4Uth 2022 winners
Kieran Frankland, 17, Gedling
Kieran is 17 and has recently gained full time employment. Kieran was nominated by Aimee Sharpe, a youth worker.
Aimee said, “Kieran really deserves this nomination he is an incredible young man who devotes so much of his time to try and improve services to help others”.
Kieran works hard to support his local community by volunteering at Trussell Trust foodbank, he supports the East Midlands Blood Bikes by fundraising and he is an active senior member of his local Boys' Brigade.
Kieran is also an active member of the following groups:
Pioneers - a youth forum for young people in Nottinghamshire who represent and seek change and improved services and opportunities for young people with disabilities. Kieran has taken an active role in developing services and opportunities for young people, working with other forum members to ensure that the council's 'local offer' is relevant for children and young people and he has supported the development of the webpage and young people’s zone, allowing children and young people in Nottinghamshire to access information about services, events and activities, all in one place. Kieran and other pioneers’ members have worked hard to ensure that the webpage is accessible and able to work for young people with various complex needs.
Voice of Adoption - Kieran has been an active member for many years. The group now represents and covers the East Midlands. Kieran's role within this forum is to support the development of activity days for children and young people who are adopted. This is an important role as many children and young people experience complex feelings and needs because of adoption and the forum brings young people together to support, have fun and develop friendships, and a place to share experiences and seek support. As part of this group, Kieran is the representative at the Nottinghamshire young people’s board for the voice of adoption, Kieran attends this board with other elected young people from districts and other underrepresented groups. His role is to ensure that the voice of adopted young people is heard within the decision making of the council
This year, Kieran worked hard to engage schools and colleges in the 'make your mark' consultation for Nottinghamshire. Kieran successfully engaged over 3,000 young people to have a say and make their mark, proving that he is not only concerned with expressing his own views but that he seeks to understand other people’s ideas.
Kieran has been reflective over the past few months about his role and how he can continue to make progress, both within the work he is doing within the various forums but also as an individual. Kieran has autism which brings many challenges which he can identify, and he actively seeks to push himself to increase his areas of interest, try new things and visit new places. This isn’t always a comfortable thing for Kieran to do, but he has embraced the challenge and thrives on the success of his self-development.
