Prince Charles unites political parties to support the Campaign for Youth Social Action.
What may seem as a coup in gathering leaders of the three main parties to support the youth in the UK, will certainly take place thanks to the influence of The Prince of Wales.
Later this month, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband will attend an event in support of the Campaign for Youth Social Action. CYSA emboldens young people to participate in charitable work and help out their communities.
The gathering of Cameron, Miliband and Clegg is a rarity. The only formal occasion in which they appear together is at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. “Getting all three of them together gives you some idea of how much pull he [the Prince] has – when he invites you, you go,” says an unnamed source in The Telegraph.
There are sources that go so far as to claim this event “was the first time in this Parliament that Mr. Cameron, Mr. Clegg and Mr. Miliband had addressed the same audience.”
The goal of CYSA is to encourage 1.7 million young people, aged 10 through 20 to join in the “practical action in the service of others.” The hope is by the end of the decade the amount of participants will exceed over four million.
The CYSA has obtained government backing and all three parties are in support.
The “Youth Social Action Journey Fund,” a £6?million campaign was launched by Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd. The money will help fund additional youth groups. There is also funding offered for charities and businesses to create charity schemes for youth participation.
The CYSA began in 2012 upon the request of Prime Minister Cameron to analyse how to provide the avenues for social action opportunities and increase the amount of young people from the ages of 10 to 20 participating in such action. Cameron called upon Dame Julia Cleverdon and Amanda Jordan OBE to head up the review that reported the obstacles to youth social action and what needed to transpire to move forward.
“It is nearly 40 years since I first spoke about the importance of young people taking on challenging opportunities to serve others in their community. I have always been convinced that practical action in the service of others is of benefit both to the individual and the community. So much incredible work has already been done in the UK. This campaign is a concerted and long term effort across all sectors to join together with young people to create more opportunities for their social action,” Princes Charles says in his statement on stepuptoservie.org.
Charles is known as tireless campaigner for the plight of youth since 1976 when he created the Prince’s Trust Charity.
photo credit: usembassylondon via photopin cc
