The Bermuda Youth Council has been “reinvented” to provide Government with the perspective of Bermuda’s young people.Minister without Portfolio Michael Weeks said the 11-person council, made up of senior school students, Bermuda College students, and young university graduates, will be redeveloped to better reflect Bermuda’s current challenges.“The Youth Council will endeavour to set a platform for the engagement of Bermuda’s young people, to give them a seat at the table so to speak, to ensure that their voices will be heard and that their issues and interests become a standard on the Government agenda,” Mr Weeks said.“We sometimes hear criticism levelled that some young people in our community are cynical, disengaged, apathetic, spoiled, but how often have we actually invited young people to the table to share their thoughts and opinions?”The council will help tackle issues ranging from improving relationships between youth and police, creating national trade clubs, promoting sustainable development and developing programmes to encourage young people to stay in school.It will also provide oversight and input on the implementation of the Mincy Report on young black males. The report by Columbia University professor Ronald Mincy found that more than half of young black men in Bermuda drop out of school.Mr Weeks stressed the importance of the council, saying young Bermudians now face many challenges and pressures greater than that of previous generations.He said: “When I was growing up we didn’t face anywhere near the kinds of extreme pressures and global dilemmas that today’s young people face in terms of drug and alcohol use and abuse, anti-social behaviour, gangs, violence, gun crime, the challenges of paying for education, finding a job, finding affordable accommodation and so on.”He said that based on estimates, around ten percent of Bermudians are between the ages of 16 and 24, and that giving them a voice now would help encourage them to become more involved in the community.“One of my first formal engagements as Minister was the honour of speaking at the Annual Bermuda Students Dinner and I have to tell you when I talked to the young people afterwards, I was truly impressed with their valuable perspectives, ideas and insights, not just in terms of issues that directly impact them, but the challenges facing our entire community,” he said.“It is important that we should not just sit back and wait for them to become the future. We as current leaders need to pave the way for them to be involved and engaged now.”