As the current council year nears its conclusion, this is the final column of the current Youth Champion Team.

We have been really pleased with the progress made over the last year and especially over the last month. In particular, during March, we are delighted that our first Youth Magazine is now available in Beccles.

It has been distributed in most schools and there are copies available at Town Hall if anyone would like one. We hope this will provide a useful guide for young people and their parents/carers in knowing what youth provision is available for them in the town.

In addition to the Youth Magazine, we are close to the opening of our pilot Youth Cafe and hope that by the next column in May, we will be able to provide a report of its success.

These two projects, as well as the aim of raising awareness of politics, have been goals we have completed this year. We wanted to inform and engage young people and hopefully our projects have achieved that. We are happy to have built upon what last year's Youth Champion Team did and hopefully this year's work has built good foundations for the next team.

In terms of the make-up of the 2018/19 Team, Sam is stepping down after three years to focus on life after university and he would like to thank local people for their support of the team and its projects. Andrea and Caroline would like to take this opportunity to thank Sam for his commitment and dedication to the Youth Champion Role over the last three years, and wish him all the very best for a bright future!

The post of Youth Champion has been running for several years now and we are so delighted and encouraged that so many people, both on the council and in the community have been, and are continuing to, work tirelessly and determinedly, to improve things for young people. Long may this continue!

As always, thank you for reading and if you would like to contact us, please do so via Town Hall.

Sam Kenward, Andrea Downes and Caroline Topping

Youth Champions 2017/18