Josette for Young Mayor of Lewisham!

Josette Antoine, who is one of the young people from our church, is a candidate in the elections for Lewisham's Young Mayor.

If you are aged between 11 and 17 years and live, work or study in Lewisham, you can vote in the election which will be on October 16.

Everyone in a secondary school or sixth form college will be allowed to vote at a polling station at their school or college on polling day and will be given a ballot paper and asked to cast their vote for first and second choices for Young Mayor.

If you're not eligible to vote you can still help by spreading the word and 'liking' her on Facebook.

Please encourage and support her as she endeavours to become Young Mayor of Lewisham.

You can read her statement here, taken from the Lewisham Young Mayor 2013-2014 page on the Lewisham Council website:

"My name is Josette Antoine. I have lived in Lewisham borough all my life and seen a lot of positive and negative changes which have affected teenagers across Lewisham. I will aim to implement changes which reflect our views and ideas. Some of the problems young people face includes a lack of job opportunities and facilities both in and out of school. Lewisham needs to change.

As President Obama says: 'Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, we are the change that we seek’.

We have a VOICE. MAKE ME YOUR VOICE OF CHANGE. Everybody needs a friend. Everyone needs someone to talk to. The lack of that in Lewisham is evident in the way we deal with each other. If the emotional needs of youth are met, our schools and borough will be improved. I would like to propose that we offer confidential counselling for the youth of Lewisham. I am committed to meeting the emotional needs of teenagers. Many are depressed so programmes need to be put in place to assist them with their issues. I implore you to choose me as your Young Mayor. If your mind was on someone else, it’s not too late to change for progress. A CHANGE IS COMING – BE A PART OF IT."