*Please only sign if you are a Croydon resident*

By signing this petition, you are expressing your wish for Croydon Council to keep its Youth Engagement Team.

Croydon Council has entered into a period of consultation on closing the Croydon Youth Engagement Team, which runs programmes and outreach session for young people in the Borough, including the Croydon Youth Assembly. This period ends on the 21st January, and would be catastrophic for the 90,000 young people in Croydon, especially the hundreds actively engaged in its projects. 

Community engagement programmes are vital for improving the safety of out young people, by giving them a warm and supportive space to be after school. With very few youth clubs still operating, ceasing to have a Youth Engagement Team would be catastrophic for the physical and mental health of young people in Croydon. It would also end up costing the council more money, as issues that the Youth Engagement Team were solving would begin to take their toll on statutory services the Council provides, and prevent essential services from being provided cost effectively.

The Croydon Youth Assembly is one of its projects, and gives young people a platform to enact change in their borough from. They have engaged with local organisations like Stanley Arts, Croydon Climate Action and Trees for Cities to do this, and without the Engagement Team these ties that have taken years to build would be lost. Schools have also played an active part in their campaigns, as rock painting workshops to teach children about the planet. It would be simply unfair if these opportunities were only offered to one generation of young people.

Please sign the Croydon Youth Assembly's petition today. 'For Young People, By Young People'

*Please only sign if you are a Croydon resident*