18.2.22

A new youth forum to help support the growth and use of the Welsh language among young people in Cardiff will be established this year.

The Bilingual Cardiff Youth Forum will be a platform for young people representing various partner organisations from the Bilingual Cardiff Forum - such as the Arts Council of Wales, the Urdd, Menter Caerdydd and Literature Wales, where they can meet, plan social events and activities through the medium of Welsh to support the increase and prevalence of the language in the capital.

Members of the forum will be encouraged to be Welsh language champions on social media, influencing their peers and promoting opportunities to use the language beyond the school gates.

Creating the forum is just one of a number of areas of work outlined in the Bilingual Cardiff Strategy 2022 - 27 action plan, which outlines various schemes and initiatives to facilitate the growth and use of the language in Cardiff.

The strategy is aligned with Welsh Government's Cymraeg 2050 ambitions for one million Welsh speakers and has been developed under three key themes - increasing the number of Welsh speakers, increasing the use of Welsh and creating favourable conditions for the language.

Projections indicate there were 42,584 Welsh speakers in the city in 2021. Increasing that number by 3,386 by 2027 is a key aim of the strategy, which would place the city in good stead to reach 49,355 by 2031 and on track to play its part in the Cymraeg 2050 vision.

The education system and the Council's Welsh in Education Strategic Plan 2022-32 will play a key role in achieving the targets set out in the strategy, by ensuring the future growth of the language by increasing the number of children - and parents - who have the opportunity to learn and speak Welsh, as well as to use the language outside the school gates.

The strategy seeks to promote the benefits of using Welsh in the home, raising awareness of the Welsh language and its history and culture with families who do not speak Welsh as well as promoting Welsh medium education with Black Asian and Minority Ethnic and under-represented communities in the city.

Leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas, said: "Supporting young people, families and communities to learn, speak, use and choose Welsh is at the heart of delivering our bilingual ambitions. We want Cardiff to be a city where people can live, work and play, as well as access good quality services and support in Welsh or English equally.

"This new strategy is the roadmap to get us there and the creation of the Bilingual Cardiff Youth Forum is just one initiative to support us along the way.

"Considering the difficult two years young people have just experienced and the lack of opportunities they've had to meet and just be themselves, as well as our Child-Friendly City ambitions, creating greater and better opportunities for young people to speak Welsh together apart from the school day, or outside the family home is essential.

"We made very solid progress as a city over the lifespan of the previous Bilingual Cardiff strategy. Partnership working has been key to that success and we aim to deepen and broad relationships with other organisations to help to achieve our vision for a truly bilingual capital over the coming years."

Cabinet will consider the Bilingual Cardiff Strategy 2022 - 2027 at its next meeting on Thursday, February 25 and are asked to recommend the strategy to Full Council.

To read the full report and the Bilingual Cardiff Strategy 2022 - 2027, go to Agenda for Cabinet on Thursday, 24th February, 2022, 2.00 pm : City of Cardiff Council (moderngov.co.uk)