Every year, the Liberal Democrats turn to the Young Liberals to launch and run one of the party’s biggest recruitment events – the Freshers campaign.

In this campaign, Young Liberals (formerly Liberal Youth) across the country will descend upon their Students Unions to attend Freshers Fairs and recruit new young and student members. Our largest branches enjoyed hundreds signing up for mailing last year.

Local parties are often well-placed to help Young Liberals in this campaign, and certainly well placed to benefit. Parties with strong student societies will tell you that the Young Liberals can be invaluable come election time – on the national scale we hold action days such as in Lewisham East earlier this year (to which 60 young members were drawn, delivering around ¾ of the constituency in a day).

The Young Liberals locally and nationally can be a real force for campaigning, recruitment, and especially for youth and campus issues.

So here’s how you can help: is there a Young Liberals branch in your area? If so, make sure you’re engaged with them. If you’re engaged with them, ask if there’s any way you can help them with Freshers. If there’s not a Young Liberals branch in your area, but there is a university holding a Freshers fair, enquire with the Students Union about your local party getting a stall and use that to recruit student members who can then form a society at the university with your help.

The Young Liberals executive have been working tirelessly to produce some of the best Freshers packs we’ve sent out, costing just £15 for Young Liberals branches, and £25 for local parties. The packs are filled with literature on three key youth issues; mental health, Brexit, and housing. As if that wasn’t enough, the packs also have literature explaining what Young Liberals does, and stacks of freebies.

Find out about how to order on our website.

Photo: Some rights reserved, Flickr Creative Commons Licence, Nottingham Trent University

* Charlie Murphy is a former Vice Chair of Young Liberals.