Steve throws his weight behind young people in Winchester working for their communities.
Steve Brine (Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Winchester) got stuck in at the City’s University as ‘Student Volunteering Week’ came to town.
The week, which is organised by Student Volunteering England, is deigned to raise the national profile of student volunteers by promoting and celebrating local student groups. Around the country universities and colleges have been putting on special events and volunteering projects to reward current volunteers and recruit new ones.
Steve was at The Stripe Theatre on the King Alfred’s Campus (on Thursday 1st March) to help promote the work of The Blue Sky Foundation and meet other local student volunteers.
Blue Sky, which has recently won the highly prestigious LSE Pitch It award for social enterprise was established in April 2006 to help engage young people in the political process with schools, colleges, universities and other community groups. It operates a programme which aims to provide opportunities for interested young people to develop their skills and network with one another to ensure that the leaders of the future are prepared for the challenges ahead.
Chairman of Blue Sky, Ranil Jayawardena, added; “We believe in learning through debate – engaging young people and letting them speak out. Through their own issues and concerns, we show pupils why politics and citizenship matter. We’ve had an excellent response at the University of Winchester and look forward to bringing the programme to local schools in the very near future.”
Steve Brine, a former Student Union President himself, says; “I am firm believer that far from being the generation that doesn’t care, young people today are more switched onto the issues facing our country than ever before. I have met dozens of student volunteers at this event who don’t just sit around talking - they just get up and get on with making a difference in their communities.
“I think "Social responsibility” is the idea that should underlie everything we do these days and it simply means that the Government can’t solve everything – that our social problems need social solutions. That means responsibility for our neighbours, for our country and for the planet is the job of every one us, not just the government. I want to roll forward the frontiers of society so rather than thinking, in every instance, what can the Government do about this or that issue, we should be thinking, what can society do? And for the record, I believe there is such a thing as society, it’s just not the same thing as the state.
“Young people in Winchester are leading by example and I’m right behind them.”
Steve is pictured above with Ranil Jayawardena of Blue Sky and students from The University of Winchester.
Blue Sky can be seen at www.blueskyfoundation.org.uk