YOUTH DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Council adopt a strategy for children and young people ……

The Vale of White Horse District Council adopted a youth development strategy in November 2006, after consultation during the summer, which sets out its plans for children and young people in the Vale.

The purpose of the plan …..

The strategy aims to meet the desired outcomes for children and young people which are set out in the government green paper ‘Every Child Matters’ as well as contribute to Oxfordshire County Council’s Children and Young People’s Plan.

The Vale’s three year plan shows how it will work in partnership with other organisations which provide service for children and young people to make a signification contribution to the following aims:

• Live a healthy life
• Stay safe
• Fulfil their potential
• Get the most out of life and develop skills for adulthood.

The full version of the strategy is available from Karen Tolley, Youth Development Co-ordinator at the Vale of White Horse DC.  A summary of what is in the strategy is set out in this leaflet.(PDF, 1.4M)

December Youth Forum - What went on?

The Youth Forum meeting on 5th December 06 was held at Wantage Civic Hall. The day started with a consultation on the Connexions service.

Next the young people looked at the effects alcohol can have, presented by the Vale’s Drug and Alcohol Prevention Co-ordinator – Liz Hayden in conjunction with the Schools Drug Education Consultant – Bill Russell.

In the afternoon Liz Morgan and Terry Cox from Oxfordshire County Council came to talk about Extended Schools and ask young people for their views, and the Environmental Change Institute asked young people about their views on the possible impact climate change could have in Oxfordshire.

Interested in finding out more? You can download the Dec '06 report.

Youth Forum Celebrates 10 years

On 2nd October over 70 young people attended the Council’s 28th youth forum meeting at Rutherford Laboratory in Harwell to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the first youth conference on 2 October 1996.

During the day the young people had a choice of 6 workshops to participate in – Arts, Digital Photography, Media, Music Technology, Sports and Science. Previous youth forum representatives attended, including two who had been at that first conference to talk about their experiences. ‘Rough Science’ TV Presenter Kathy Sykes gave a talk in the afternoon about her life since leaving Fitzharrys school in Abingdon.

You can see a gallery of pictures from the 10 years celebrations.

Visit to European Parliament, Brussels

A group of 40 young people and councillors visited the European Parliament in Brussels on 29 th and 30 th November 2006 sponsored by two local MEPs. During the visit the young people had a tour of parliament, watched a debate in the parliamentary chamber and had a question and answer session with one of the MEPs. There was also time for sightseeing and shopping during the visit.

Vale Youth Development Plan: report back

At the Vale Youth Forum on March 7th, around 70 young people from the Vale of the White Horse were consulted on the Vale Youth Development Plan. Currently in draft form, the District Council is seeking the views of local young people before they finalise the plan.

Here are the ideas the groups came up with, under headings:

Sport schemes

• Needs more advertising, maybe via PE Teachers
• Famous sports stars visiting schools
• A lot of us didn't really know about it
• Is it published in only private schools?
• Details are not very clear, confuses us
• Lack of publicity - not sure how to get in
• Good scheme
• Needs link with the schools
• It's too refined - people who don't like sports have nothing - everything has too much focus on sport
• No-one knows of the service
• Good for what it provides
• People should be encouraged to try new things
• Incorporate unconventional sport: rock climbing, skate boarding, diving, mountain biking
• More leisure centres
• Skate park in Faringdon
• Youth clubs everywhere
• Should be able to go to the gym without having to be a member
• More advertising for sports available/events
• Opportunities for every level
• Using sport to promote youth leadership
• Promotes healthy life style
• Too much focus on good sports people
• Make cycling safe - provide bike shed and safe cycle paths

Arts Opportunities

• Competitions between schools
• A vale art officer visiting schools to get ideas for sharing
• More money for the Arts (more than £60,000)
• Introduce the Arts sooner (i.e. primary)
• Summer schools and workshops
• Helps to boost confidence
• Not bothered about the cost for art
• More advertising
• They should involve the public
• Making sculptures out of recycled things involving the community
• Nice to see alternative to sport
• The arts need to be publicised more
• Should be put in places where more people will see
• Arts money is often spent on stuff which people don't care about.
• Sweatbox is good.
• Less money on bits of rock in fields, more money on performing arts.
• Waste of money - money could be spent on other things.
• Put art in more obvious places
• Old Goal Gig Centre
• Photography and videos
• Schools should have a budget for art trips to museums and theatres
• Young people to organise an arts club and exhibition for public art and sculptures etc.

Community Safety strategies

• There is an element of racism amongst young people - ignorance.
• Racism is more common in most places than others eg. Saxton Road
• ASBO unfair can lead to criminalisation of things which are not criminal.
• School divide leads to intimidation (eg. Saxton Road)
• Better lighting needed
• Police generally seem to be against youth - scary
• Shelters are just a gathering point for unruly youths
• Gates are blocking off routes to school - but also preventing the escape of criminals
• Young people should be consulted about alleys and gateways
• Perhaps people should only be dispersed if there has been a complaint, not just for being in a group
• What are the problems facing young people in the Vale?
• Freedom vs Safety
• Are the measures in place effective? eg. ABCs & ASBOs
• They are effective but should be clearer about consequences and actions
• Youth involvement is improving but needs to continue improving
• Media images are degrading the youth.
• The media blows the crime situation out of proportion - reporting on all the bad things and making us lose confidence "Police need media on their side"
• Is an ASBO effective?
• Better in Peachcroft, but ABCs, ASBOs and dispersion order often just move the trouble somewhere else
• Tougher punishments
• Are ASBOs a good idea? - In some cases it is needed! However it should be a last resort!
• What is an ASBO - It is a measure to restrict movement and behaviour ie. who they have contact with and drinking
• Have to avoid unsafe areas
• Our issues are the same as everyone else
• What do young people need to do to prove that we aren't all bad?
• How do you know you are targeting the right areas?
• Can you justify endangering safety of young people who have done nothing wrong by dispersing them and therefore taking away safety in numbers?
• ASBOs good idea but expensive
• ABC's good idea.
• All young people targeted - why - dispersal orders.
• Have to avoid unsafe areas
• Our issues are the same as everyone else's
• Perception of crime worse than actual crime

Youth Forum

• Meet more often
• Talk about national and world issues
• A website for the youth forum
• Environmental issues
• Discuss new laws
• Guest speakers to talk about issues that affect us, ie. religious issues, racism issues
• Reducing global climate change
• Recycling in schools
• What we enjoyed about the meetings
• Youth Parliament input
• Move away from lecturing to more group discussion and debate
• Reservoir - how big is it? Cost? How will we disguise it? Are plan finalised?
• More representative group of youth eg. people from youth clubs - not just schools
• More forums - 4/5 a year
• Visit different communities and buildings inside the vale to see how they are run
• Britain's involvement in the EU.
• More languages able to be taught in school.
• Pressure of exams.
• The importance of schooling as part of a child's education
• Youth forum is good
• Meet more often
• More activity based
• More debates
• Again we are going to Brussels again because it is very beautiful

How do you think they did? Did they miss an issue you feel is important?

You can read more and have your say here.

Vale Youth Development Plan: have your say!

The Vale of White Horse District Council's Youth Development Plan sets out services for children and young people aged 0-19 from 2006-2009.

It shows how services it already provides will contribute to the Oxfordshire Children and Young People’s Plan, and how local agencies will work in partnership to deliver better services and outcomes.

If you are a young person living in the Vale, we need your views on the proposed plan. Find out more and have your say.

Consultation closes 18th August 2006.

Vale Youth Forum talks to headteachers

Young people from the Vale Youth Forum were attended the Oxfordshire Headteachers Conference on 23rd March 2006 to give their views in a session called "Pupil Voice". They shared their experiences of primary and secondary school and gave their opinions on what makes a good school, and what makes a good teacher, as well as how schools could be improved.

Their responses of the representatives incorporated the views of the 50 young people who completed questionnaires at the last youth forum meeting in March, and included:

• Pupils should have more control over their education
• Pupils should be able to appraise their teachers’ performance
• There should be more and more active student councils
• Associate student governors to help run schools

On discipline, they thought respect was key to a good relationship between teachers and students, and that it should be a two way thing. Communication was also important and they thought that sometimes teachers treat them too much like children instead of young adults. They felt that some teachers would benefit from having more life experiences before they began teaching.

The theme of this year’s conference was "We Can Make a Difference", and the young people attending certainly did: Neil Hawkes, who organised the conference on behalf of the County Council, congratulated them on their articulate and entertaining presentation.

March Youth Forum Meeting - your feedback

The last Youth Forum took place in Abingdon Guildhall on Thu 17 March. Topics under discussion included new licensing laws (young people thought the drinking age should be lowered), the District Council's Youth Development Strategy (young people looked at how to improve services which affect young people), and ASBOs (young people put questions to a panel, including the Council’s ASBO Co-ordinator Richard Baker. There was also a very loud talk by Town Crier Peter Green about the 450 year Royal Charter. All the young people who attended found the meeting interesting; here are some of the comments from the feedback forms:

• Found out more about what the council and police are doing for teenagers.
• It tackled issues that affect me.
• Because I got to put all my ideas and opinions across and I felt like I actually made a difference.
• Some interesting topics and points, useful information
• I learnt a lot (especially about ASBOs)
• Enjoyable to meet different people, see how the council operates and give our views on issues that affect us.
• Challenging and entertaining discussions.
• It was good to be able to give my own opinion on things.

Interested in finding out more? You can download the March '06 report.

Opinion - Youth Matters Forum

On Oct 17, Kathryn Curnock, age 15, attended the Oxfordshire County Council Youth service – Youth Matters consultation seminar.

Upon arriving at the Kassam Stadium, where the forum was to be held, I was somewhat awed by the fancy food placed upon the buffet table. For people catering for kids and trying to make their lives better they hadn’t made a very good start! Give me plain ham and cheese sandwiches any day. Despite this we managed to obtain ‘edible’ food from the premises, and the day started well as soon as lunch was over.

We were placed into groups- about two children on a table with six adults, though this sometimes varied and I noticed one table consisted solely of adults- which I was unimpressed by. How do you expect to get the youth’s views if you have no youth?

My table was the ‘General’ table, we took a broad view over all issues discussed in the green Youth Matters paper, but other tables looked at particular issues, eg. Table two looked at ‘Things to do and places to go’.

We looked at questions in the paper and in our groups discussed our views on the answers and noted these down. Myself and Julian, the other young person on my table, were asked to sit on a panel, made up of councillors and the youth, and people in the audience could fire questions at us, like what do you feel the most important issue to the youth today is. (Discrimination by the elderly!)

All in all, the day was fun, we found out interesting new views and the debates were, lively shall we say. However if the council want more young peoples opinions they needed to aim consultation more towards the youth. The day had been started with a lengthy presentation, aimed at the adults, the food was fancy, aimed at the adults, and it seemed that a few of the people running the discussions were just ignoring the young people completely!

I think the council need to realise that with Youth matters there is a great opportunity to make the lives of the youth better but they are letting it pass them by- simply by not listening!

Youth Forum – The beans report!

On October 13, the beans set of for Wantage Civic hall, where the much sought-after youth forum was meeting!

On the coach, Bean Jullian, Bean David, Bean Kathryn, Bean Chris, Bean Lauren and Bean Tom talked of recent adventures with the Beans media group (shown here receiving a certificate from the Chair of the Council for their efforts in creating this website) including a mighty battle for study leave, a protest against stereotypes and campaigning for charities!

At the prestigious forum the group was (alas!) separated into groups with many other beans unbeknown to them. To their relief, Bean Jullian and Bean Kathryn were placed in the same group- friends till the end!

Their first activity was to discuss the 14-19 Youth Strategy – the important task of considering learner entitlements and deciding what was good and what was bad about Bean centres of education. Fighting to discover the most important right in learning was most satisfying!

They beans were rewarded for their hard efforts with a fountain of the best drink in the land, coffee, and a never ending supply of biscuits, which so much pleased the Beans that they were more than happy to partake in a Youth Matters consultation, and found it interesting!

They debated the most important issues to the Beans of today, while the fairest Bean in the entire table wrote down comments of wisdom issued from mouths of beans far and wide across that same table. These questions would later be put together to form the Youth Matters paper, but the beans did not know this. SHHHHH!!!! It’s a secret!

As a reward for finishing as large a task as this, the Beans were bestowed with an ever lasting supply of food, called ‘lunch’, and they were most pleased by this! Though believed by some to be ‘fancy’ Bean Kathryn noted that no one seemed to complain at the many plates of cakes and tasty treats laid out upon the table.

Once the beans were stuffed full with an array of delights of the edible kind, they returned to their tables, to be presented with information of a skate park! This delighted many Beans, as a skate park was a much desired item. The problem was that there were too many places you could put it!!! The Beans undertook the difficult task of deciding which site in Abingdon was to be honoured with the placement of the much desired skate park – voting on pieces of paper and handing them in for analysing.

After this task was complete the beans learned of the tragic tale of Radley Lakes, and how they are soon to be lost to the ashes of Didcot power station. The lakes are being steadily filled with the remains left behind by the station and if this continues the Lakes and the precious wildlife there would be lost forever! Councillor Peter Green talked to the beans about the save Radley lakes campaign – however Npower who own Didcot power station refused to meet the beans, maybe we scare them. After hearing this campaign, a small debate followed, in which the Beans raised many interesting issues, such as what would we do with the ashes if they were not put in the lakes.

Next the media beans would really take their step into the limelight- with a presentation about SPIRED.com. Jeremy Bean came in to assist the beans in their quest, asking beans questions about the internet and the like, then going onto the youth section that the beans helped make! Bean Jullian stepped forward and gave dynamic speeches about the different sections on the site, and after taking a bow, the beans retuned to their seats with pride.

After requesting the beans to fill out a questionnaire about how they found their day, they retreated with sad faces back to their home towns, considering the delights of the day at great length.

Kathryn "Bean" Curnock - Media Group Member

Youth Forum – Year 9 Guildhall, Abingdon

On Thursday 23rd June the annual Year 9 Youth Forum was held at the Guildhall in Abingdon.

The main topics of the day were vandalism, the Abbey water feature and speaking and listening skills. The water feature and vandalism proved to be the most popular on the agenda.

The young year 9 students were amazed and shocked to find out how much things cost to be repaired or replaced as a result of vandalism e.g. replacing one waste bin in the centre of town costs around £200.00.

The water feature on the other hand had a response that was not expected; the young people were questioning who the new water feature was for. Not surprisingly this caused a few disagreements between people which was a good opportunity for students to see how conflicts can be easily caused.

Julian Brewer – Youth Forum Representative Larkmead School

Vale Youth Make a Stand Against Boring Council Website, then Win Award!

Have you ever been on the Vale website? A group of young people were shown the youth forum web pages and came to the conclusion that it was boring!

In a world where the next generation should be encouraged to become interested in local politics a group of six young people decided to make a stand.

Together David, Tom, Chris, Julian, Lauren and I (Kathryn) formed ‘The Beans’ which would later become the Vale Youth Media Group. We wanted to ‘spice up’ the website and with the help of Jeremy Dennis, webmaster for the County Council’s youth website spired.com, set out to design a youth website for the Vale.

We attended three workshops organised by the Council between October 2004 and April 2005 which guided us through the basics of web design and during the first workshop came up with the layout of the pages, content and our creation of ‘The Beans’, a cartoon version of us. In the second workshop we focussed on the content of the site, and to consider what the purpose was. Unfortunately this meant our idea for a ‘splat the councillor’ game, among others, had to be discarded. Instead we came up with chat boards to discuss issues, councillor profiles of those involved with the youth forum, news pages giving details of meetings and visits and a chance to email the editor with suggestions or comments as well as meet ‘The Beans’. During the final workshop we reviewed and edited our work before going live.

The site will be maintained via the County Council and we have set up a Media Group to do this. The site will include articles about visits or meetings, a news section with important local events and as a clear and easy form of communication between young people and the council. This will ensure that our views as young people are noted and respected. The website is for all young people (adults may also look!) to use.

After all our hard work ‘The Beans’ entered the British Computer Society Oxfordshire Schools Web Competition 2005. Although technically not a school we felt our project is beneficial to the community and entered anyway. We won ‘Commended Entry’ and were presented with a framed Certificate (pictured above), goody bags and individual certificates at an Awards Ceremony on June 24th at Cranfield Universtity.

Our slogan ‘Make Tomorrow Happen Today and Change the World While You’re At It’ sums us up –
six hardworking, dedicated teenagers who want to make a difference!

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