Click to view: Youth Charter 2023 Annual Report
The Youth Charter believes that it is a fundamental human right that young people have access to sport, arts and cultural activity as part of their mental, physical and emotional health, wellbeing and development.
When this right is denied, the disadvantage and disaffection lead to antisocial behaviours, gang related activity and in some cases extremism. This impacts on the quality of life, not only of the young person, but their victims, families, friends, communities, and society as a whole.
2022 was one of the most important years in the agency’s journey to date with the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games providing a strategic focus and platform in establishing consolidation of our efforts to take forward our local and global #Calls2Action, #LegacyOpportunity4All and #Fight4theStreets.
This report provides a reflection of an extraordinary effort of many trustees, volunteers and multi-agency stakeholders and the relationships that lie at the very heart of the Youth Charter brokering, facilitating, and collaborating to realise the events, projects, programmes and initiatives that led up to, included and above all will continue post Birmingham 2022 Games that was deemed the best ever.
The emphasis is now on a Birmingham 2022 Games Legacy that will also build on the 10th anniversary of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. The Spirit of 2012 Inquiry Commission Report, that the Youth Charter has contributed to, will also assist the agency’s future work, which can only be realised with the right commitment, capacity and capability invested in our work.
The coming year will see the European Youth Olympic Festival (Slovinia), Commonwealth Youth Games (Trinidad) and the All-Africa Games (Ghana) all providing important milestones in our continued efforts in seeing the Sport for Development and Peace Movement deliver the Sustainable Development Goals that are so critical in the lives of young people and communities globally.
And finally, we would like to thank our volunteers, Trustees, support agencies, stakeholders and above all, the young people who continue to provide the motivation and continued dedication of effort in all that we do.
Prof. Geoff Thompson MBE FRSA DL,
Founder and Chair