Matthew
Youth Assembly Member
On Saturday 24 January, I attended my first plenary as a Youth Assembly Member.
I was very impressed with the public speaking training. It had a clear aim and focus of creating new skills and strengthening preestablished ones which will be a great help throughout the time of the mandate. I learned a number of skills but the main ones were using humour to break the ice and the importance of the 4 p’s (projection, pitch, pace and pause) which I would highly recommend as tips for public speaking. My main highlights were the Lego building exercise as it allowed us to express ourselves whilst also posing a challenge as it had to be cohesive and we had to think on our feet to describe our builds. The training served as a boost in confidence and a clear example to follow. Tony McGaharan from People Playbook was very friendly and provided a clear model on public speaking. I would highly recommend this training as it taught us skills and techniques that are useful for speeches, general conversations or presentations.
For the plenary itself, I was very excited. I felt a sense of purpose and that I was contributing to something greater than myself and these feelings were strengthened when I took my seat. I looked around seeing people from across Northern Ireland all with clear goals and motivations. I knew that I was going to enjoy the plenary and hearing the thoughts of my peers. I was incredibly moved by some speeches. Of the issues decided for the mandate, those being rights and equality, education and health, I think that rights and equality is the most important, however, that doesn’t mean the other issues aren’t. I hope that MLAs recognise that these issues are topical for all people not just young people and I hope that the three issues will be thoroughly worked upon and see substantial improvements over the course of the mandate.
Slightly before the plenary I got a chance to speak with Peter McReynolds MLA who gave me advice on speaking and debating. I hope that other MLAs will engage with young people as it tells them about the issues for the future when young people become voting age.
