (states) in Germany have lowered the voting age and a kanton (county) in Switzerland has also done so. Other countries such as the UK are also considering such a move. In Germany the voter turnout from young people aged 16 and 17 was higher than for some older age groups.
7. Young people are taught about democracy and participation at school through courses like the civil, social and political education course, they should also in our view get a chance to practice it through being able to vote.

If you’d like to know more about Vote@16, check out this website: http://www.voteat16.ie/ or have a look at this: http://youth.ie/nyci/vote16-youth-conference .

But most importantly: What do you think? Is it a good idea to change the voting age or do you think it should be left at 18? Show us your thoughts:

In honour of Valentines Day we are holding a 24 hour marathon of mushy movies! The question is….how many dry eyes will we have by the end of the night???

Hi Rez has just begun a fantastic new project with a Youth Centre in San Diego called the American Indian Health Youth Centre. Daiz and and Daniel exchanged some emails and decided it would be cool for the young people in each centre to exchange “video letters”. It was with great excitment that we watched our first video letter from San Diego on Wednesday 25th of January. We immediately got the camera out and after some brainstorming, we made our response! The energy and enthusiasm in the centre was amazing! We hope our new friends enjoy our video and we hope that we can continue this new and modern style of pen pal!
Above are the videos so far!