Jon-Paul Howarth

Councillor in North East Lincolnshire

I was elected at just 18 years old, the youngest ever in our region.

I have a big passion for my local community having lived here all my life and having volunteered at my local Youth Centre since I was 13 years old.  After attending various residents’ meetings and speaking out on behalf of the community, I felt that the only way I could really achieve the change I wanted, was to stand up and be counted and hopefully change things from the inside.

I have campaigned for more facilities for the young and elderly: especially places in which they can meet together to break down stereotypes, and see that not every 13 year old is some ‘ASBO’ tearing up the streets, and not every 65 year old is just a moaner who craves the long lost days of National Service.

My greatest achievement since becoming a Ward Councillor, was organising the first ever East Marsh Community Champions awards night, as I felt that services and people that were going out of their way to help the community were not getting the recognition they deserved.  I was told by many that it would never be achieved as organisations and residents would never want to meet and celebrate together in an informal social setting.  Needless to say, they were proved wrong when we had over 150 residents and staff from various organisations attending . A short video of the night can be viewed at http://tv4change.co.uk/EastMarshCommunityAwards2009.aspx

I have really enjoyed my first foray into local politics, and although it has been a very rocky ride, I would recommend it to anyone with a passion to make things better, and say that we can make the changes we want to see, but we can only make the changes if we can be willing to give our time and energy to make it happen.  Then the rewards will come.