What’s this all about – Children’s Express?
"Good luck with whatever you decide to do," said the Prime Minister as he shook the hands of the six young reporters, "even if it's journalism."
| Your left hand is being held by someone older and wiser, while your right is being held by someone learning from you. |
Their interview with Tony Blair, for a four-part election series last year for television news, was just the latest in a string of achievements for the young journalists of Children's Express.
This year, hundreds of its eight to 18-year-old members from across the UK will see their articles published in local and national newspapers, magazines and websites, hear their voices on radio, or see their faces on TV.
In the process the issues important to young people will be read or heard by the millions of adults who make decisions about all our lives.
And young members of our bureaux in London, Belfast, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sheffield and Plymouth will discover a little more about their place in the world - and their ability to influence it.
The mission of Children's Express is to give young people the power and means to express themselves publicly on issues that affect them and in the process build their self esteem and develop their potential.
Key achievements over the past seven years have included work on a Channel 4 series on young people and sex; television appearances to discuss the effect of poverty on youth; close to 600 articles published in newspapers and other media outlets, and more than 2000 interviews with everyone from UN ambassadors to pop stars. Members have also travelled to Holland, America and Tanzania to report on world issues.
 Six teenage journalists covered the UKYP's national sitting for the Daily Mirror. Picture © Neville Williams | |
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Young people work in teams, with an experienced member leading each team as story editor, and team-members learning from each other. One young person described it this way: "Your left hand is being held by someone older and wiser, while your right is being held by someone learning from you."
Members come up with their own story ideas, do their own research, plan and run their own interviews, and work with adult journalists to finish their articles ready to be sold to the UK media.
In the process they can learn as much about themselves as they do about the world around them. Gemma Burr, 17, from Newcastle's Cowgate estate, said: "Children's Express has helped me grow up and face responsibilities I will have when I am older. I feel they have prepared me for the future."
Her colleague Phillip Lockyer, 17, thinks Children's Express has changed his life: "If I hadn't got involved with Children's Express I'd be throwing bricks through your window."
In Belfast, Orlaith Graham-Wood, 14, said: "After going to Children's Express for a while, people start to notice the difference in you, and after a while you start to notice they difference within yourself."
It's not all about work. Members have a terrific time winding up the members of staff, and regularly meet up with fellow journalists from other UK bureaux to share ideas, learn from each other, and have a good time.
Children's Express began in America in 1974 - the first UK bureau opened in London in 1995. Seven years later there are six bureaux, with plans to expand into Scotland and Wales as soon as money allows.
In time Children's Express would like to open more bureaux across the UK, to give as many young people as possible the chance to have their say in the local and national media, and influence debate about their future. We shouldn't be the only ones to have all the fun.
Children's Express sent a team of six young journalists from four different bureaux to the UK Youth Parliament's second national sitting in Leicester. They were: Lindsay Marchant, 18, Camille Noreiga (correct), 17, Jonathan Hudson and Sam Hunt, 15, Zak Garner-Purkis and Laura Smith, 14.
Additional reporting for Youth Parliament Mirror by Onome Edgeworth, 13, Neil Hampton, and Jenny Roe-Stanton, 15, Chris Fletcher and Gabriella Gay, 16.
About the team
This story was produced by Lindsay Marchant, 18, and Sam Hunt, 15. It was published in the Daily Mirror as part of a special Children's Express pull-out on the UK Youth Parliament.
