YOW stands for Youth of Walsall.

We are based at MyPlace Youth Centre in Bescot, Walsall. It is easy to reach by bus and train from Walsall town centre. There is a map and transport information on our contact section.

It's easy! Find us on social media and message us or email youthofwalsall@gmail.com. You can also visit our Get Involved page and fill in our form. Simply tell us a bit about yourself and why you would like to join us. We will aim to respond to your email within 48 hours and invite you to one of our meetings.

To join Youth of Walsall, you should be aged between 11 and 18 (secondary school age), living in Walsall and in education (school, college or other education) or working.

We currently meet every Thursday evening from 6pm to 8pm at MyPlace. During the holidays, we may run extra or extended meetings to work on certain agenda items, projects and campaigns. If a full day meeting is needed, we will announce this in the general meeting.

We don't expect our members to attend every meeting but we encourage our members to come as often as possible.

We do not charge membership, so it is free to attend as we want our young people to access our meetings.

Of course you can, as long as they are aged 11-18, living in Walsall and in education.

Send us a message on social media or email us at youthofwalsall@gmail.com. We will need the child's name and your contact details so we can contact you with further details.

To become a Member of Youth Parliament, you have to be elected by other young people in an official UKYP election. In Walsall, elections take place every two years in the winter season. The next round of elections will happen in 2021. Follow us on social media to see the latest updates on UKYP.

If you join YOW, you get the perfect platform to make a real tangible difference in the community with a group of really passionate people and you'll be able to build key skills such as public speaking and team-working. It will also open up lots of amazing opportunities like UK Youth Parliament. Above all, you get to make life long friends in a really fun environment.

YOW is also a safe space for young people to share their views on issues that matter to them as well as raising concerns.

YOW has taken part in many projects, activities and events, such as:

• Delivering workshops for the "Real Knives, Real Lives" campaign with Walsall Youth Justice Service, an anti youth violence practitioner and youth workers.

• Giving presentations at delivery/scrutiny groups and local events.

• Attending the PCC Youth Summit.

• Make Your Mark, an annual national consultation by UK Youth Parliament.

• Party at the Bandstand, which brought together the arts and young people in Walsall.

• Cultures of Walsall in September 2017.

And much much more!

This year, with our campaign "Real Knives, Real Lives", we will be working with individuals and organisations to ensure young people are educated on this issue.

We would love for you or your organisation to get involved. Email Paul.Dennis@walsall.gov.uk, youthofwalsall@gmail.com or send us a message on social media with your details.

Your feedback is important as this helps us to improve our group and what we do in the future. You can send us your feedback through our social media channels or by email.

However, we understand that things go wrong sometimes. Therefore, it is important that you let us know so we can act upon it as soon as possible and we do apologise. If you would like to make a complaint or raise any concerns, please email us at youthofwalsall@gmail.com. We will pass it on to our chair and youth workers and we will try our best to resolve the situation.