Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year :)
Posted at December 28th, 2008 by Sean
Hello there!
You may have noticed the lack of blog posts recently, there are two reasons for this:
a) We’ve had a lot to do that isn’t very interesting
b) We wanted to wait until we had some concrete stuff before going to press…
So, here goes.
As you heard in previous posts, we’re currently working with the new Children’s Commissioner, Ann Tennant, to launch a huge media campaign to show the world all the great things that young people do. So far, due to a few corporate set-backs and general slowness of things, there hadn’t been too much to report on this front, but now, we’re getting somewhere. So here’s an outline of what we’re planning…
I make a difference will be an award nomination programme, whereby any young person can be nominated by any adult or other young person for achievements or volunteering of any type. This means, it’s not limited to academic achievements, or sports achievements – it’s for young people doing anything “amazing”.
So, what’s “amazing”? The great thing about “amazing” is that it’s so subjective. We want to hear from anybody who thinks that a young person is doing something great, because young people shouldn’t be limited by a general consensus on a meaning, and because, it doesn’t matter how big or small these things are, they’re still positive. We want to show the world, and the media, that young people can, are, and will always be doing amazing things.
The campaign will be renewed every year, using street media (such as buses, bus shelters etc) to get the word out, post cards and nomination forms so people can get their word in, and culminating in a huge awards evening so we can let the word back out again, to the world.
Secondly, we’ve recently been approached by the Lea Valley park authorities (in partnership with the RSPB) about developing ways to get young people more involved in the park, and more importantly, to try and increase the interest in the natural enviroment. So, if anyone’s got any ideas, do leave a comment, or drop an email to sean@wfyoungadvisors.org.uk.
Next bit is a bit sad, unfortunately. On December 1st Lyndsey had to leave us to move on to a different job with VT Education (the company that run the schools in Waltham Forest). We’ll miss her a lot, but she’s not too far away, so we’ll have to harrass her from time to time.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lisa will also be leaving us after our next meeting, due to a staff reshuffle within the council. But she’ll be in the Town Hall, so we’ll pester her whenever we can.
As a result of these two departures, we’re welcoming our new interim team lead, James Gould (whose email address I still need to set up), and a temporary involvement from Lyndsey’s old boss, Mark Yeadon. So, a huge thanks to you two!
One last thing before I go off and sort out email addresses and such: By our next meeting, we should know if we have won any Myplace funding or not. So, please keep your toes, fingers, and any other possible body parts, crossed for us!
Hope you have a great new year, and got lots of lovely things for Christmas,
Sean.
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