Week Seven

Hello All

BIG BIG BIG Apologies in such a delay on this Blog post as I previously mentioned things have been all go go go here!!!

After a major setback last week when I managed to lose all of my computer files after resetting my PC I am unfortunately a week behind on all my work. I am managing to catch up with the toolkit which is really starting to take shape :)

 

 

 

I have also been planning for the volunteer training with the young people and the team that will run next week Tue through to Thur. I am very excited about taking part in this training as it was actually part of my degree and is something I feel I will be able to effectively input in to and support. Along with the volunteer training Thursday afternoon will see the arrival of some of the young people’s planning committee who will be training for their roles within the conference it will be grate to get to meet more of them and see how all their hard work is paying off.

I cannot wait now for the conference when the young people can see all their suggestions put it to action

 It is so exciting!!!!

 

Any way must dash lots to do and no time to do it in!!!!!
I Promise I will write more and post some pictures up soon XD

Week Five

So it is all go now!!! I am in to my second week of interviews collecting the information that will eventually support my toolkit! I have also been playing around with formatting and layout to see how the toolkit should look.

I have been taking inspiration from a number of grate toolkits, reports and writings published by small organisations rite up to those produced for the UN Convention! It has been so grate having access to such interesting pieces of work and I cannot thank Cath enough for suggesting I check them out!

My aim for the rest of the week is to produce the first few introduction sections of the toolkit along with reviewing my data to find out the key themes and patterns so I may begin the main part of the toolkit :)

My apologies that this is brief but again I am just so busy, thanks again for reading I will post again soon!!!

Week Four I'm Back!

Hi all

welcome back to my blog. As you know I was off during the 12th-18th having a whale of a time graduating and celebrating with the animals at Chester zoo :) Although I was slightly disappointed I missed out on my first research away day on 12th July, my first (hopefully not my last) Graduation day certainly made up for my loss!

After my break I came back not so well rested! The Wednesday and Thursday where a chance to catch up on what I had missed from the week before and get back in to the swing of things. Friday however was a busy day. The morning was spent at an Action learning event held by the Centre for research and informed teaching. An action learning event is actually a really helpful conflict resolution method that can be used in business and other similar set ups when there is an issue that needs solving. Obviously it worked a little differently for us but here is the basic premise:

 People come together from all levels in an organisation and sit together around a table.

Everyone is equal weather you’re the CEO or someone on the frontline, no one can intimidate another person and people must feel free to speak openly and honestly.

Sitting in groups of no more than six each person first gets three minutes to introduce themselves

Once their three minutes is up a delegated time keeper on the table alerts them and moves on to the next person

Each person then gets 2 minutes to give a brief summary of an issue they have or want to discuss

After everyone has spoken the group decided which issues they are going to talk about first

One it has been de3cided the person whose issue it is talks for ten minutes with no interruption

After those ten minutes the group talk out the issue offering solutions for that person

Before the session ends that person then gets five minutes to reflect on the discussion and state what action they will put in place to resolve the issue

This was a grate activity and I will defiantly keep it in mind for the future. Although there were few major issues for fellow interns on my table it was so interesting to find out about their projects, backgrounds and their experiences so far.

 Once that was over I only had the afternoon to put together a consent form and information booklet for my consultation workshop I had planned for the young people’s planning group. I did have help from both Cath and Josh however so they came together quite quickly. The only thing left for me to do therefore was to buy BALLOONS!

 I spent Monday planning for my meeting by double checking my workshop details picking up balloons and my cuddly buzzy bee who helped with my ice breakers! I then met up with cath to grab a Dictaphone and iPod doc and we were off to meet the young people’s planning group!
Unfortunately on the night only three young people attended the meeting and although we are not 100% sure of the reasons it is likely the timing of the meeting as it was the first Monday of the summer holidays. The three young people that did attend however were willing to take part in my workshop and offered up some grate feedback!

my plan for the next week then is to transcribe the data from Mondays meeting, interview the adult planning group members, begin the introduction for the toolkit and send out some letters enquiring about sponsorship opportunities to assist young people traveling from international countries using contacts gained from the time on my degree programme!

Week two

Wow what a week! Where do I begin? At the beginning maybe Charlotte?

So after our meetings last Monday the work just began to pour in, the poster still needed to be completed, project proposals needed to be produced, consultations needed to be devised and action plans written!
In all honesty I had done as much as I could of done on the poster by this point and was only really offering suggestions to Josh, my fellow intern who took the lead on the posters design. My main focus then became putting a proposal together for the Toolkit. I was aware that I wanted the young people’s planning committee to look over my proposal especially because I would be working closely with them in collecting the data that would inform the toolkit, so I set about writing a proposal that would be accessible to them. My aim was not to appear patronising whilst still explaining what was meant by the word toolkit and why such a document needed to be produced.

Whilst writing the toolkit it became clear to me that although I knew what information I wished to include in the toolkit I was not yet 100% sure on how I wanted to gather that information, what questions I needed to ask or what methodologies I would use. Even in the final draft of the proposal there was a lack of detail with regards to specific questions and methods. That is why I have decided to write up a second more scientific proposal including details of how I intend to collect all the data, that should be completed by the end of this week.

Alongside proposal writing I have also drafted a letter to organisations asking for any materials they have promoting the positive work and achievements of young people, the materials will be used to decorate spaces being used during the conference in September. I have also collected the names and contact details for every school in the Preston area so they may be contacted with regards to some of their pupils taking part in the conference.

Thank you if you’re still with me!! I promise this is the less boring bit :P

So apart from being an excessively productive week in the office, work conducted outside the office offered up some very exciting insights. A meeting with Cath Larkin for example allowed me to develop new skills in planning and time management, a meeting with Yasmin and zarah from the centre of volunteering gave me faith that my degree was very useful and I had defiantly increased my skill base in the voluntary sector and a meeting with the interpreting volunteers introduced me to a whole new world of languages and technology I was clearly to ignorant to of ever even considered before.

The stand out event for me this week however had to be the Sheffield 4th international conference "celebrating childhood diversity". Although I definitely picked up some obvious DOs and DON'Ts for our conference and did not gain a massive amount of knowledge on youth participation I did gain A LOT from meeting so many interesting people from so many different cultures. I learnt about the education system in America, Child Labour across the world, the effect of migration on young children, indigenous young people in countries such as New Zeeland and Australia along with a number of case studies of SEN young people here in the UK.

 (gifts from an Australian woman working to provide education for Aboriginal communities)

Although not all the talks made an impact the ones that did, really did and now I am looking forward more so than ever to our conference in Sept because if adults simply reporting on young people from across the world can be so interesting I can only imagine how insightful, interesting and important talks will be when delivered by the young people themselves!!

I am graduating this Thursday and I am taking a few days of to celebrate XD so I apologise if I do not post for a while but for now I shall leave you with this short simple truth :)

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
Mahatma Gandhi

Charlotte x

Week One

So I am just over a week in to my internship placement with the School of Social work at The University of Central Lancashire and what a week its been! Inductions, training, meetings and robots! (All in the name of research of course)


Our induction took place Monday 25th June and it was wonderful to finally be introduced to my new work colleagues (even if I did show up 3 hours late due to a mix up in emails!) I met my three fellow interns, two of whom I will be working with on the same project along with the staff and directors on the project. The week began with some IT training and a tour of our new office space, the pace was soon quickened however when we discovered we had two weeks to design and deliver an academic poster for a conference in Sheffield. We have very quickly therefore needed to grasp our specific areas and work out an action plan of what it is we wish to achieve? and how we are going to achieve it? This all became a lot clearer after meetings held Monday 2nd July with the conference organising comity and the leads for the young peoples participation groups. The plan now is to complete the academic poster in time for the 9th as well as creating a clear and concise action plan/proposal for the toolkit.