News Round-Up, 18 June 2008

Dear Plingers,

Another hot week of news (which is more than can be said for the weather – you call this June??)
Anyway, here’s a round-up of the best news stories over the past few days and, for this recap at least, it belongs to the UK’s Capital of Culture: Liverpool.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Yep, you read that correctly – Liverpool teenagers are being given £1m to spend. City council chiefs threw the gauntlet down to the city’s 13 to 19-year-olds, saying it was up to them how they splashed the cash, which is coming from the Government’s Youth Opportunities Fund. It won’t be going on clothes at Topshop though, the teenagers are being trusted to spent it on new youth facilities, foreign exchange trips and sports equipment.

Clean-up kids get tough

They may be young and they may be students, but kids at school want dog owners thrown in jail if they fail to clean up after their pets. The tough stance was among suggestions pupils across the city came up with to tackle the problem.
Good on ‘em!

Sporting chance

Fancy yourself as the next Alan Hansen? Aspiring young sports journalists across the country are being offered the amazing opportunity of writing a match report on the 2008 Carnegie Challenge Cup Final at Wembley – thanks to an exciting new competition introduced by the Rugby Footbal League. The Rugby League Young Reporter competition is open to any youngsters between the ages of 13 to 16 who are interested in a career in the sports media.

Reckon your hometown can do better than Liverpool’s efforts? Up the ante and submit your own stories.

The next round-up will be early July, so get plenty uploaded to be in with a chance of your city topping the list…

You’ll Never Walk Alone

Dear Plingers,

This is the year of Liverpool! Capital of Culture 2008 kicks off with Ringo Starr’s performance at St. George’s Hall tonight, which means the celebrations have officially begun. Now, the North West’s most famous city is shapeshifting into a savvy new metropolis – partly thanks to its young community.

The men in suits at Liverpool Council decided it was high time that teenagers had their say, so set up this wicked new site.

A blog site where youngsters can share thoughts with people their own age, it’s the perfect sounding board for the next generation. A bit like Plings, the site is also used by the council to consult with young people about topical issues – like health, school life and careers!

Obviously, the site gets better when more people use it – so this is the perfect thing to post on Plings.

Is there a similar site for your region? Or want to get one started? Let’s try and list as many regional equivalents as possible in this thread, and get young people heard.

Get plinging and watch it happen…