The dedication of a young person's support to Dorchester's groups and organisations has been praised and recognised.

Oliver Cullis, known as Olly, has volunteered his time to a number of causes, clubs and groups and was highlighted by the Rotary Club of Dorchester Casterbridge to be entered in the Rotary Young Citizen Awards 2021.

Although he wasn't among the six overall winners, his commitment, service and initiative were acknowledged with a Rotary Young Citizen nomination certificate.

Olly plays an active role in Dorset Young Researchers, Dorset Youth Council, Damers First School eco club, Youth Voice Pioneers, Black Lives Matter, Dorset Member Youth Parliament, Children and Young People Now charity and Dorchester Youth and Community Centre.

Dorset Young Researchers

Olly became involved when a friend invited him along and worked with a group of nine young people aged 12 – 18 years of age.

The Dorset Young Researchers were tasked with researching a problem that affects the majority of young people within Dorset. They created a survey around mental health and emotional well-being and Olly used the findings to change and influence Dorset educational psychologists, Active Dorset and Mosaic.

They presented their report to people from a wide variety of organisations in April 2019 in the formal Dorset Council chamber, this was Olly's very first presentation which was he found daunting.

Dorset Youth Council

Olly was elected to the Dorset Youth Council in February 2019. The Dorset Youth Council is a youth forum of young people throughout Dorset who help influence policies that affect young people within Dorset

For the youth voice summit, Olly filmed, designed and edited the majority of the videos and he has also been one of the lead young people for the sessions since pre-lockdown, helping to empower the other young people in the council.

Damers First School eco club

Olly was asked by the teacher in charge to help with documenting and recording some of the climate change work the school was doing. Olly created the video for promoting the work at Damers First School eco club - working with the school club to help facilitate and bring the pupils ideas into Dorset Council and also policy using his MYP position.

Subsequently, Olly was asked to stay on to run the sessions at the school with the 20 or so young children aged five to nine years of age. Olly facilitated sessions and of particular note managed to get some of the young people a slot to deliver a presentation to the Dorset Council climate enquiry panel.

Youth Voice Pioneers

Olly started his connection with Youth Voice Pioneers (YVP) in March 2020 just before lockdown, he went with a group of about 24 other young people to London, Olly was put in charge of the younger ones.

The YVP are a group of young people from all across the country whose diversity and differences make them thrive. The young people work on all sorts of different projects including CQC research projects, podcasts with half a million streams and helping train organisations to be more youth friendly.

Black Lives Matter

During the Black Lives Matter protests Olly created a podcast reassuring young people about the fears they might feel about such protests. These can be found on Spotify, Apple music, Sound Cloud and more and are titled #YouthVoicePioneer.

With four others, Olly is currently facilitating training sessions for organisations who want to be more youth friendly, and has currently done four sessions with eight people on each.

Dorset Member Youth Parliament

Olly started campaigning in October 2019, with climate change a large part of it, as well as mental health and online harassment.

He was voted in in February 2020 but Covid put a halt to a lot of his plans and ambitions. However, using his IT skills was able to combat lockdown by using virtual means.

Olly is the spokesperson for young people throughout Dorset. Worked on a kindness and positivity campaign as well as the big climate campaign. Introduced the kinder happier Dorset campaign and created the climate pack.

Olly was part of the Dorset Council Interview panel for the head of education role that led to the appointment of the head of education within Dorset.

Olly presented his campaign plans to the Dorset Council Climate Change enquiry panel on behalf of the Dorset Youth Council climate group and explained what would be needed to put his plans in motion.

Children and Young People Now charity

At a national awards ceremony in London, Olly and a few other young people were tasked with judging which organisation should win the charity's award and were invited back to present it in front of a crowd at the 2019 CYP NOW conference.

Dorchester Youth and Community Centre

Olly is both a volunteer and part-time paid employee, becoming a key member of the team.

He is working to create podcasts for young people who take part in the club and has done work on social media, the website and facilitation for sessions with young people online. These sessions include subjects that are important to young people giving them a voice and instilling confidence for them to help themselves.

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