Whist today’s politicians regularly show young people two faces, from hug a hoodie to treating them like a disease that needs to be contained with ASBOs, organisations like the British Youth Council (BYC) – the national youth council for young people in the UK, treat young people as citizens who deserve their voice to be heard.

BYC believes that young people should be involved in decisions that affect and concern them. Young people should be able to influence their democracy, whether by voting, standing as a candidate or lobbying their elected representative, as politics affects every aspect of all our lives.

At no time is that more important this year than on May 3 – Election Day for many English councils and the Scottish Parliament. BYC is also encouraging young people to vote in March’s elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly as it takes its first tentative steps back into a fully active devolved administration.

But young people’s participation in their democracy, shouldn’t just happen once every four years, like candidates walking up to your front door a few days before polling day. Democracy is part of our life, day-in, day-out, week-in, week-out, year-in, year-out. Obviously, in the run up to polling day, it becomes more of a focal point, as shown in our X-Appeal campaign for the 2005 general election and our support for the 2004 Get the Vote Out campaign for that year’s European Parliament elections.

From ongoing campaigns such as Votes at 16 calling for a lowering of the voting age to 16, to encouraging young people to express their views on the Local Government White Paper, BYC supports young people to influence their democracy. Other BYC campaigns include: Respect: the voice behind the hood: a joint campaign with YouthNet UK ensuring young people’s views are heard in the debate on anti-social behaviour; Human Rights: BYC’s call on politicians from all parties to publicly denounce the attitude of the Polish government towards LGBT people; calling for an equal minimum wage for everyone over 16.

We all know it is better to be inside the tent standing up for your beliefs than standing outside complaining, yet the politicians continue to close their ears and lock the door to young people’s involvement. Young people are bothered about democracy; they want their right to have a say and have an elected representative listen and – most importantly – act on their concerns.

In advance of May’s polling day, as part of a wider programme of work, BYC is running the first of a number of training sessions across the UK for young people to inform them about their democracy and its various levels (local, devolved, national, European), and equip them with knowledge on how to influence those institutions and representatives.

Acknowledging that today’s youth are at the cutting edge of multimedia technology, a section of BYC’s website contains a variety of information on how young people can find out more about democracy and their elected representatives. The interactive site also enables young people to: email their elected representative (MP, MSP, MEP or AM) to tell them about the issues that are effecting them; find out what elections are happening when and where, as well as sign onto the electoral register; download fact sheets about the different parliaments and assemblies that you can vote elected representatives to and find out how you can influence them.

It’s time politicians stopped demonising young people and started respecting them. Young people care about politics, even if it’s with a small p. From the war in Iraq, to opposing top-up fees, to calling for a minimum wage for all, young people do care. They are bothered, and BYC is committed to helping young people shape and influence the politics of today and tomorrow.

For more information about the forthcoming elections, how democracy works and a variety of issues that young people can contact their elected representatives about, visit BYC’s website, http://www.byc.org.uk.