17-year-old would-be mayor has passion for improving her south London community

Seventeen may seem on the young side to become involved in politics, but Stephanie Boateng’s passion for helping her south London community has inspired her to put herself forward as a candidate for Young Mayor of Lewisham.

Building on her work with a local community Newlewisham community unit  and mentoring people to become successful, productive members of society, Stephanie wants to expand the mentoring scheme and make it accessible to all young people in the borough. 

As part of her election campaign, Stephanie, a student at Christ the King Sixth Form, has been giving assemblies in Lewisham schools to tell youngsters about her vision for the future of Lewisham.

‘Previous Young Mayors have done an amazing job, but there’s still so much work to do,’ says Stephanie, who lives in Lewisham but attends the St Mary’s campus of Christ the King Sixth Form in Sidcup.

‘There are many activities for adults, but when it comes to young people there’s not much to do apart from going to school and coming home. You can see them hanging around because there’s nothing to do, but they don’t want to go home.’

Stephanie says that Christ the King Sixth has been behind her every step of the way in her election campaign. ‘They’ve been so supportive and keen to help me’ she says.

But as soon as the elections are over, Stephanie will be focusing on the final year of her level-3 Business BTEC. Her sights are firmly set on reading Business and Law at Queen Mary’s University of London, so for the time being politics will have to wait.

Find out about the other Young Mayor candidates here