Act for Change fund film sees CYA in the spotlight again

A video sharing learning from four years of national Act for Change funding shows what young people can achieve when they set out to deal with an issue with the right backing. Act for Change provided funding for organisations where young people use their expertise to tackle injustice and funded the Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) […]

CYA win prestigious national award for campaign to change how disability hate is handled by social media giants

Last night (19 May) a group of young activists who challenged Facebook’s disability hate and ableism policies won the prestigious Sheila McKechnie David and Goliath Award, writes award organisers SMK Campaigners. Despite rising levels of disability hate crime online, Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) always got the same response when they tried to report a problem – […]

CYA shortlisted for national campaigners award

We’re thrilled to announce that our Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) are shortlisted for a special national campaigners award which celebrates small campaign groups taking on much bigger organisations and challenging vested power. The David and Goliath Award winner will be revealed at a hybrid full awards ceremony being live streamed from a news room in […]

CYA’s Chloe helps bring more books with disability representation to library shelves

For World Book Day (3 March) this year, young activist Chloe took the opportunity to share a selection of their favourite books with disability representation on social media. By posting the list in a Reel on Coventry Youth Activists’ Instagram account, Chloe’s audience also included the local library service’s Service Development Manager, Sorrelle Clements. Sorrelle […]

CYA descend on Facebook offices today to demand protection against disability hate

Young disabled activists from Coventry take their fight against Facebook to the social media giant’s London offices today to force the company to listen to their demands. The demonstration comes as figures out this month show a 52 per cent increase in disability hate crime online, mostly committed by repeat offenders.*  The group says […]

Coventry MP joins CYA’s ‘no hate on Facebook’ campaign

Local MP Taiwo Owatemi is backing a campaign by young disabled people from Coventry to make Facebook treat disability hate on its platform with the seriousness it deserves. Inspired by Coventry Youth Activists’ (CYA) campaign #FacebookHasNoStandards, launched on 1 March to mark Zero Discrimination Day, the Coventry North West MP helped organise a meeting between […]

Sally Phillips on the sofa with CYA!

Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) have premiered Episode 1 of their CYA on Your Sofa series and it’s a big one… featuring successful actor Sally Phillips of Bridget Jones, Smack the Pony and Miranda fame! Sally, a mother of three sons including Olly who has Down’s syndrome, zoomed into the conversation with our young people from […]

CYA on Your Sofa kicks off for Loneliness Awareness Week

Invitations to weekly sofa conversations on isolation are winging their way to local and national players in the business of influencing the equality and inclusivity agenda for disabled people this week. The unusual invitation to ‘CYA on Your Sofa’ is penned by campaigns group Coventry Youth Activists. They won’t let isolation stop the conversation and […]

Not one, but two new CYA campaigns!

Last month Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) were joined by Peace First – a non-profit organisation empowering young people to create a just and peaceful world. Tahmid travelled from London to help the group share things they felt passionate about and wanted to change. The result was not just one but two new campaigns for the young activists […]