For Social Action Day March 17th 2018 the youth board chose to put on ‘Meraki Fest’; a community engagement food and music festival to portray the diversity of cultures in the city. The day included food that was homemade by our youth board and their parents ranging from English, Kurdish to Ghanian. There were also donations of food from local restaurants and stores. All entertainment and performances were provided by young people in Sheffield and the event was hosted by the chairperson of our Youth Board, Tashinga Matewe.

The event was held at a community centre and a part of the budget was used to hire the venue, with the remainder being to reimburse cost of ingredients for the food that was made.

To say that I was thoroughly impressed by their organising doesn’t do them justice. Whilst the staff oversaw the preparation for the day, the event itself was run entirely by the young people. This included some of the youth board carrying out a site visit to ensure the suitability of the venue, took into account dietary requirements, contributed to the risk assessment and drew up a detailed plan of the running of the day.