Live blogs

Youth Summit Every Child Matters workshop summary

billb — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:34:25 +0100

The five workshops involving young people and a range of policy makers and practitioners were a highlight of this two day event. Here is the report from the workshops, giving a rich amount of information

NYA calls for a ban on Mosquito devices

tim — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:48:33 +0100

The National Youth Agency's spotlight briefing from the Youth Summit calls for Mosquito devices to be banned.

Young people at the Youth Summit strongly condemned the use of the devices which emit a high pitch noise only audible to young people - and which are intended to drive young people away from congregating where the devices are installed.

Participants at the Youth Summit spoke of the need for a campaign against the devices. Human Rights campaign group Liberty have expressed concern that the devices violate young people's Human Rights.

Key messages from the Youth Summit: Spotlight

tim — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:40:22 +0100

The attached 'Spotlight' briefing outlines the key messages that came out of the Youth Summit 2007.

You can find a detailed record of many of the workshops and presentations that took place at the Youth Summit by browsing the rest of this website.

Participation Works

claireg — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:43:50 +0100

Participation Works- Supporting the Third Sector to Develop Participation

Participation Works is a consortium of organizations committed to children and young people’s participation. We offer support to third sector organisations, enabling them to effectively involve children young people in the development, delivery and evaluation of services, which affect their lives.

PWNE
The Participation Works Network for England (PWNE) exists to provide opportunities for adults for whom participation is part of their daily work, to network, share new ideas and learn more about the participation landscape.

Membership is free and benefits include fortnightly ebulletins to keep you up to date with the latest news, events, policy and opportunities around children and young people’s participation in decision making. Members can also search the network database to get in contact with and share knowledge with other participation workers.

Online Gateway
Our Gateway website also contains up to date news stories, events and high quality resources relevant to the world of children and young people’s participation

Training
We offer training to support organisations to develop participation. Our training courses are FREE to Voluntary, Community and Faith organisations.

Building a Culture of Participation explores how an organisation’s culture can be established to support children and young people’s active and meaningful participation across the organisation. It is based on developing skills and knowledge in participation, involving self and organisational analysis as well as action planning. This course may lead on to gaining one to one advice and support from an approved Participation Works consultant.

Ready Steady Change is a comprehensive set of training and tools to build your skills and knowledge in increasing children and young people’s effective participation in decision-making. Focusing on “values, change and action”, Ready Steady Change approaches participation from a children’s rights framework and is suitable for professionals in a variety of settings as well as policy makers.

Visit www.participationworks.org.uk to find out more.

Youth

The_Living_Terrorizer — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:30:25 +0100

Well id just like to say i enjoyed every second of The Youth Summit 2007 I met some very nice and interesting people,and people i already knew i got to know even more.Yvonne and Stephen were so supportive throughout and id just like say Thankyou.

Youth Summit Ten Commandments - from Bishop Roger

tim — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:17:15 +0100

At the closing of the Youth Summit - Chair of the NYA, Bishop Roger Sainsbury set out his 'Ten Commandments' for those at the Youth Summit. We've managed to track down a copy of them here...

YOUTH SUMMIT TEN COMMANDMENTS

Do not demonize or use young people as scapegoats for the social ills of society.
Do not be afraid of speaking out about the value of good youth work.
Establish entitlement for all young people to good quality youth services.
Involve young people in decision making at every level and give respect to their views.
Campaign both locally and nationally for sustained and sufficent investment
in services for young people.
Create youth centres / hubs in each community with access in respect of
transport, physical access , equality and diversity.
Work together with other public services to encourage young people to
choose health.
Campaign for a defined programme of continuing professional development
to increase the skills of all who work with young people and promote better multi-disciplinary working.
Recognize the right of all young people to locally accessible, free , confidential and impartial information, advice, counselling and support.
Encourage and enable young people to participate in buiding peaceful societies based on human rights, diversity and inclusion , in a spirit of respect , tolerance and mutual understanding.

BISHOP ROGER SAINSBURY
CHAIR - THE NATIONAL YOUTH AGENCY

Can you help me find the young advisors from devon???

agirlsmystery — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:12:30 +0100

can you help me find out where i can get into contact with they young advisors from devon their names are Robbie,Aiden,and Steven please they seemed really cool and i would like to get to know them plus robbie was really fit and added bonus but please help me! melx

Righting wrongs - the implications of adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child

billb — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:20:42 +0100

Check out the Rights Stuff link where we have added presentations, briefings, a quiz and other resources for you on the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Youth Summit Live: Summary

tim — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:26:10 +0100

The Youth Summit has been a great success for all those who attended, bringing together practitioners, policy makers and young people to discuss the key issues affecting the implementation of the Government’s ten-year strategy for children and young people. A wealth of ideas, debate and dialogue were generated, the most relevant of which have been captured as video interviews, podcasts, powerpoints and transcripts downloadable from this website. We will ensure it informs our work as we move forward and hope you find it valuable as well.

Throughout the Summit we were recording workshops and plenary sessions through Youth Summit Live. Below are links to some of the key posts in each theme.

Staying Safe

Summary workshop notes from day 1: assessment of the challenges and a full list of day 1 workshop notes give an overview of the staying safe topics covered. The workshop was led by young people from Corby using an attitude finder activity
Discussions of the harm caused Mosquito devices played a big part in the workshop, as the young people from Corby tell is in this video interview and as a workshop participant reflects in this one.
Workshop notes from day 2: priorities for action give a sense of the issues that participants wanted to take forward.
Darshna from Churchfield Primary School also used the blogging feature on Youth Summit Live to offer an imagined advice column to young people on issues of bullying.

Being Healthy

The summary workshop notes from day 1: assessment of the challenges in health give an overview of where we are falling short for young people, with all the different issues identified covered in this post.
Workshop notes from day 2: priorities for action gives a wide-ranging list of priorities from the health workshops, focussing in particular on funding and investment, better sex and relationship education, and improved training and sharing of good practise.
A what's changed example and two videos from the Maypole centre help explore some good practise sharing
Plus - we captured the launch of Youth Access's new resources on commissioning mental health services for young people

Enjoying and Achieving

The workshop notes from day 1: assessment of the challenges build up a clear picture of where change is needed.
Young people from NACRO Newcastle who led these workshops put enjoying and achievement into practise whilst at the summit - by making the most of their London visit and working hard to build a presentation overnight including their photos from around the city that fed into day 2.
The workshop notes from day 2: priorities for action identifies a range of campaigning, spending, policy and practise changes required.
A presentation from Actions Speak Louder highly commended project Rolling Base

Having Economic Wellbeing

The workshop notes from day 1: assessment of the challenges set out some serious topics for discussion on day 2.
But as the woorkshop notes from day 2: priorities for action show - the group generated practical forward planning ideas and shared examples of where action to ensure young people economic wellbeing can work.
We also capture Anthony Lawton's three tests for good housing through Bill's blogging and a discussion has developed on this blog post about gangs placed in the economic wellbeing category.

Making a positive contribution

The making a positive contribution workshop notes from day 1: give a wider ranging assessment of the challenges, added to by points from the young volunteers helping lead the session
The notes from day 2 with priorities are here. The group had a particularly interesting set of discussions about compulsory volunteering.
Mike from Yomo, watching Youth Summit Live whilst working in Ireland, shared some background resources that might be useful for organisations exploring young peoples volunteering and participation.

Plus - outside the core themes of the Youth Summit we had lots of activity on Youth Summit Live. This poem started of a wave of creativity, surfed by Barney from conference organisers NSA with this poetic input. Holly Hill proved to be star blogger, regularly dropping into the media centre to share her reflections. Plus - Tom Wylie's suggestion that there be a national Youth Board sparked a lot of discussion, including an online poll and a couple of video interviews.

Where next for Youth Summit Live?

The Youth Summit Live website will continue to be available and open for contributions for another couple of weeks. After that, we'll pause the ability to add information - but will keep it available so that practioners, policy makers and young people alike can share the collected wisdom and insights of all Youth Summit Live contributors.

The National Youth Agency, supported by Practical Participation is starting a deeper exploration of how methods like this can help us to communicate with and deepen our dialogue with young people and other NYA stakeholder alike. We'd welcome your continued comments, reflections and input.

The Youth Summit Live model

Youth Summit Live was concieved, designed, developed and run in just under a fortnight by Tim Davies of Practical Participation, working with the organising team for Youth Summit live from the National Youth Agency and Neil Stuarts Associates. It was championed and supported by Bill Badham. The Roving Reporters team made the media happen by roving through the Youth Summit gathering photos, reports and more. If you have any feedback about Youth Summit Live; you're interested in exploring how a Youth Summit Live style model could work at an event you are running; or you are interested in wider explorations of how new media can work for your organisation or project, please do contact tim@practicalparticipation.co.uk.

Darshana's Spiritual Area 2

XtroblemakerX — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:51:41 +0100

Dear Darshana
Life may not always go as planned one day you might be happy and another sad. One day you laugh joke and be happy and the very next you cry sulk and go through severe pain. You see I have this friend she is one of my best friends we usto have the best time togetherPlaying laughing and making up jokes. After a year of being best friends she just suddenly changes and starts acting like a big bad bully I don't know what to do. You are my last hope please tell me how to deal with this situation.

My advice

Tell your friend how you feel don't hold in your feeelings. If you do not think you can face her write her a letter as detailed as the one you have written me. If after that she still continues to do what she is doing. Then tell a teavher and see what happens. However if none of these ideas work start to take things seriously and tell the deputy head or head your self.

Todays Spiritual thought
Though there are many hurdles in lifejump over them and continue the race of life.

Do you need any help with anything Email me Darshana and I will see how I can help you.

My view on Gangs....

Hormonal Haircuts — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:25:09 +0100

After going to the session on gangs yesturday I just can't help but think... we are always going to have gang culture...

I personally blame the media for letting gang culture get out of hand. Gangs are all about "status" Iif one gang hears about another being more violent or whatever they will compete... Its in human nature to. This just makes other gangs copy and maybe even make the crime worse.

If the culture was not published so muhc maybe gang violence would calm down abit? I'm not sure...

But what I'm trying to say is that lowering gang culture will not work by enforcement or punsihment. Meerly support to the young people involved in these gangs. If the support was there the gangs may subconciously turn their anger into competing with other gangs by their sucess. Therefore giving the people in teh agngs and escape from the violence.

Putting youth workers in a room with gangs will nto work either. It needs to be one on one. It is obvious the young people in agngs ahve some issue with confidence or motivation otherwise they wouldnt be involved in the gang in the first place.

Anyway.. Rant over...

Til next time :)

can anyone tell me ...

murphle — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:22:05 +0100

... what that myspace address was?

I was in the media zone and advised to visit a myspace site.

but I can't remember what it was.

anyone help?

if so, leave a comment?

THANKS (y)

from martha

x♥o.

Resources for Youth Participation

masyomo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:12:55 +0100

We're now taking orders for our free catalogue featuring our unique set of resources for youth participation and peer education. Order them online through the YoMo website at www.yomo.co.uk or email info@yomo.co.uk

In October we'll be running a networking event for practitioners and young people involved in supporting young peoples participation, citizenship and peer education.

This will be a 2 day event on the 25th & 26th October - places are free for participants that agree to share a resource or run a workshop. Will also include a 'speed networking' session and information about our work supporting a group in Malawi, Africa working with orphaned children.

To ensure you get more information sign up to the YoMo mailing list on the YoMo website (link for the mailing list is at the bottom of the page). If you get confused send us an email! You are very welcome to come to this event and promote your project for free! Thats what its all about!!

Life

XtroblemakerX — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:10:47 +0100

Life
Life is not a fairy tale
It does not always end happily
Fear may rise in you
And never find a way out
So you must live life joyfully
And enjoy what you have
Whilst it lasts
Because the last breathe you breathe is the breath of life in future
To do this you must
Search through your soul
Have the strength to stand up tall
The power of not knowing and letting go
You must find a way to reach happiness and to do that
You go through hard times and endure many tears
At the end you will be free from all the bad things and live a new life
The most important thing is
To believe in yourself and be you.

Remember live life and treat it as the greatest gift in life that you can think of.

Anthony's tests for good housing for young people

billb — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:27:30 +0100

At one of the last sessions of the Youth Summit, young people questioned experts on housing and homelessness, mental health anf youth employment. Cerri and Therryi from Lewisham asked powerful questions about stress, support, accessible housing and jobs for young people. Therryi asked Anthony Lawton, Chief Executive of Centerpoint about comfortable accommodation. Anthony's three tests should be taken up nationaly:

Would this housing or accommodation be good enough for my child?
Is this place as comfortable as I would want for my child?
Is it good value for money?

Signing off for Tuesday... but we'll be back with a wrap up tomorrow (erm, Thursday...)

tim — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:18:56 +0100

So, the final session of the conference is happening, and we're setting down the media centre.

Over the last two days there have been 100s of visitors to Youth Summit Live - and over 80 different contributions to the site.

Notes from all the workshops are here, as well as comments, video interviews and more - on topics from Mosquito devices, via the idea of a national Youth Board with a Ministerial chair, right through to evaluations of the food and the fun.

But this isn't the end of the blogging. We'll be back ~~in the morning~~ Thursday to summarise some of the posts that have been made and to make sure you can find the information you need. And we'll be keeping the site open to comments and access for at least the next month.

We hope you've enjoyed the Youth Summit Live experience - and do let us know your thoughts and feedback.

And do get in touch if you'd like to explore a similar new-media aspect to events you are running the future :)

Churchfields Soundwaves project

Roving Reporters — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:59:03 +0100

Pupils from Churchfield School have been interviewing attendees at the Youth Summit Conference describing their experience as “fun, exciting and amazing”. The pupils found interviewing the MPs a particularly special experience making them feel “like officials” as they questioned their understanding of the environment.

The group learnt a lot from their experience finding it interesting to see different people’s understanding on the word ‘environment’. “I got to learn that different people understand things differently”.

The school is part of the soundwaves project funded by the Ministry of Justice

In the end...

Tal — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:57:40 +0100

Soo.. only the last session left then the day is done. Its gone kinda quick and has been really intense, but Ive enjoyed it loads! Looking forward to seeing the outcomes of the outcome of the event be put into practice.

Interesting

ish — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:45:01 +0100

This was a great event.. for the first time i ended up listening to all the speeches.. it was fun all in all.. whether it was working hard to produce a newsletter and collect information or panicing about giving a speech..or even just asking people some questions at 9 in the morning.. it was a new experience.. and thanks to NYA i get to be a part of it..

Until next timee
Nuff luvv Xx

Darshana's Spiritual Area

darshana — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:03:36 +0100

Dear Darshana,
There is someone I know. Just think of the person as a big bully. The person was one of my best friends and now she has just changed. I need you to help me. I feel like there is no one but you that I could relate to. Please help me understand what is going on I need your help.

My advice
Talk to her and tell her how you feel and if that does not work start to take things seriously and talk to either your parents or tell your teacher and finally if that does'nt work tell the head or deputy head. And see what happens.

Todays Spiritaul thought

Don't let the past hold you captive move on and start anew.

A Fun Time

Pryncess Therryi — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:22:26 +0100

My FInal Blog For Today I've Had A Really Good Time For The LaST 2 Days , Meetin new people and having such a GOOD Time, i've built new relationships with people whom i have never met, it has been an experience, talkking to adults who share a passion for volunteering and helping others just as much as i do... i am happy that u have had the opportunity to take part in such an event.../. I can say that it is seriously excel lent and that it has been an occassion which i can never forget Lotsa Love ♥ Therryi ♥ Over And Out

everything about this conforence bar the content

eddie — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:18:48 +0100

ok... lots of people are going to talk about what is in the conforence so i thought i would say something about everything else!!!

to start the ladies toilets are amazing!!! whoever had the idea of putting leather arm chairs in their, they were a geneous... i do not understand what posessed them to do it but they were inspired!!!

next the gala dinner/ food in general... believe me i'm not one of the hotels advertisers but it is goooood... the gala dinner's high light was the ravioli with mash potato- the most interesting combo i hav ever had...

i really like the continual cakes and biscuits that hav never stopped...

finally, before my blog is done i will tell you of V... i just met them and they are really nice... oh and just to tell you wayne... the young ambassadors luv ur jacket.

kk... keep going youth organisations cause you are doing such a great job...

Rights Now - young people getting a better deal?

Becky Sharp — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:37:20 +0100

Right now the UK Government is reporting to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on its progress for children and young people's rights. Children and young people have basic rights that are protected by most of the governments across the world so that children and young people living in that country can get a better deal.

At the Youth Summit we have been asking people:

"If you were on the committee on the rights of the child and had the power to tell the government off, what would be your top issues?"

These were some of the answers:

Widening of equalities gaps – child poverty a huge issue

Educational under achievement for bottom 10%
Treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, especially unaccompanied minors
Children in care generally fail
Anti-social behaviour – unreasonably labelled children as criminals
The fact that we lock up more young people than anyone else

Too many young people in the poverty trap
Young people’s voice still not heard and a lot of tokenism – don’t always act on the advice and the recommendations they make
Don’t take young people seriously enough

Movement down of salary differences: successfully lower than 10 years ago
Not enough facilities
Public transport
Tuition fees
Sexual health services
Informal facilities for young people
The way we deal with young people who are in trouble with the police

What do you think? Let us know...

Look for more information on the files attached or follow the link to getreadyforgeneva.org.uk

Ramblings of a Conference Bod

Barney — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:13:53 +0100

I work at NSA
Making conferences everyday
The Youth Summit was the best
By far and away

Young People and policy-makers
Coming together like policy bakers
We've moved from words to action
Hopefully there will be some takers

So have we all understood
What it means to wear a hood?
And is the PM listening
Like a good politician should?

We've heard so much inspiration
Young People from across the nation
I'm sure it won't end
When they get to the train station

Many thanks to everyone involved. The NYA are doing a great job in continuiing to push policy for young people up the agenda. Thanks to Tim and the media crew for a wicked site and giving the Summit something different. I hope our organisation was good and we've looked after you well.
We look forward to seeing you all again,

Barney (age 28 and 1/2)

Roving Reporters - Newsletter

tim — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:50:52 +0100

The Roving Reporters were up till late last night creating an overnight newsletter to give a picture of the whole event.

Get your copy here (PDF).

The Speech... (feedback from day 1....)

Roving Reporters — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:43:08 +0100

Well, the hard part is now over.. not the greatest thing having to wake up to give a speech infront of a 150 odd people. Actually, to be honest it wasn't as bad as we anticipated as things worked out okay in the end. It was a mixture between excitement and nerves. Oh well.. all over now so the rest of the day to look forward to.

You can see the slides from our feedback this morning below:

breakfast & bruises

murphle — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:27:28 +0100

second day.
too early and pulling the suicase down the stairs was bound to end badly.
we arrived just on time and sat down to listen to the first and second speeches. health & education. i found these too long but some of the points raised were important and useful, needing to be taken into consideration for the future. in particular, the way we interact with adults and vice versa about drugs, sex and alcohol abuse ..
however!! from the gala dinner last night, someone said we shouldn't be called 'young people' because it separates us into an alien race and this isn't right.
we are your children ... LOOK WHAT YOU CREATED :O

Youth Access Launch new Counselling Resources

tim — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:54:41 +0100

Tom Wylie, Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency, on behalf of Youth Access (its partner organisation) today launches at the Youth Summit two free national resources
to support the commissioning of youth counselling services across the country.

Caroline Flint, Minister for Public Health stopped by the Youth Access stand at the Summit just after the launch and had this to say:

You can find the full press release from Youth Access attached below...

Day 1 Wrap Up

tim — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:40:14 +0100

What a day!

The Youth Summit has been generating a wealth of information and dialogue and we've been trying to capture as much of it as possible here on http://live.youthsummit.co.uk

You can see how quickly posts came into the site by taking a look at the Timeline. We've had blog posts from young people and adults at the event, reflecting on different parts of the event and inputting views. Plus check out the video interviews on YouTube reflecting some of the debates of the day.

You can also view write ups from each of the workshops today (well, yesterday by now - but from day 1...) by clicking the 'Themes' at the top of the front page... or if you fancy exploring the input in a more interactive way - this 'tag cloud' will show you the frequency of particular phrases and words in the reports from each session. The size of a word in the tag cloud represents how many times it occurred in the workshop reports...

And if you're finding it a challenge to keep up with all the information being shared here on Youth Summit Live, look out for a summary of key issues from the Roving Reporters newsletter available in the morning at the Conference Centre and here online.

Facing the Dragons

tim — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:44:05 +0100

Facing the dragons: what do you think?

Telford, Tower Hamlets and Suffolk were the three councils presenting their cases to the dragons, each bidding to be chosen as the 'council for the youth' at today's Youth Summit. Each council described the various opportunities they offer to young people, ranging from health care to sports. After a gruelling series of questions from the three dragons, the audience was asked to vote on which council they thought was the most accommodating for young people, using a new democratic process involving a "hands up and scream" system where the winner was based on who had the "loudest" support. After two voting round, it was decided by an undisputable majority that Tower hamlets were the winner, crowned as the best council for young people. However - we want to know what you think...

The key points from each council are available below, and you can vote for who you think should have won here...

Telford
Activities for children and young people to do
Street sport and leisure centres
Art and Culture - concerts, gigs, arts team, theatre, culture zone
Celebrate success of young citizens - certificates
Young peoples voices are heard - school council and councillor training
Children and young people are at the heart of decision making

Suffolk
Young peoples voices are heard
Youth council working on funds
Activities to do - Go Ape (adventure scheme), Museums, Ridding centres
Best crime rates (20 & under, well below average)
Volunteering opportunities

Tower Hamlets
Best Funded services
Developed with and for young people
Four mobile vehicles to go to area that don't have youth clubs
At least two hours per week of constructive activities (learn knowledge and skills), sporting activities and art activities
850 new projects being developed there
2012 Olympics going on in area
A youth club within every mile