Preparing for a year of Young Member activity: 2019

The 2018 National Young Members’ Weekend took place in Milton Keynes this year with 120 young members from around the country attending.

South East Young Members turned out in force, with 13 delegates from a variety of local government, health, police and higher education branches coming together to discuss activism, recruitment and campaigns.

The weekend involved a variety of speakers and workshops, practical street campaigning and activity focused on developing campaign priorities for regions and the wider union.

It was a fantastic weekend, full of positivity- but one thing became abundantly clear as the weekend progressed; a severe under-representation of young black members.

With this in mind, the South East Region discussed and designed a potential campaign plan called #YouMatter. The aim of this campaign is to help branches map their young, black members and provide support and resources to encourage greater involvement in their union.

The South East Young Members’ Forum will be meeting in September to discuss the campaign and plan for taking it forward in 2019. This meeting is open to all young members in the region- if you’d like to be involved, please email Vanessa Baquer on v.baquer@unison.co.uk