Tuesday, November 18, 2008

www.yehright.com

I have been at the youthwork.co.uk conference this weekend and as a result I came across this website.  It has a few interesting sections, for example, check out the presentations such at these stats, and these papers.

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Thursday, September 25, 2008

Britain's Teenage Suicides: Episode 2

Check out this

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Spirituality in youth work training Guisborough July 2nd

Here's something that might interest us from the North East

Nigel Pimlott from FYT [www.fyt.org.uk] is coming to Guisborough to deliver 2 sessions on spirituality in youth work giving us a chance to share and also providing us with techniques and tools to use in our work.

Anyone with a passion for working with young people who would like to attend is very welcome.

Having attended some training sessions with Nigel we feel he delivers effective training with humour and enthusiasm – encouragement and inspiration as youth workers is also great; hope lots of you can come.

Where: Guisborough Methodist Church

When: Wednesday July 2nd either 1.30 to 4pm or 7 to 9.30pm

There will be tea, coffee, and biscuits available – for catering purposes rough number information would be welcome. For more details you can ring us on 01287 636825/07890 228851 or email staff@guisborough-bridge.org.uk

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Monday, March 24, 2008

Community and Youth Work in Context

I've been away from home for about 10 days - hence the lack of posts. I've uploaded another of Hiede's essays that she has written for her Diploma in Community & Youth Work course. This one is entitled, Community and Youth Work in Context.

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Sunday, February 24, 2008

Every Child Matters and Youth Matters

Over the next few weeks I'm going to upload some of Hiede's essays that she has writen for her Diploma in Community & Youth Work course. You can find the first one, Compare and contrast the two green papers 'Every Child Matters' and 'Youth Matters', here.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Boys, God and the Church

I've just read this booklet which outlines some of the basic issues that churches need to grapple with if they want to engage with boys. The main points I picked up were:

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Hope08 resources

In addition to my earlier post, I've just received an email pointing out that there are some resources here. This also includes the followings articles that are well worth the read:

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Monday, November 19, 2007

How to Improve Your Social Skills

Check out this post on the positivity blog

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

youthwork.co.uk conference

Just got back from the youthwork conference at Southport. Here are some websites I came across while I was there:

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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Our Iceberg Is Melting

I've just finished listening to John Kotters book Our Iceberg is melting - a must for anyone wanting to know about the process of change. Checkout the promotional video here.

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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Making the right decision

Here are some more notes from the Spring Harvest seminar by James Lawrence....

Making a decision can be a tricky business. The outcome depends upon what we do (the action) and when we do it (the time). If we don't get the right combination, things might not work out as we expect. This diagram attempts to show what can happen:

Wrong action

Right action

Wrong time

Wrong time



Disaster!

Resistance





Mistake

Success



Wrong action

Right action

Right time

Right time

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Sunday, October 14, 2007

Death by power point

Here's a good quote for those who use power point "You need to be capable of communicating without Powerpoint if you are ever going to fully utilize the communication potential of Powerpoint".

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Wholeness

Here are some notes from another Spring Harvest session on Wholeness. I think the speaker was Kriss Kandiah. The idea is that there are 3 types of people, and they are driven by different things and if we are to attain "wholeness" as a church we need to embrace all three. Here is a brief summary of the 3 types:

1) The Heart is what matters
They people are prone to emotionalism, Orthopathy and are Vulnerable to manipulation.

2) The head is what matters
These people are prone to intellectualism, orthodoxy and are in danger of "cold formalism"

3) Doing is what matters
These people are activists...orthopraxy and are prone to burn out.

From my notes, I understand that Orthopathy means that having your heart in the right place is what matters, where as orthodoxy is about having the correct theology / beliefs. Orthopraxy is about doing the right thing.

As I write up these notes I wonder how this connects with my previous post on Change. Perhaps this connects with the idea that everyone has fundamental needs....

How does this effect our youthwork...perhaps we need to ask, what are we doing for those driven by the heart / head or the activist...personally am more prone to the head. I guess this is at the expense of the other two...perhaps we need to step back and ask ourselves, what does our group look like? Is it dominted by "the heart"? Are we forever "doing" but not thinking (the head)? I guess we need a balance....

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

Change

A few months ago I typed up some of the key points from the Spring Harvest leadership seminars I attended this year. I thought I'd type up some more on the subject of change...

Principles of change

1) different people react differently to change...at one end of the spectrum we have people who like stability and at the other we have people who like change. For those of us who are trying to undertake change, we have to ask ourselves: what if someone likes stability? After all some people like Church because it is a source of stability in a changing world. Change can lead to:
2) Everyone has fundamental needs to be meet. Those initiating the change need to consider what these individual needs are and how change will effect / meet those needs.

3) Change involves loss...people go through a "loss curve" like grieving:
4) Fears need to be dealt with in a rational way
Note that change usually requires a considerable length of time...skipping steps can't be done.

Kotters eight phases of leadership through change

1) Establish a sense of urgency
2) Form a powerful guiding coalition
3) Create a vision...a clear a concise description of what you are doing. This should be written in terms of outcomes, not specific activities
4) Communicate your vision, use every opportunity and every tool you have available. Do this time and time again.
5) Empower others to act....coaching
6) Plan and create short term wins (milestones). This enables people to see progress.
7) Consolidate and maintain momentum
8) Institutionalise the new approaches

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Monday, October 01, 2007

Bullying seminar notes

These are from some seminar notes from Spring Harvest about 2 years ago...

Some definitions of bullying

...put simply, if it makes the victim feel bad, then it's bullying

Why do people bully?
Problems victim's experience
Symptoms of bullying
How to deal with bullying
Other comments

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

List of training courses

Check out this list of training course on the MAYC website - it looks like a useful summary of what's going on.

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Sunday, July 15, 2007

Risk assessment for concert

Last week we had a YFC team, Activate, working in our local school. It was hard work, but worth it!! On Friday night the team finished the week with a concert. We spend what seemed like an age doing a risk assessment for this, so we thought we'd share it with you all so it might save you some time if you ever have to do it.

The main risk assessment is here. I'll upload various other documents throughout the week ahead.

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Monday, June 25, 2007

Risk assessment for residential

We've been working on a risk assessment for a YFC event that kicks off on the 9th June. Those of you who have had to do these before will know that it's useful to solicit other peoples ideas as they might think of something you haven't. Anyway, I thought I'd dig out some we've done in the past. Here's one we did for a residential last year.

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Saturday, June 16, 2007

Developing leaders vs developing followers

Here are some more notes from the seminar by James Lawrence.

We were exploring the issue - is it better to develop leaders or followers? In reality most of us try to develop what he termed to "followers", which in the long run is less effective than developing leaders.

Here's a comparison between developing leaders vs developing followers:


Leaders that develop followersLeaders that develop leaders
Need to be neededWant to be succeeded (do themselves out of a job)
Focus on weaknessFocus on strengths
Develop the bottom 20%Develop the top 20%
Treat the people the same for "fairness" sakeTreat people as individuals for impact
Hoard powerGive power away
Spend time with others (more socially)Invest time in others (more focused)
Grow by addition Grow by multiplication
Only impact the people they touchImpact people beyond their reach


I can recognise some of this in myself - I think where I struggle is "treat people the same". I guess this is because we are so paranoid about favoritism.

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Sunday, June 10, 2007

Team leaders role

I've been going through some of my old notes from various training sessions I've been on. These notes are from a seminar by James Lawrence & Rob White on team work:

There are two fundamental principles on developing people.

1) Everyone can develop other people, you can do this through:
2) For the sake of the many, invest in a few

The team leaders role is to:
  1. build and maintain the team
  2. achieve the task
  3. develop individuals
People tend to prefer one of these three roles, ie, we focus on "team", or the "task", or "individuals".
The leaders must make sure all three of these things happen.

To make these happen, we need to be aware of the "needs" of the "team", "task" and "individual":

The needs of the "individual"
The needs of the "task"
The needs of the "team"

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Saturday, April 28, 2007

Dealing with conflict

I've just been going through some of my notes from Spring Harvest...one of the sessions I went to looked at the issue of conflict. I've typed up some of the notes (see below). When it's laid out like this, it's quite easy to recognise some of the problems we come across and when we, as individuals, will succeed...for example, I'm probably a 'problem solver'...but people like me will find it difficult to solve some conflicts...there may be times when a facilitator is needed.

Three myths about conflict
  1. Conflict can never lead to anything positive
  2. Conflicts are a result of clashing personalities. Personalities don’t clash, behavior does
  3. Conflict and anger go together

Four levels of conflict

Generaly speaking there are four causes (or levels) of conflict:

Level 1 – Facts or data. People have the wrong information about stuff
Level 2 – Process or methods. There is a disagreement about how something should be done.
Level 3 – Goals or purpose. When people don’t agree with vision
Level 4 – Values. Where the parties disagree about basic values, ie, one party thinks we should look to the past, others look to the future.

Styles of handling

When dealing with conflict, most of us will fit into one of these roles:

  1. The problem solver. These people refuse to give in…finding a solution is just a mater of time. This approach tends to work where the parties have common goals
  2. The super helper. This person wants to see all conflicts resolved. They will fight tooth and nail for someone else but often find it hard to sort out their own issues
  3. The power broker. We will solve this problem and it does not matter how many casualties there are. All that matters is that we resolve the problem.
  4. The facilitator. They look for ways of bringing people together
  5. The fearful looser. These people tend to run from conflict.

Top tips

  • Separate the people from the problem
  • Focus on the issues not the positions
  • Think about the options that might solve the problem(s). Is there space for compromise?
    Insist on objective criteria….on what basis will we agree to disagree? A third party judge?
  • Try make it a shared problem, not a conflict problem
  • Don’t be personal – behave like adults
  • Keep your body language in check
  • Try to clarify goals. What outcome is needed and where goal fits?
  • Listen carefully ‘underneath the words’ and reflect back, ie, don't just listen to what they are saying....what do their words imply?

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Monday, April 23, 2007

10 Tips To Great Communication With Teenagers

Checkout these 10 tips.

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Friday, April 13, 2007

The Volunteer Driver's Handbook

Check out this email I received from http://www.nyfvo.org.uk/nyfvonet.shtml:
RoSPA has launched a new handbook to help volunteer drivers avoid accidents and injuries to themselves, their passengers and other road users....The new handbook has sections on key driving issues including journey planning, fitness to drive (including the effects of drink, medicines and fatigue), safe speed, seatbelts, distraction (including from mobile phones), vehicle safety and emergency procedures.

Produced with the support of the Department for Transport, the Volunteer Driver's Handbook is also available as a free download at
www.rospa.com/roadsafety/info/volunteer_drivers.pdf Paper copies can be ordered free by emailing dvernon@rospa.com and the deadline for orders is 27 April 2007.

The new handbook complements a manager's guide on occupational road risk in voluntary organisations that was produced by RoSPA in 2003 and can be downloaded from
http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/info/voluntary_morr.pdf

Maybe we could add this to add this to our respective youth work manuals....

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

www.safeinchurch.co.uk - spiritual abuse

I suspect spiritual abuse is one of those things we don't much think about. www.safeinchurch.co.uk introduces the issues and high lites some of the warning signs. You can download a PDF of the entire site here.

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Criminal Justice System - walk throughs

Check out http://www.cjsonline.org/sitemap/index.html

This gives a list of "walk through's" for various situations, such as what happens if someone is arrested, how bail works etc. It looks quite good.

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Friday, February 16, 2007

Training courses - North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntry Organisations

Here's a list of training course provided by North Yorkshire Forum for Voluntry Organisations

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Saturday, February 10, 2007

How to capture YouTube clips - youthblog

Check out this post on www.youthblog.org

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Video basics

Check out churchvideoideas.com's entry on Video 101

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

York & North Yorkshire Voluntary Sector learning & Skills network

This web site tries to list course available to those of us doing "Voluntary" work. It looks like a good idea, but as ever, highlights the fact that "Voluntary" seems to mean that you volunteer between the hours of 9 - 5 Monday to Friday. What about the rest of us volunteer in our spare time?

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Monday, January 22, 2007

Learn Online with Free College Courses

See this post about free online course on churchrelevance.com. The list of courses can be found here.

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Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Parent Line Plus

If you haven't already come across this site, check out http://www.parentlineplus.org.uk/
They offer advice to parents on a wide range of issues and have a free phone number of parents to call...

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Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Download Lee Jackson's book

I've just noticed that Lee Jackson has a free download of his book Effective Schools Work on http://www.networkleeds.com/. Click here for the link.

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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Graffiti creator

Check out this graffiti generator: http://www.graffiticreator.net/

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Friday, September 02, 2005

Is it legal?

Is it legal? is a free "parents' guide to the law". It can be downloaded from www.e-parents.org the PDF is here

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

28 Ways to build community in your group

  1. Celebrate Birthdays
  2. Take pictures and make sure you give them a copy. If your using a digital camera why not make a photo CD. Send picture texts.
  3. Phone them
  4. Visit them at home
  5. Send Text messages
  6. Create 'shared experiences' - see Memory makers: 50 moments your kids will never forget by Duffy Robbins
  7. It's kind of obvious, but needs saying - try to speak to each young person at least once everything you have a meeting. Try to remember what you talked about last time and follow it up...I used to find I was having the same conversation every week with the same people!
  8. Welcome them individualy when they arrive. If you know they are coming for the first time try go see them at home before hand.
  9. Send them Email
  10. Chat on MSN
  11. At the end of the year, try recap on what the group has done - create a display, discus what happened etc.
  12. Make a group video
  13. Make sure they have your contact details, phone number, email, SMS, website etc. Why not get a 'business card' made? I've heard of people making a little card with their details on as well as some useful numbers such as Child line.
  14. Buy birthday / Christmas gifts / books etc.
  15. Run an open house. Invite people round for meals.
  16. Day trips
  17. organize a residential
  18. Run a website
  19. Invite them to youth friendly Church services
  20. Get involved in other aspects of their lives / settings...School, sport etc.
  21. Give them responsibilities
  22. Play team building games
  23. Make time for group discussions / discussions
  24. Run Fund raisers...Sponsored fast etc.
  25. Do a quiz about the group and the people in it
  26. Create mosaic pictures. You can do this with software like Image puzzler
  27. Develop shared values...what are the rules in your group...official and un-official? Think them up togethier.
  28. Run surveys, get feedback, ask them for ideas, involve them in planning / decision making

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