Maya, aged 17, is in her second year on our Youth Board

I started going to my youth club at age 4 and first got involved with London Youth when I did their City Leaders social action programme with a group of young people in my local community. We pitched for funding to organise a trampolining trip and secure music equipment for our club, along with producing T-shirts that we sold to raise money for our club.

Joining Dare London has made me less shy as I’ve met so many new people from across London. It’s showed me how youth involvement can work well in charities.  A personal highlight has been joining a debating event at City Hall where I learnt professional debating techniques. After that I set up a debating club at my local primary school to help other children to express their views well in everyday life.

The bravest thing I’ve done at 15 was to give a keynote speech at a black tie event in front of a large audience of influential people. It was intimidating but I’d worked hard on my speech with London Youth and loved having the opportunity to tell my truth. Having done that, I feel like I can do anything now!

All of my experiences with London Youth have taught me push myself forward and not just think it, do it.