Here at Catch21, our sole aim is to engage and inform our vibrant and vocal electorate, in the ever changing world of politics. To provide discussion, discourse and good old debate in on-trend topics, and to enable the freedom of opinion and understanding to reach out from the House of Commons into our own comfortable common rooms.

In 2009, Catch21 set up the Uni-Q project, a political discussion show that gave students a chance to air their own political opinions whilst grilling willing MP’s. Mirroring the format of BBC Question Time, Uni-Q set off touring colleges and universities across the UK, targeting 14-25 year olds and creating, to date, two series of the direct, informative and in-touch production.

On its travels Uni-Q enlisted the help of various mainstream MP’s and well known faces to sit in the panellist hot seats, and respond to questions designed by a room full of quizzically eager students. We let them do the talking, we were not disappointed. Time and time again challenging topics were raised and resolved… well that depends on your definition of resolved of course, but none the less Uni-Q demonstrated the fervent interest that lies, often untapped, in the youth of today and thus helped us to begin our journey and fulfil our aim to engage, educate and get voices heard.

Following the successes of Uni-Q, and the forming of our current coalition government, we went on to push the boundaries of getting cosy with our own MPs. Through our Mpinions format, Catch21 tapped into the MPs personal opinions and offered our followers a sneaky peek into Westminster, via interaction with newly elected MPs. Mpinions probed into their thought processes, intentions and ideals for the coming parliamentary season, allowing both the MP’s the chance to connect and relate to their constituencies and a wider youth audience, and our audience the chance to get to know our latest MPs a little better.

Building on the ground work of Mpinions, in this April Catch21 created i-MP as a way of allowing young people the opportunity to converse with our politicians both inside and out of parliament. The i-MP video diaries have been warmly welcomed within both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, with the deeply appreciated help of those including Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Charles Kennedy. Catch21 is successfully translating questions asked via the Internet, into videos in which comprehensive interviews and answers are given; these can be seen on our website. In doing so we at Catch21 are helping to enhance our own and our audience’s knowledge of individual MPs and of the inner workings the Westminster machine.

With a growing profile and excellent contributors and supporters from within the Westminster walls, Catch21 is currently enjoying a daily influx of guest bloggers and is looking to update and develop our popular i-MP video diaries, set to commence with Parliament this Autumn. We are poised to continue bridging the gap between the active political figures of today and the potentially politically influential voices of tomorrow, we hope you will join us in doing so too.

Laura Cronshaw is working as a volunteer with Catch21.