Positive Contribution Theme Group

Minutes

Time:  9.30-11.00
Date:  01 August 2007
Venue: Jet Centre, Fields Farm Road, Hattersley

Present:

Claire Bibby (Chair)
Julie Lord (Theme Coordinator)
Maurice Smith
Caroline Gregory
Debbie Wood
Sandra Willans
Hameed Khan
Peter Trumper
Shaun Walton
Tina Lavender

Note taker: Julie Lord

Item 1: Welcome

Claire welcomed everyone to the meeting

Item 2: Apologies

Catherine Mee
Gideon Smith
Sue Nathan
Judith Grigg
Tracy Wood
John Whittle
Paula Field

Item 3: Minutes from the last meeting

Caroline Gregory‘s apologies to be added.

Item 4: Matters Arising

Claire distributed a handout demonstrating the linkages between group members, organisations, specific groups and partnerships. It was noted that many of the members had links to the Participation Network whose role is to bring together Participation Workers across services for C&YP and coordinate consultation. There is some confusion between the roles of the Positive Contributions theme group and the Participation Network.

Action- Julie to e-mail the handout to members for them to update or add their linkages. (This cannot be done electronically) Please bring amended copies to the next meeting.
Action – Julie to e-mail the terms of reference for theme group & Participation Network
Action- Claire to talk to Sue Nathan about the Participation Network and explore the complementary role of these two groups.

Item 5: Developing Targets & Indicators (involving C&YP)

There was a discussion as to how we could measure increased self-esteem and dealing with life changes.
The group contributed examples of increased self-esteem and dealing with life changes which could be measured.

• Transitions data- Nick Caws/Karen Buchanen
• Evaluations from school councils- Tina Lavender
• Healthy Schools- Adrian Holt
• Homeless Young People- Colm O’Brien
• Teenage parents group @ Cavendish Mill- Lisa Holt
• Children with disabilities/OKE

A lot of projects already have evaluations with specific questions

It was felt that questions needed to be worded carefully to be meaningful to C&YP and obtain the right information to meet the need to measure self –esteem. The Participation Network may have experience and a vehicle for doing this.

Item 6: Feedback from APA priority.

Summary of information gathered
Members contributed information about C&YP from BME communities engaging in voluntary activities.
Peter - There is a lot of information from the college contained in the Student’s final statement. A lot of BME students are Young Carers and do a lot of voluntary translation in the community, but wouldn’t recognise it as “volunteering”.
Maurice - A number of young people have been trained to help younger children cross the road to the Madrassahs (3 mosques).
Twelve young people worked with an organisation called Mosaic who organised a residential to look at BME C&YP accessing national parks. This was organised by Hakeel from T3SC and the Participation Project.
Shaun - Some BME year 5 children have been involved in developing a nature trail on the site of the new Ashton Fire Station.
Julie - St Peter’s Youth (SPY) have supported 15 BME young people who have achieved NVQ 2 in youth work, two more young people are doing their NVQ 3 in youth work. This has involved doing at least 100 hours voluntary youth work. Twenty one young people have achieved their Basic Expedition Leaders Award and this has involved doing 30 hours voluntary work.

A BME young person from Hyde organised a tidy up of the local play area and has worked with the Hyde SureStart Children’s Centre to keep the play area in a safe and tidy condition.

There are also BME Young People who are working as Millennium Volunteers, some of which are supporting play activities over the summer.

Caroline - There are lots of BME C&YP engaging in voluntary activities in Regeneration Areas and through programmes facilitated by social landlords.

Hakeel from T3SC has been seconded to TMBC to work on developing volunteering; he should be able to provide more information about volunteering.

There is a concern that a lot of the activities are funded by short-term funding, this raises issues about staff contracts and the continuity of the work.

We also had an extended discussion about the measure. It was pointed out that a lot of young people undertake activities such as accompanying neighbours to the Doctor to translate for them, but would not call this “volunteering”: for example there is a difference between taking the initiative to organise something and agreeing to do something voluntarily. ”Volunteering” may be a construct which is meaningful to people of a particular socio-economic and cultural background. It was agreed that since this has been identified by the APA as an issue for development, we should be very careful about how we ask young people whether they “volunteer” or “do voluntary work”, as this question may not have meaning for them.

Item 7: Report to C&YPSP

A report on the progress of the positive contribution theme group is required for meeting on the 16th August.
The report will detail:

• Who has been engaged
• The areas we have been working on
• Where we are going
• Issues around sustainability of short-term projects

The report card format will be used with some amendments, for example looking at if anyone is better off.

Action- Claire & Julie to meet on Friday to discuss the report.
Action – Julie to send out a copy of the report to members of the group ASAP. Comments back if possible given the timescale.

Item 8: AOB

Post 16 establishments from September have to develop a Learner Involvement Strategy.
Shaun offered Stalybridge Fire Station community room as a future venue.

Item 9: Date/Time/Venue of next meeting

19th September 9.30-11.00 Duke St Young People’s Centre, Duke St, Denton