Tim Davies on youth work

July 2008 - Posts

• Chain Reaction: an opportunity for young social innovators

  (First posted over on Tim's Blog) Chain Reaction is a conference/collaboration/networking event taking place in London from the 17th to the 18th November this year - part of the Prime Ministers Council on Social Action. It's aiming to bring together people with ideas for positive action on social change to 'Connect', 'Collaborate' and 'Commit' to action. And I was rather encouraged to see that in response to the question 'Who should come' they make explicit that this isn't just for the established great and good of the emerging social innovation conference circuit. Chain Reaction is for social leaders — people who, regardless of where they work or live or how old they are, see a social problem and do something about it. But not only that - they back it up with the fee structure. Take a look at this: Category 1 day 1 day (inc. VAT) 2 days 2 days (inc. VAT) Business £397 £466.48 £715 £839.66 Government / Public Sector £247 £290.23 £445 £522.41 Third Sector £97 £113.98 £175 £205.16 Under 21 £10 £11.75 £18 £21.15   £18 for a ticket if you are under 21 - as opposed to £715 for a business. That is getting the incentives and the priorities right! So if you know young people who have been exploring positive ideas for action on social change - whose energy, enthusiasm and insights are much needed by events like this - let them know about it. With the wealth of experience in running projects and taking action being built through the Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Banks, and through many other youth led projects - there are plenty of people out there who the PMs Council on Social Action really need as part of their Chain Reaction... Posted Jul 26 2008, 10:54 AM by Tim Davies with no comments

• What is youth work anyway?

  (If you only click one link in this blog post - click this one...) I've had a pretty exciting and intense couple of days at the 2gether08 festival of ideas and action in Shoreditch in London. You can read a bit about what I was up to exploring models for Youth Work 2.0 over here, and creating a pitch for Detached Youth Work in the online social networking space here (all things arising from the Youth Work and Social Networking Research Project). But rather than tell you all about the amazing potential of social technologies for youth work, I wanted to ask for your help. Your help in finding resources which offer an audience who've never knowingly encountered Youth Work before a sense of what it is about. I've only really become familiar with what makes Youth Work what it is through my research over the last year - but I find I'm almost always having to spend the first five minutes of any conversation on 'Youth Work 2.0' going round in circles to explain Youth Work as it is now. And right now I can't invite people to search the web to find out more, because frankly, there appears to be a real lack of clear resources presenting what youth work is. That's why, in the 'just sort it out' spirit of 2gether, I've stared this discussion over on UK Youth Online to invite you to help out and share your resources that tell an audience who have never knowingly come into contact with Youth Work what it is all about. You could share a video, a presentation, a leaflet - anything that helps tell the story of youth work more...        Posted Jul 04 2008, 01:48 PM by Tim Davies with no comments