We all need to be resilient
Last week I co-facilitated a session on resilience at the wonderful CreativeCollisions conference. Way over 100 youth professionals and young people spent nearly 2 hours engaging with the subject, focussing on the following question: • How can we increase resilience in young people and communities? This is a critical question and gets right to the […]
Where is the good news?
“Youth is disintegrating. The youngsters of the land have a disrespect for their elders and a contempt for authority in every form. Vandalism is rife, and crime of all kinds is rampant among our young people. The nation is in peril.” Quote from an Egyptian Priest, circa 2000 BC It is all too easy to […]
We Must End This State Sanctioned Child Abuse
I have been working in the youth sector for over 20 years and am not easily shocked. But I am truly stunned and sickened by the news that I read yesterday, that there have been 43,960 strip-searches of young people in custody, in a mere 21 months. This is institutionalised child abuse on an industrial […]
Gamesmakers, Olympic Ideals & Legacy
Everyone is in agreement that the London 2012 Gamesmakers are doing a sensational job. They are a fantastic tribute, to themselves; to the British and non-British people who live in this country; to the spirit of volunteering and to the Olympics itself. To set the context for this blog, I have been managing Olympic programmes […]
Some thoughts on community participation
Everyone wants to involve the local community in services, projects and local initiatives. But… What does this actually mean in practice? How can we, as professionals in the sector, ensure that we are providing an effective and attractive menu of participation options for people to take up? And How can we measure the effectiveness of […]
A torch to host, not to own – how the Olympic torches could bring a lasting legacy
I have to admit to feeling pretty upset, reading the stories of Olympic torches being sold. This not only feels totally out of keeping with the spirit of the London Olympic bid, which was rooted in the concepts of community and regeneration, but is also an incredible missed opportunity to create a significant legacy for […]
When is cyber-bullying in fact online self-harming?
The world we live in is rapidly changing due to the digital revolution, but human beings are not changing so fast, and what seems clear is that we are taking the same patterns (healthy and destructive) from the non-digital world and adapting them to the online sphere. Over the past year, I have asked a […]
A Monumental Error in the Making – The curious case of the expansion of the National Citizen Service
Something very odd indeed is going on. In the middle of the most severe cuts in living memory where youth service budgets are being decimated, the government has announced a massive, and very costly, expansion of an unevaluated programme that has yet to demonstrate that it works at all. And to make matters even more […]
There are no single causes of complex events
The recent riots have quite correctly occasioned an outpouring of emotion, debate and commentary. Much of it now is focussed on the question of what “caused” the riots to happen with debate raging and all sides using the situation to back up and trumpet their own pre-existing beliefs. There has sadly been a tremendous amount […]
Where is Justice?
Everyone agrees that the rioters must be punished; but what will be the best ways to serve justice – for victims, for our communities and for perpetrators? I was delighted to see today reported in the Guardian the news that the government will be initiating a community based “riot payback scheme”, though it remains to […]
