Jan 9

MYC - the first betrayal

*MYC = Manchester Youth Council

Yesterday I posted a thread to Twitter and Instagram about two youth organisations that have mistreated me. This is about number one.

I’ve been an activist for 10 years and a lot of that journey was down to work I did with MYC. They became a place for me to share my desire for politics, connect with others whilst working on amazing projects, and nurture my love for youth representation.

However, the relationship between me and the organisation ended abruptly. I was told to return after summer break in September 2022. When September came, the other youth council members began attending meetings but I didn’t get invited (the meeting room was held somewhere where you needed a staff member). I was perplexed and emailed the staff members, who I got along incredibly with, having been there for 6-7 years at this point.

I didn’t get a response. I was really confused and asked my friends (the members) to ask on my behalf, maybe emails weren’t coming through or something. When I finally received an email, it told me that because of my age, 20, I had to undergo safeguarding training and couldn’t return immediately. I was taken aback because this was two and half years after my 18th birthday, so why now out of the blue? I asked when I could undertake it, eager to complete it and return to working on projects with my friends, fellow members of the organisation. I received little contact, and when I finally got an email, it said that there hadn’t been a safeguarding pack created, but there would be one by January. Therefore, I would be contacted in January.

I was so upset because it meant missing out on months of work that would be hard to catch up. I have for years given up my time to volunteer as a representative to campaign on issues that are for the betterment of young people. I complained about this situation to the Head of Services and I did not receive a satisfactory response, so I took it to his head. This was an even slower process of finding answers. I then decided to email a Councillor as well as the Leader and Deputy Leader of the City Council and received a generic email saying that I’d get a response, but I never did. This is despite me having worked with the Deputy for years in my capacity as a young person as part of this organisation. To say I was hurt would be an understatement. As a young person, you already feel that no-one takes you seriously, but when you find officials who do, and they treat you in this way, it becomes very clear why they decided to work with you in the first place.

In the middle of this, I got an email inviting me to MYC’s 10 year anniversary in December. I was surprised because of how little contact I had with them but considering I had been there for the majority of its formation, it made sense. I attended and was asked to present some of the evening. I wanted to speak to the staff and get answers, but the focus was on the event and there wasn’t time for me to do so. In hindsight,

I wish I had asked regardless because I was treated as if the last couple of months hadn't occurred.

This was the last time I really heard from or spoke to them. I never received any information about January, me coming back, or a safeguarding pack being made. My complaint was ignored and clearly MYC pretended it never existed. The youth workers who had been there for so much of my key milestones as a young person were now distant, hard to get hold of, and not interested at all in my situation or how I had been treated. I wanted to share my experience online, take things further, but I was already undertaking third-year exams and had so much going on. I was also applying for another role in the midst of this trouble, one that led to my second experience of being mistreated by a youth organisation.

People assume that as an activist, you have this public platform to share issues but when you do, there are individuals who will question if it is even true or why I am making such matters public. And there is the question of why I've waited a year to now say what has been happening. I have spoken about this before in previous blogs and reels, indirectly pointing to what I was going through but was apprehensive of sharing with others.

So what changed? Why tell you all now? Like I said, I have had another experience of mistreatment and enough is enough. The organisations are linked and both purport to center youth voice at the heart of all they do. However, the way they have dealt with me has been outrageous and disrespectful. I want to share my story because young people deserve to know what organisations are like and how they can treat their members, regardless of years spent or time committed or relations built.

I do not make personal matters such as this public with little thought. This organisation was EVERYTHING to me, I gave up so much of my life to devote time towards running campaigns and developing my skills to assist others. Pushing and promoting their agenda on not just national but the international stage, building connections and receiving praise from international delegates for how well I represented the UK. I was Youth MP because I'm passionate about working in the youth voice sphere and spreading youth empowerment. That is why this all began and it is why I have to share my experience, good and bad. I owe it to all the young people out there who want to get into youth voice, who work in the spheres and want to know how these organisations work, and to the young people I worked with during my tenure to know what happened - and not to stand for it.

As a young person, female, person of colour - I feel the responsibility to stand up and not allow organisations such as this one to treat me as if I can be silenced. I will continue to speak out against injustice towards young people, especially when it concerns youth organisations that are supposed to have our backs. Since I posted my thread, people have reached out to me about their bad experiences and I feel concerned that they've had to deal with it alone.

I can no longer pretend that these organisations are ones that I'd recommend for other young people to join.

MYC's betrayal is one that still hurts me.

Ishaa