CATE JAMES-HODGES
Cate is the current Leader of Stroud District Youth Council (SDYC), where her previous roles have also included Principal Member for Environment, British Youth Council representative, member of the 2030 Community Engagement Board and member of the Local Strategic Partnership. This is part of her participant work in Stroud District Council’s youth service.
All this voluntary work has given her valuable public speaking and communication skills, experience of being an elected officer, and a detailed understanding of how organisations operate and make policy.
She has also gained experience in connecting with various individuals and groups in the local community as well as advocating for them.
Her personal attributes that will be valuable as a councillor include strategic thinking, creative problem solving and persistence.
One of her aims as a district councillor would be to make residents feel better understood and heard, to help make services more accessible and to make people’s lives easier.
She says: “I want to engage with people and empower them to see the positive impact they can have on their local community. I want to ensure under-served voices – especially those of young people – are heard more often.”
If elected, Cate would like to help SDC achieve its aim to become carbon neutral by 2030 and further improve local biodiversity. She would also like to see more council-run recreation facilities, and measures to improve safety for residents (especially women).
She will champion projects that increase engagement with young people and that give them a bigger say in key decision making.
Her wish list for a better country includes: cleaner waterways, reduced plastic use, life skills education in schools, free public transport, easily accessible mental health services, better quality housing developments and an end to homelessness, racism and violence of all kinds.
Cate has lived in Stroud all her life and loves the area for its vibrancy, interesting shops and beautiful countryside. She also admires the environmental activism that goes on locally and the way that local people strive to improve the district’s diversity.
She joined the Green Party not just because she agreed with the party’s policies but also because locally it was Green councillors who she found most active and most interested in engaging with young voters.
Cate’s day-job is as a waitress and in her spare time she enjoys art, gaming and running. She is also learning Italian, Japanese and German and likes growing fruit and vegetables.