Young Essex Assembly

What is the Young Essex Assembly?

The Young Essex Assembly (YEA) is the elected youth council for Essex and is supported by Essex Youth Service. There are 75 YEA members, representing all districts across Essex. The YEA review priorities and consult with young people as well as campaigning to make a positive difference for young people in Essex.

Elections will be held in 2022 with applications being welcomed from July 11th 2022 and the deadline for applications will be October 17th 2022.

In between elections, you can still join us by becoming a Youth Voice Champion and take part in all our meetings, campaigns and training.

How we work

As a member of the YEA you will have the opportunity to be heard by members of Essex County Council, local and national organisations as well as other youth groups. The YEA work hard to improve the lives of young people in Essex and make important decisions on their behalf. All YEA Members represent young people within their communities and engage with those young people to ensure they have their voices heard and represent them fully.

The members of the Young Essex Assembly meet once every month, we call these meetings 'sittings'. You will also be a part of an area group working on local issues. Each member is asked to take part in another group, which focuses on current work the YEA is undertaking. These are called 'Sub-Groups'.

YEA members meet monthly in their local areas to work on local issues.

All sittings are held within the County and will often take place on a Saturday or on a day during the school holidays. Smaller meetings, which involve the sub-groups, usually take place during an evening mid-week. Each Sub-Group will feed back to the main Assembly. 

Six members of the YEA are also elected yearly to represent Essex within the UK Youth Parliament.

For more information, visit www.young-essex-assembly.org.uk

Or contact us at yea@essex.gov.uk

Current projects

Each area is working on different projects, and we are always happy to chat about them! For general enquiries contact us at yea@essex.gov.uk. 

In the North-East we are currently running a book review writing competition to honour the year of reading! You can find more information at /young-people/young-essex-assembly/the-young-essex-assembly-rawr/ about how you can get involved!