D'Biz

Sharing resources

2012-01-12T17:05:00.001Z

The Light Project exists to Demonstrate the Christian message in a relevant way
AND to equip others to do the same.

A simple way we can fulfil the second part of our mission statement is to try and share our resources and policies. Now let me state from the start our safeguarding policy is not perfect. It is in fact far from perfect. However, our policy is working for us at the moment and we are happy to share where we are. So at the top of the D'Biz Youth Work Blog (www.lpdbiz.blogspot.com) you will find some new links. Including our safeguarding policy, our incident report form and the Professional Nation Occupational Standards for Youth work.

Things like Safeguarding Policy's and risk assessments are not very exciting but they are a really important part of taking care of the people we work with. If by sharing our resources we help another group better look after their young people I will be very happy and feel we have done a good job with our second half of our mission statement. Also if you notice anything in the policy you think is out of date, a mistake or just plan wrong please let us know. That is the other advantage of sharing our policy's and resources. It opens us up to more constructive feedback.

By Gareth Cheesman

Random quotes about managing behaviour

2012-01-03T10:44:00.001Z

In youth work we are always looking to balance youth work aims of good relationships and safe environment. A key area for this debate is managing behaviour and possibly discipline. A youth work students produced this collection of quotes.

‘Like progressive educators in the schoolsector, youth workers must continually wrestle with the problemof...managing...the learning experience without resorting to harsh andinappropriate stratagems as well as...enable learning to take place.’ P.109

‘Workers may have to intervene to preventyoung people from victimising, bullying or harassing other individuals orgroups...the issue for the worker is when and how to challenge constructivelyand ensure those doing the taunting not only stop, but understand why it iswrong. Workers may...have to exclude certain young people from a centre...iftheir behaviour is unacceptable, because allowing them to stay...woulddisadvantage others.’ P.112

Jeffs, T andBanks, S. (2010) Youth workers as controllers. In S. Banks (Ed) Ethical Issues in Youth Work (2^ndEd). Oxon: Routledge

‘An inevitable consequence of the voluntary...relationship between young people and youth workers is that thelatter...rely on their moral authority to secure a constituency. Securing andretaining such authority, often in trying circumstances,creates...tension...for without resorting to subterfuge they must seek tobecome the kind of people that young people can trust...completely reliable andconsistent.’ P.76-77

Jeffs, T andSmith, M (1999b) Resourcing Youth Work: Dirty Hands and Tainted Money, inBanks, S. (Ed.) Ethical Issues in YouthWork. London: Routledge. Found in Young, K (2006) The Art of Youth Work (2^nd Ed). Lyme Regis: RussellHouse Publishing.

‘[Youthworkers]...must acquire the capacity towork and converse with people whose behaviour may be totally unacceptable tothe overwhelming majority...this is not easy, but such professional distance isessential.’ P.32

Jeffs, T. and Smith, M. (2005) InformalEducation (3^rd ed.) Nottingham: Educational Heretics Press.

‘Youth workersacknowledge the more damaging influences that some peer groups can have onindividual members...and seek to divert or, if necessary, confront these.However, they also recognise that young people choose these ‘natural’interactive settings for very positive and developmental reasons – for example,away from adult expectations, to explore and test out identities, roles andrelationships...[these] providenumerous opportunities for youth workersto prompt and support both personal learning and constructive collectiveactivity.’ P.4

Davies, B. (2010) What do we mean by youth work? In J. Batsleerand B. Davies (Eds.) What is Youth Work? Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.

By Gareth Cheesman

Christmas in Chester

2011-11-28T14:12:00.001Z

I love it when the Christmas market come to Chester. I think it creates a really festive atmosphere. I find Christmas a great time to talk about Jesus with young people. It can be a real challenge to some people who find themselves focusing on all the presents and commercial side. On the 13th of December a group of students from the light project will be doing an exciting project looking at helping people connect with the Christian message.

Possible locations for a Christmas project ?

2011-11-23T17:01:00.001Z

Possible locations for a Christmas project ?

2011-11-05T08:40:00.000Z

<b>Full to the top or a ghost town</b>

For the first time in my professional career I ran an open community youth club on Halloween. Normally Halloween falls during school half term and as we follow school opening it has never happened before. We opened knowing that Halloween may have unusual impacts on numbers. We didn't know if the festival would encourage lots of people out of houses and therefore increase numbers or would people all have parties to attend and trick or treating to do and therefore decrease numbers? We opened the club not knowing what to expect in attendance or behaviour.

After being open for 30 minutes we had our answer. No one was coming. Not a single young person walked through our door. Our club was empty so we went out and did some detached youth work. We learnt a lesson about working on Halloween.

But this night got me thinking is it better to have too few or too many young people in a youth club?

When you have too many young people in a youth club I have found myself spending most of the evening dealing with behaviour and crowd control. The result being no engagement with young people in conversation or shared activity. No relationship building or informal education. But still the young people may have an enjoyable evening in a safe place, possibly with new experiences.

Now ignoring extremes when no one attends it is also a difficult situation when numbers are low. With low numbers the youth club workers who are spread out across the building may all be waiting to engage with the same people. This can put some strain on the young people but at lest we can be confident that no young person will be ignored. I think the greatest danger with this situation is workers getting demoralised, thinking the works not worth doing.

So I'm still not sure. Most clubs have a sweet spot for the number of young people attending ( this number can change over time and depends on everything from the age of people, the number of workers, the activities and even the weather.) But is it better to have more or less young people?

Sent from my iPod

Gareth Cheesman - Google+ - This has changed the way i look at my work and learning

2011-09-05T20:23:00.000+01:00

This youtube video is fantastic at encouraging us all to think different about education

Gareth Cheesman - Google+ - This has changed the way i look at my work and learning:

'via Blog this'

CRB and Vetting and Barring review and changes

2011-02-21T11:31:00.001Z

CRB and Vetting and Barring

review and changes

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:

"Our reviews concluded that the systems were not proportionate and needed to be less bureaucratic. They will now be scaled back to sensible levels whilst at the same time protecting vulnerable people."

The review has suggested a number of changes, I have attached a copy of the full email update from the ISA at the end of this document and the full details of the review can be found at

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/crime/vbs-report?view=Binary

Below I have copied in points taken from ISA email update and websites. Below that in italics I have briefly summarised how I believe this could affect The Light Project and similar organisations.

The Agencies

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) should be merged and a single Non-Departmental Public Body or Agency created to provide a barring and criminal records disclosure service.

Services relating to criminal records disclosure and barring provisions should be self-financing. We recommend the Government consults on raising the cost of the criminal records disclosure fee to cover the costs incurred.

I believe this will mean CRBs will get more expensive and that possibly volunteers will no longer be able to get CRBs for free.

The Proposed Registration scheme

Registration should be scrapped - there should be no requirement for people to register with the scheme and there will be no ongoing monitoring.

This u-turn from previous plans will hopefully reduce the administration and complexity of getting checked.

But by being a less intensive scheme, the risk of people being convicted of a crime and not being instantly removed from all work could increase.

The CRB itself

Criminal records disclosures should continue to be available to employers and voluntary bodies but should be revised to become portable through the introduction of a system which allows for continuous updating.

This is great news, if CRBs become portable and is continuously updated this would make our work so much simpler and the appointment process quicker.

Also the website states

we propose to develop and introduce the concept of updated criminal records disclosures as a premium service at an extra cost available to organisations using individuals in both regulated activity and other vulnerable group roles. This service would save employers and voluntary bodies the burden of undertaking repeated criminal records checks as:

• Checks on whether any new information is available, following a previous criminal records check would be given online in real time;

• New disclosures would only be needed if information had changed;

• An annual subscription fee would finance the operation of the system

without the need for any other Government funding

This seems like a great service but please note the talk of “extra cost” and “annual subscriptions”. This cost however may end up being less then the current cost of doing repeated CRBs. I am curious to see how similar this online real time check option will be to the original vetting proposal that included possibilities for checking for updates.

Who needs to be checked?

We will seek amendment to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which provides the framework for the VBS, and redefine the scope of the scheme (i.e. reduce the range of posts that fall within 'regulated activity' and scrape 'controlled activity' altogether) so that only essential posts (from a public protection perspective) will fall within its requirements. A smaller (and more proportionate) group of roles will now be defined as regulated activities. The concept of 'controlled activity', where an individual had some contact with children and vulnerable adults, but not as intense, frequent or regular as that deemed a regulated activity, will be scrapped under these amendments.

Regulated activities

The review consistently makes use of the phrase “only those who may have regular or close contact” as defining those needing to be checked. The review does not make clear what it will define as regular or close.

Currently the definition of regulated activity includes.

Regulated activity

This is defined as:

• Any activity of a specified nature carried out frequently that involves contact with children or vulnerable adults

• Any activity allowing contact with children or vulnerable adults that is in a specified place frequently or intensively

A previous ISA fact sheet specifically defined

‘Regulated activity’ is when the activity is frequent

(once a month or more) or ‘intensive’ (takes place

on three or more days in a 30-day period).

(Regulated and controlled activities Fact Sheet No 3 October 2007)

I have not yet found an equivalent clear definition for what the review classes as regular or close. Therefore I would suggest we continue to work with the older definition until we have an update.

If a future definition was to be loosened significantly we may wish to keep our own standards higher then the legal minimum. For example if a future definition of regular was to say once a week we may still wish to have a CRB for someone who is on a rota and volunteers every month (For example in the Light Project at Night Church). It is encouraging to see that the VBS report suggests and supports that groups may wish to voluntarily check more then the minimum required.

continue to make a criminal records ‘disclosure service’ available to those who are required or want (voluntarily) to check the backgrounds

The controlled activities

This group of people is being removed from the legal minimum of who must legally be checked and below I have quoted at length a portion of the review explaining what this could mean

The following are examples of roles where the law would have required registration with the Vetting & Barring Scheme, but where the new arrangements will let organisations decide whether and how to check, as either the individual’s role does not require them to interact with vulnerable groups for a sustained length of time, or they do so under supervision:

• Cleaner in an old people’s care home

• Sunday school helper

• Medicines counter assistant

• Volunteer parent literacy helper

• Maintenance worker in a children’s hospital

We are aware that removing barring arrangements from some activities could give rise to an increase in safeguarding risks. Some people who may previously have been barred, or may now be barred from the reduced and redefined range of regulated activities, may be able to gain posts in other areas where they are able to work less closely with children or vulnerable adults. It will be up to employers to weigh up the risks involved.

Personally I am worried that one of the suggested people that may not need to be checked is “Sunday School Helper”. I believe they are only on this list because the review thinks that a helper would always be under supervision. In my experience however I have known many volunteers with the title of “Sunday School Helper” be left alone and even if they are not left alone they still have opportunities to build up significant relationships with child and young people. Therefore they should be checked. I fear Churches will simple read the title in the list of those who do not legally need to be checked and go “brilliant we don’t have to CRB our childs workers any more.” The review shift responsibility to employers to decided who needs to be checked and it makes provision for this with the final sentence of

It will be up to employers to weigh up the risks involved.

Barring scheme

Below I have collected together lots of the information about the barring scheme. From my limited understanding of it application in the work place I believe this will prove to be an important part of safeguarding child and young people. I have not read any significant changes from previous ISA plans but again we have the vague definition of “regular or close contact”. Please not it is a legal offence to knowingly employ a barred individual.

A state body should continue to provide a barring function to help employers protect those at risk from people who seek to do them harm via work or volunteering roles. The new barring regime should cover only those who may have regular or close contact with vulnerable groups. Barring should continue to apply to both paid and unpaid roles. Automatic barring should apply for those serious offences which provide a clear and direct indication of risk. The information used by the state barring body (currently the ISA) to make a barring decision should be serious in nature. The new regime should retain current arrangements for referrals to the state barring body (currently the ISA) by employers and certain regulatory bodies, in circumstances where individuals have demonstrated a risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults. The current appeals arrangements should be retained. The state barring body should be given a power to vary review periods in appropriate circumstances. The new system will retain two offences; it will continue to be an offence for a barred person to work with vulnerable groups in regulated activity roles. It will also be an offence for an employer or voluntary organisation knowingly to employ a barred person in a regulated activity role.

Finally

Finally, the Government should raise awareness of safeguarding issues and should widely promote the part everyone has to play in ensuring proper safeguarding amongst employers, volunteer organisations, families and the wider community.

Be interesting to see if this means anything in reality. Will we see any more training options or publicity campaigns? Or is this just an attempt to reassure us all the reduced scale of the VBS scheme does not mean the government does see safeguarding as important.

P.S. Where could this go?

The changes proposed may suggest a possible future development. Specifically I believe if CRBs become portable people may start to be issued with a license to work with child, young people and vulnerable adults. Licenses that cost money and maybe in future will require applicants to complete a theory test? Or maybe completion of a universal safeguarding course? Who knows what will happen, maybe this could create a simpler safer system.

Annual Risk assessment update

2011-01-27T13:53:00.002Z

Just doing my annual generic risk assessment for D'Biz clubs.
I welcome you all to have a look and tell me what you think.
Please tell me all the dangerous things you have seen people doing at youth clubs. Lets assess the risks :)
Click here to have a look

New poll

2011-01-12T11:19:00.001Z

New Poll has just been posted, asking if we should change the D'Biz website, Find the website here at www.dbiz.org.uk

Pizza is good?

2010-11-08T12:00:00.004Z

Tonight at D'Biz VX we have a pizza night. I will go down to Tesco buy a load of cheap (but not value, they tastes horrible) pizzas and then tonight we will cook it all and give it away to the young people along with the Tuck shop providing chocolate, sweets and fizzy drinks. All in all we most defiantly do not promote healthy eating. Should we?

Since Jamie Oliver's campaign we have seen almost every school becoming a healthy living school. The tuck shops are gone and the canteens have been refreshed with new menus and hopefully better food. Youth clubs are often still a haven for unhealthy food.

We have tried to bring in healthy alternatives, like fresh fruit or cereal bars but they just never get eaten before they go off. When we have the sugar loaded alternative next to the fruit, fruit doesn't get a look in. Now I believe that maybe if we did not have an unhealthy option the healthy options would be taken. I wonder, would we be taking away an element of choice and responsibility from the young people. Should they not be encouraged to chose a healthy option? Sadly this argument fall down when most if not all D'Biz youth clubs do not have a healthy option that young people could chose.

Unlike schools youth clubs are usually only open one day in a week and only for a short number of hours. Speaking to one young person I was told that D'Biz was the only time in the week they were allowed to buy chocolate and that the rest of the week she is banned form having any. I am glad that D'Biz exists and is able to be the fun place people can get sweets and go a bit hyper. I honestly believe it is good for young people to have a chance to blow off some steam and use up energy being silly and having fun. But I am still a bit unsettled when I see young people buying 3 or 4 chocolate bars in a single night or 4 cans of fizzy drink. I believe that it is time we started to provide some healthy options and maybe more clubs should adopt limits on quantity the young people can buy.

Sow hat about tonight with the Pizza, can we provide a healthy alternative to Pizza? would anyone want it? maybe not. Maybe instead we should do a healthy food night where we bring in a load of strange and unusual fruits and veg and let them try bits of them. Maybe we should start some cooking sessions where we teach young people to cook and enjoy healthy meals outside of club. Allowing the treat of the tuck shop to exist but complementing it with healthy food ideas at other times.

The PNOS

2010-09-09T14:13:00.002+01:00

The PNOS

Hello Just a quick blog post linking to The PNOS; which is the professional national occupational standards of youth work. It is very long and often repetitive but if you would like to have a look at it you may find it useful when thinking about the aims of youth work or if you are writing a report or an essay about working with young people. Page 3-7 are the introduction to the docuemnt and provide a great little summary of the other 180 pages. Click the link above or below and have a quick read.

The PNOS

For Youth's Sake

2010-08-11T11:31:00.002+01:00

Just signed a youth campaign pledge, I urge you all to have a look and sign it if you can. With the upcoming government cuts our youth service is under serious threat. Both council youth work and third sector provision is under threat! Of course we should all understand that cuts must be made at the moment but this campaign looks to ensure that young people are not given a raw deal!

The campaign has three initial priorities.

The first calls on the government to set out its vision for young people, as we know little about how it intends to help young people achieve their full potential.

The second priority asks for young people to have a genuine say on a local and national level in shaping the services that affect them and calls for them to be given powers to decide where money is spent in their communities.

Third, we’re calling on employers to invest in the youth workforce to ensure young people are provided with the best possible support from properly trained staff and volunteers. We also want those who work with young people to feel valued for the vital role they play in their communities.

Long post about leadership by Jake

2010-07-30T17:13:00.000+01:00

I've just done a brilliant placement with the light project and part of my job was to write about leadership, I've learned a lot about leadership through working at 4 different youth clubs and this is what I came up with.

Leadership is an important function of groups and their behaviour. It is also one of the key concepts (including culture, structure and motivation) which make up the process of management. Leadership is described by Cole as a ....

"dynamic process in a group whereby one individual influences the other to contribute voluntarily to the achievement of group tasks in a given situation".

G.A Cole (1990), Management Theory and Practice,3rd edition,p215,DP Publications Ltd, London.

As well as Cole, there are many other theorists and scientists who have studied the theory of leadership, early examples are H. Fayol and F. W. Taylor. Their early models were authoritarian in style and theory's such as D. McGregor's x and y theory evolved from the old classics. Changes in ideas progressed further such as J. Adair's functional or action centred approach which is more democratic in style. In this essay I will discuss some of these theories, in particular the authoritarian model verses the democratic model. I will also link some of these to the practise where I am currently working. By doing this one can try to understand what model works best in the youth work environment. I will then look at how my personal and professional values influence leadership.

In the Victorian days an autocratic style of leadership was mostly used in management, H. Fayol (1916) describes management as "to manage is to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and control." This suggests that there was an emphasis in commanding and controlling. Therefore the appointed leader would probably have had a bureaucratic style where he would use his power in a hierarchical position, thereby just ordering the staff to do what they are told, leaving no room for freedom of their imagination. Later in the 1960s D. McGregor made two assumptions about employees by their managers. The first is that employees are regarded as being lazy and in need of control and coercion, seeking security and avoiding responsibility, this example of scientific management he called theory x and is authoritarian in nature. Theory y is based on the assumption that the employees seem to like work, therefore they do not have to be controlled and forced in an autocratic manor as in theory x. Theory y explains that people will accept and seek responsibility and are able to use their imaginations at work more freely.

The x and y models are the extremes of authoritarian and democratic approaches. One could argue that the autocratic style of management actually makes people lazy, makes them less motivated and unimaginative as they are controlled and restricted, where as the democratic style of management allows people to be more inventive and use their initiative a lot more which motivates people a great deal more in the work place. On the other hand one could argue that people do have different personalities and may respond in different ways to either style of leadership. Lazy people may need direction and firm control whereas motivated people may be suppressed by autocratic leadership

Motivation is a seriously important part of leading in the youth work environment. The placement I'm currently working at uses a more democratic style of managing as the authoritarian method just wouldn't work well at all as the youths wouldn't turn up every week. However their leadership style is not so democratic that the youths run around with total freedom, but enough to enable them to have self awareness, confidence, responsibility and most importantly to safe guard their health and safety. Although there is a natural distance between the leaders and the youths, being a leader means that you will inevitably be seen as different and sometimes you have to exercise one's power in certain situations.

Gibson and Clarke (1995) believed that an "enabling" is most empowering and said ...

"good practise in informal education will sometimes mean that we have to exercise our power, to set the boundaries, to persuade or cajole. For example if we perceive that a group might come to harm, or to harm others if we allow it to continue to do something we need to be prepared to step in, perhaps even to become authoritarian."

R.Harrison and C.Wise (2005), Working With Young People,p129, Sage Publications, London

I agree that a balance is needed in the youth work environment and I think that J Adair's (2003) functional approach strikes a very good balance and has a more modern theory than the earlier mentioned. Adair's model of leadership incorporates the concern for task as well as for the people. It is also concerned with the individual. Therefore he is concerned with the task needs, the individual needs and the group needs. I would agree that this model is more effective because it is more flexible. I believe that groups are often different from one another some with distinctive characteristics. Different types of groups or organisations and cultures require a different style of leadership, some require more direction, coaching, discipline or support. I like Bower's (1966) description of organisational culture as "the way we do things around here"

According to Cole (1990) Adair's concept of leadership is basically a contingency theory of leadership. The leaders behaviour is therefore more in tune with the overall situation and is therefore adoptive in nature. In one incident at the youth club I'm working at we had a gladiators theme night where the youths where fighting with big rubber batons and naturally they were all far too over excited, pushing and shoving in the queue for a go at fighting. On this instance I was working in the tuck shop and the general vibe of the youths was hyperactive and pretty out of control and as a result of this I had to send some of them away and ban them from tuck for a certain amount of time to cool down and some of them for the rest of the night. Therefore I would tend to use Adair's functional model for the youth work where you have to react to the situation at the time.

I also agree with Adair (2003) when he claims that autocratic and democratic styles are political in origin and have a limited currency in the work place. I would also agree with his view that it is unhelpful to suggest that one style of leadership is more correct or is appropriate for all situations. Style he claims is linked to decision making and more a matter of temperament attitudes, values and personality. I also believe that everyone has their own style of leading which is developed through experience and knowledge and remember that you are often dealing with different personalities and individuals.

Adair (2003) has also pointed out some important and distinctive features in the concept of leadership which include:

Direction

Inspiration

Building teams

Example

Acceptance

I have personally tried to implement some of these concepts in my practise. I have tried to inspire some of the youths by getting them involved in a film project. By being enthusiastic I have tried to get the youths to follow by example and have tried to be accepted by them and earn their respect. I believe that respect plays an important part in leadership and that it works both ways, it is a two way communication. I have also tried to adopt some of the qualities of leadership pointed out by Adair(2003) which are integrity, enthusiasm, warmth, calmness and being tough but fair

Some of the qualities mentioned above are those which I believe made me believe I would become a good youth worker. I believe I possess the values which are required to become a professional worker and can relate them to the list included in the professional and occupational standards for youth work (2008). One example is promoting young people's self awareness, another to facilitate learning and development of young people, also planning and implementing learning activities in youth work. Some of these standards I have incorporated through my film project, this was a good way of communicating with young people and most of all to motivate them, to enable them to use their imagination and take some responsibilities. I used my role as a leader to encourage their participation.

On a day to day basis in the clubs I work at have a managerial structure which works well. They have a main team leader who delegates jobs for the rest of the team. This is based on whatever part of the club we were working in the previous weeks which he rotates. This to me works really well as it means everyone works in every area at some point. All the leaders I work with have a culture based on a religion and all their clubs are motivated by their faith. What I really like about this is that unlike most similar Christian organisations they don't push their beliefs on to the young people, instead they have their own time before and after club to pray and do their Christian thing. This works so well because in their own way they do spread the word of god through some of the conversations they have with the young people, but the placement are just there to make the community a better and a more collective and friendly place to live in.

So to conclude I have looked at some of the different theories for leadership models and styles. I have noted that there has been a shift from the old fashioned, autocratic managerial models to a more balanced democratic approach. It has become apparent through studies that to get the best you can out of people you should be less controlling and allow people to become more imaginative and to take some responsibilities for their actions.

We now know that through practise and theory that personal characteristics of a leader, leader behaviour and the adoptive leader in light of situation are all important factors in effectively managing group behaviour. I have also learnt that the leaders major role is to ensure that unofficial and official norms are in harmony and balanced. I have experienced from my practise a good structure and a good balance of roles tend to create a strong team leading to an effective management team. The leaders have the ability to influence others to achieve a common goal and to take an individual's needs into consideration. In my practise I have found it useful when they allow the older youths to take some of the leadership roles e.g. during projects, tasks and volunteering. The most important things I have learnt through my experience so far through practise and theory is that leadership qualities determine how to carry out functions effectively by using qualities such as awareness, understanding and skill. I have also learnt that leadership is learnt through experience and the belief that one is not a born leader but one can become a leader.

Hope this was a good read, any feed back is much appreciated, it would be good to know what anyone else thinks on the topic.

I'm thinking which is dangerous

2010-07-27T12:51:00.002+01:00

It has been 50p to attend most D'Biz youth clubs for years. Maybe too long? Should we raise it to 60p?

It's half-term and I'm thinking. youth work online?

2010-06-02T14:52:00.002+01:00

Ok this is just a quick post about youth work online. The more I think about it (and to a small degree do it) the more I think that their is need for good quality youth work online. But I see a big challenge, do you set something up and let young people come to you or do you go out to where young people already are and interact with them there?

Where are these places (apart from facebook)?
How could a youth worker interact with young people in these settings?
How does Safeguarding apply online?
What would be your aims?

The list goes on, does anyone have any thoughts? Where do you think a youth worker could benefit the online youth community?

A quick survey about Child Protection and Safeguarding

2010-05-13T16:47:00.007+01:00

Sorry its in this small box, you could also go to the forms dedicated page here.

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Repost from youthblog.org

2010-05-05T13:20:00.002+01:00

Original Post

This is a short (very American) talk by a young person about listening to young people and empowering them. Not a perfect presentation but worth listening too as it raises some fun challenges.

Love to hear your thoughts.

Blog by Sarah Goodwin

2010-04-30T11:33:00.000+01:00

Following the crowd

‘Emo/Skater/Scene/Chav/Indie/Trendy’ are just a few of the labels that young people today choose to attach themselves to…but why do they do this? One major reason is peer pressure. Young people are under immense pressure from those around them to conform to what society deems as ‘normal’. As long as you follow what everybody else is doing-you will be accepted in to that group, and you will find community. But isn’t there another way of finding acceptance?

Sense of belonging

I believe that something young people are desperate for is a sense of belonging. Being part of a community. So, what does community bring them? Well, a community is a place where different people come together with a common identity, where everybody belongs and has a part to play.

We can see this expressed in Churches; people from all parts of the world come together in one building to meet for a common reason, a shared purpose regardless of where they come from. Everyone in that community is accepted, has something to bring and has a reason for being there, which fulfils the desire to belong.

Purpose in life

Adolescence is an extremely difficult time. Young people are beginning to face the huge questions of ‘Who am I?’ ‘What part do I have to play?’ ‘What is life all about?’. These questions come alongside coping with all the changes they are going through physically and emotionally. In school, they are deciding which subjects will help them find the careers they want, picking the right GCSE’s will lead to picking the right A-Levels which leads to choosing the right degree which will open the door to the perfect career. We’re talking about life-changing decisions here-making the choices at 14 years old that affect them in 10 years to come. In a life that moves constantly at 100mph, its not surprising that young people struggle to find their purpose.

Loneliness

So what happens if you aren’t part of group like a Church, a youth group or a sports club; where do you belong? Who shares the same interests as you? Who cares about you? Young people can turn to all sorts as a means of ‘fitting in’ with the crowd. Some researchers suggest that could be one of the reasons young people turn to drugs. They are a part of something, they aren’t alone any more, they are part of a shared experience. Family breakdowns also have a lasting effect in the lives of young people too. In fact, I think this could be where all these things stem from. If young people don’t even feel like they are part of their own family unit, then that’s not exactly a great start! This can lead to all sorts of feelings, if a parent leads home then it can lead to shock, rejection, grief, depression, anger and more. If they can’t work out how to live and be part of their own family community, then how does this set them up to enter other communities? How will they know what their role is?

Being bold

Standing out from the crowd is a scary thought for some young people. It’s much easier to just ‘blend in’ and not be seen. Or they follow trends so they’re not ‘outcast’. It helps them to fit under a certain label or category rather than being an individual. It takes courage to stand out and be bold. I think that being secure in yourself also helps, because that takes away some of the fear of being different. Thanks to the media, a lot of young people are shown a very narrow view of what beauty is, and how it is represented. They are told, if you look like this- then you are beautiful, if you don’t then no-one is interested. It is these shallow attitudes that have a massive impact on young people’s self esteem, and it’s yet another HUGE pressure put upon them.

So, where do I believe young people can find all these things?

 Purpose

 Belonging

 Community

 Courage (to be themselves)

 Acceptance

 Truth about image

My answer is God. As a young person, I asked many of these questions. I was lonely, I didn’t know who I was, I didn’t belong anywhere, I didn’t have a purpose and those were dark times in my life. But when someone invited me along to Church-my life completely turned around in every way imaginable. Somebody was a light in the darkness. And now, I am a part of an ever-growing family. I know that I have a part to play in this world, a reason for living, a destiny that I was created to fulfil. But this isn’t just for me! This is an invitation that extends to EVERYBODY who chooses to accept it.

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

John 3:16-18

Written by Sarah Goodwin on placement with D’Biz

A Youth Workers Power

2010-04-26T11:28:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone, I am Ryan and I’m a placement student working with Gareth, I am on the Christian Youth Work course in the University of Chester and I thought that it would be good idea to put something up on the blog about how leaders get their power and respect.

I have recently been reading book called Leadership with Young People by Peter Barnes it makes a very interesting point about where do leaders get there power a respect and he claims that there is 5 main bases of power these are
• Resource
• Expert
• Legitimate
• Charisma
• Coercive

Resource Power, as it says in the name, is about having respect and power because you have control of rebases for instance if the young people are badly behaved then to close or shut down whatever they are doing or rewarding them with extra time if they are well behaved. This power usually goes to the head leaders at your particular D’Biz because they have to organize or manage most things at the club although it can be used by the whole team with permission from the leader in charge for example any leader could turn off a computer if young people where fighting over it.

The second base of power is expert power this is the being respected and having power because the leader is seen as more knowledgeable than the young people and as someone they can go to for advice. This is commonly given to older leaders for their experience however that sometimes changes depending on your particular D’Biz group. One example would be a leader who is able to play guitar would be the person that the young people see as the expert at music night at the club

Another base of power is legitimate power this type of power comes when a leader is in a way elected by the young people to have respect and power. This sort of power usually comes to a person for number of reason for instance having expert power or they are seen by the young people to be reliable. I rarely see this in D’Biz because leaders are not elected they volunteer. The reason for this I feel is that D’Biz is a constantly changing group and having leaders who where elected by the previous group of young people could cause conflict with the current group and to have an “election” of leaders would make it hard to make long term plans like trips away.

Charisma power is in my opinion one of the more sought after powers because it is where power and respect is given to the leader by the young people because they like the leader. However with charisma power your power can be unstable if you are seen by the young people to make a mistake and therefore this type of power also has a high emphasis on being a good role model to the young people and also not being strict on them with can sometimes be needed.

The final base of power is that of coercive power, this is where power is from dominating the group and is usually gained by use of punishment to the young people such as if a young person is badly behaved then to ban them for a week. This power in D’Biz comes from the warning system that is used in D’Biz where you give a young person a warning if they do something that is against the rules. They then are put on low tolerance for the rest of the night or the next week in some cases and then if they another thing wrong they are asked to leave.

Overall in my opinion I feel that leaders should try to use all bases of power however some such as legitimate and charisma should be used more often that others such a coercive because the wrong balance of a bases of power can stop a leader from building relationships with their young people.

Here is some links to the book
http://books.google.com/books?id=3qJTAAAACAAJ&dq=leadership+with+young+people+barnes&cd=1
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/ISBNInquiry.asp?r=1&EAN=9781903855072&cm_mmc=Google%20Book%20Search-_-k118169-_-j14953980-_-Googe%20Book%20Search%20(non-B%26N%20Imprint)&IF=N

Free First Aid Training

2010-03-22T16:30:00.001Z

If you fit the bill and want to apply give us an email.

Some new stuff for our Drugs Policy

2010-03-05T11:27:00.002Z

Hello, this is a quick update to add some things that I have been thinking about since the recent drug training I attended. Please email me what you think or leave a comment.

Informing parents

After a drug related incident the default procedure should be to inform parents. However, if we have reason to believe that this will have a negative emotional, physical, psycological or other effect on the young person this action will not be followed.

If the young person is deemed to be competant (according to the frazer competance scale, see appendix 1) to understand the serveratity of the issues work will continue directly with the young person.

If their are doubts about the young persons ability to understand and take responsibility for the situation social services will be contacted.

Some Basic Rules

For the safety of staff and young people. Being under the influence of drugs (including alcohol) will prevent a young person from being allowed to attend a D'Biz youth club.

If the team has reason to believe a young person is in possion of drugs

If the team believes a young person has used drugs on premises.

If the team beleives a young person is or has been dealing drugs on premises.

Some Responsibilities

If a young person arrives at a premises under the influence of drugs attempts will be made to ensure their safety, this may include but is not limited to
Ring the emergency services
Ring parents/careers to arrange collection
Providing water, shelter or blankets
Allowing the use of toilets (one at a time)

Drugs Training

2010-02-23T11:30:00.002Z

Tomorrow evening is the drugs training event for D'Biz workers. I was wondering if anyone had any questions they particularly wanted answered. Speak now or forever hold your tongue.

Whats their name again

2010-02-02T16:50:00.001Z

A young person attends a D'Biz

are they called ?
A D'Bizer
OR
A D'Bizite
???

New Equipment and Drugs

2010-01-21T11:54:00.004Z

Well D'Biz centrally owns a PS3 (with Guitar hero world tour) that it lets all the D'Biz groups book out and borrow. The idea is that we want to allow clubs with small budgets to have access to expensive equipment. But the equipment has been the same for over a year so it's time to invest in some new equipment. Currently I am planning to get D'Biz
Tony Hawk Ride and
DJ Hero - Renegade Edition

Both of these are very expensive games because they come with an expensive peripheries. Now in the past I have been asked why we spend so much on expensive equipment. The simple answer is that I firmly believe that part of youth work is to provide New Experiences, many young people wont buy these games because of their high price tag. Also these two items both provide a possible gateway into a sub culture they may not have thought of exploring. I have had a go on the Skateboard game and its pretty fun, I imagine that some young people may enjoy it enough to have a go at skateboarding. Equally whilst I have not tried the DJ game from my experience with the learning curve of real decks I'm hopefully this game may encourage young people to learn some of the necessary skills/methods to make music good. Compared to Guitar hero I believe this game may be even better at imitating the music process its based on because DJ decks are tech based originally. We should have the new equipment by half term, I can't wait to get some people to review it.

Also wanted to mention how we are planning to run some drug awareness training on the 24th of February. However, before that I am working with DISC to organise a drugs policy for the D'Biz clubs. Hopefully the policy will answer some key questions like;
- How should youth leaders behave in a conversation about drugs?
- How leaders should act when they find out a young person they work with is taking drugs?
- What leaders should do if they find drugs in their youth club, either in the building or on a young person?
- How leaders can best support young people when they are under the influence of drugs?

If you can think of any other questions a drugs policy should address please drop me an email at,

Gareth.Cheesman@lightproject.org.uk

Its snowing

2010-01-06T11:48:00.003Z

"Drugs are bad, mmm kay"

2009-12-07T13:45:00.002Z

Hello Everyone

In the past we have run a lot of training for our D'Biz teams, in the past we have covered lots of topics like
-Self harm
-Managing Aggressive behaviour
-Sex and Relationship

I am trying to restart this by setting up some training on Drugs with DISC early in 2010. I want to know more about drugs, especially local drug trends, I hope lots of people make use of this opportunity.

Anyone else want to suggest topics for training.

D'Biz and Cyba X

2009-11-15T16:10:00.001Z

At the end of Summer Cyba X came to Chester and visited D'Biz and did a demo and a quick workshop. Then on the saturday he played a gig and I was able to video the gig. D'Biz gave the footage to cyba X and they have used it in a promo and as a thankyou they have kindly made a version with our logo at the start. Watch out Cyba X will be big!!!!
The official promo is here please have a look here.

Facebook

2009-11-12T16:17:00.002Z

Ok I am now a face book person, that's right I have made a new Facebook account for me called Gareth D'Biz. This is separate from my personal account which is hidden away so no one can find me (i have to find you). The account is there for young people I work with mainly at the D'Biz VX and Crypt Coffee bar. The aim is to engage with the young people in a helpful way. Even though it is called Gareth D'Biz the account will be accessible to about 5 different youth workers and I may even change the name from Gareth to something more generic. I want the account to be completely open and accountable so that all communication is fully accountable. I love the idea of using social networking sites with youth work but I have always been cautious with it. So this is a bit of an experiment and I may end it and delete the account if at any point I believe it becomes unhelpful. D'Biz Hoole has been trialing a similar set up for the last year and it has all gone fine so far.

Gareth D'Biz

Create Your Badge

I want young people to disclose child protection issues in my youth groups

2009-11-09T15:15:00.002Z

I am very passionate about safeguarding. I think it is one of the most valuable and privileged gifts we can give to the community. I want young people to disclose child protection issues in my youth groups. Now let me reassure you, I wish no young person or child had the need to disclose something to me. I pray that the young people never suffer any form of abuse or neglect. Sadly this is not the world we live in.

7% of children experienced serious physical abuse
6% of children experienced serious absence of care
6% of children experienced frequent and severe emotional maltreatment
11% of children experienced sexual abuse by people known but unrelated to them

And importantly

Three-quarters (72%) of sexually abused children did not tell anyone about the abuse at the time. 27% told someone later. Around a third (31%) still had not told anyone about their experience(s) by early adulthood.

I want young people to disclose child protection issues in my youth groups because I want them to tell someone, anyone. Sadly I am sure statistically that some of the young people I work with are suffering some horrible situations. Trying to deal with it alone.

I hope and pray that the youth clubs I run are safe and secure places where young people can speak to someone and share their burden. It is a horrible topic but it is a very real situation in our country. We have a privileged opportunity to be ready to help young people when they are at their most vulnerable.

So yes I want young people to disclose child protection issues in my youth groups because I'm sure some young people need to talk and I want them to tell someone.

All statistics taken from Cawson et al. (2000) Child maltreatment in the United Kingdom: a study of the prevalence of child abuse and neglect . London: NSPCC.

D'Biz Youth Clubs on Google Maps (edition 1)

2009-10-28T18:01:00.001Z

View D'Biz Youth Clubs in a larger map

Very rough we need to improve this.

ECM

2009-10-26T13:54:00.002Z

Ok quick update following my ECM post,

I am writing this document to try and encourage more youth worker to think creatively about how their youth club can engage with this government document. Nothing in it is mandatory (well apart from things like having a current safeguarding policy)

Thank you to Andy A for emailing me back some feedback, Anyone else got any suggestion please let me know.

Every Child Matters

2009-10-09T13:27:00.003+01:00

Hello

Two posts in one week aren't I keen. Well today I want to talk about the "Every Child Matters" framework and how the D'Biz youth groups can engage with this framework. Today I sat down for a few hours and taking the 5 main points for the 5 sections of the framework I have tried to write a short paragraph about how D'Biz can be involved in these areas. Below are a 1 or 2 examples of what I wrote in the 5 sections. I would love it if a few people would have a look and give me some feedback. This is my first attempt at trying to directly explain how my D'Biz work matches wider policies, so I think it is a bit rough around the edges. So don't hold back please send me some feedback to gareth.cheesman@lightproject.org.uk.

If you don't know about the Every Child Matters frame work click here for a simple outline.

Be Healthy
Clubs will introduce some low calorie tuck alternatives and will aim to include higher energy activities (such as bouncy castle, self defence, dance) as often as possible.

Stay Safe
All clubs will implement a current and comprehensive Safeguarding policy and ensure all staff are kept up to date.

Enjoy and Achieve
D’Biz will work alongside young people accompanying them in their personal and social development.

Enjoying recreation (having fun) is a primary aim for all D’Biz youth clubs every week.

Make a positive contribution
D’Biz will encourage positive behaviour and challenge young people in a friendly manner when appropriate. D’Biz will attempt to provide accurate information about the legal consequence of behaviours young people are engaging in.

D’Biz will involve the young people in the financial running of the club. For example in planning events, managing the tuck shop, grant applications etc.

Achieve economic well being
Look to research opportunities to help prepare young people for employment by involving them in voluntary community projects.

Please click below to download my full first draft responding to all 25 areas.
Draft of D'Biz engaging with ECM

A Programme Planned By Young People

2009-10-07T10:57:00.004+01:00

This term at D'Biz VX we had nothing planned for the entire term when we opened our doors. This wasn't because I was lazy or disorganised it was an intentional plan. Our first night was spent getting the young people to plan what they wanted to do this term. We printed a blank programme with the dates on and things like half term details. Then I gave the young people little slips of paper with all the activities we have done before on. They could then move them around the blank programme to make a good balanced and engaging programme. My plan was that they would select their favourite activities from the past to do again. Ignorantly I didn't expect them to come up with new fresh activities but they came up with a whole host of ideas. To help them understand the cost of activities the slips where colour coded and they had clear instructions that they could only select a certain number of each colour. This really helped the group to understand the cost of some things and appreciate what they often get. Below you can see the programme (click on it to download it as a pdf). I think it is a great programme and I'm looking forward to it. It is very differant from any programme I have planned before, I think this is partly because D'Biz VX has a strong female bias at the moment and this is reflected in the stuff they wanted to do.

Helping Relationships

2009-09-10T10:41:00.002+01:00

D'Biz has always had a large focus on relationships and more specifically helping relationships. These are hard to define, delicate to create and impossible to quantify. They exist between a youth leader and a young person. They have a simple aim to help the young person by being in relationship with them. It is about coming alongside the young person and empowering them to make decisions, changes and steps forward. To me the most key aspect of a helping relationship is that the helping is done with the young person not for the young person. I believe this relational work for the benefit of young people has a much longer lasting impact then any number of short certificated courses. I think it is a shame that so much of the council youth work is currently focused on achieving certificates instead of allowing youth workers to focus on the relational side which most youth workers from my experience would like to focus on.

A good book related to this topic is Accompanying Young People on Their Spiritual Quest by Maxine Green and Chandhu Christian. It approaches the topic from a slight different angle and is well worth a read.

It's the summer

2009-08-19T11:46:00.002+01:00

It's the summer and most D'Biz youth groups close down for a few weeks. This gives all the volunteers a little break and a chance to recharge their batteries for next term. For young people it gives them the opportunity to go out with their friends more and get involved with other things. For the paid youth workers the summer gives us an opportunity to take a breath and do some forward planning.

I love these few weeks, I get to sit down and brainstorm what i want to aim for in the coming academic year. In past years i have sometimes set crazy unrealistic goals about funding thousands of pounds of new big projects. But then nothing happens. Last year i was more realistic. i wanted to launch the D'Biz website, improve the equipment in clubs, run some video projects and some projects where young people decide what we spend money on (Dragons Den). Last year went great and all my main aims were meet.

This year I'm starting again the thinking process. I wonder what I should aim for in D'Biz. I already know I want to improve the website and get more D'Biz leaders involved in running their own pages. I also want to do more workshops using the video camera. But both of these aims are extensions of last years. I wonder if i should be thinking about anything new.

The end of the year

2009-07-17T13:05:00.002+01:00

we are coming up to the end of term and the end of the school year. most D'Biz Clubs have either finished already or are having their final event tonight. We have some great end of year events planned, one club is going bowling, one has a BBQ planed, another has a special Rock Band night and we have Ed Freitas coming to Hoole D'Biz to do some special drumming workshops in the run up to Chesterfest. D'Biz is most definatly ending on a high note this year.

Most summers the D'Biz youth clubs all close down over the holiday but following the success of last year D'Biz Hoole will be running a summer coffee bar which all members of both D'Biz Hoole Clubs are invited to. It is great to be able to keep some work going over the summer and maybe in the future more clubs will be able to run something like this.

Your City Your Say

2009-06-04T15:43:00.001+01:00

Charity Cruise

2009-04-29T10:46:00.003+01:00

this event is also now appearing in the Chester Chronicle.

Dragons' Den Events

2009-04-04T13:32:00.003+01:00

This week we have held two end of term events as a result of the Dragon Dens activities we did a few weeks ago. The young people got together into groups and proposed to a group of Dragons (youth workers)what they thought we should spend £150 on for their end of term events. The Dragons had 4 criteria they judged the ideas on.

Is the idea original?
Is it a good use of money?
Is it practical and achievable?
Can everyone get involved?

D'Biz VX hired a Limo

Yes the idea that won was to hire a stretched limo and for everyone in the club to take turns riding round town in it. This winning idea had an excellent presentation which i am hoping to upload later. The local company City Limousines Chester gave the youth group a very good deal and even provided some free gift for the young people. Before we held this event more then one person asked me if this really was a good use of money. I understand this, it does seem like a large expense for a one off luxury. However i am confident this was a good use of money because of how memorable it was. Everyone remembers their first ride in a Limo and i have never heard of a youth group hiring a limo before. It was an excellent night for all the young people of the club and the limo also drew a lot of attention from other local young people who saw it outside the club. I think this was a fantastic end of term event and i am very glad that the young people provided this idea to the dragons.

D'Biz Hoole (thurs) hires out Quasar

In the end we had more then one presentation of the idea of going to Quasar, however one presentation won out over the others because not only did they do lots of research into how much it would cost but they also but some thought into how we could make up the difference as £150 wouldn't cover the full amount. I have been to Quasar with young people more then once so i knew it would be a fun event but i was hoping to find a way to make it special and memorable for the young people. So i walked down to Quasar and spoke to the staff about hiring out the venue for just the youth group for the full 90 mins. This way we would be the only people playing. The staff put together a mini tournament style event with the club divided into 4 teams who all played each other. Team C won in the end! It was an excellent night, the best event i had ever had at Quasar. The staff worked very well with the large number of young people attending and i would recommend you consider visiting yourself. The game is safe, energetic, competitive and very fun. (i recommend trying to capture the hill at the back of the hall if you want to win). Please have a look at their website Quasar or give them a ring on 01244 400500 to find out more, if you want to organise a special event speak to them about what they can provide.

I think both Dragons' Den events went really well on the night which is great. But i think better then the event was the presentation of ideas to the Dragons. So many young people had fun putting time and effort into thinking up crazy ideas and researching how they could happen. Some of the ideas presented couldn't be organised in the two weeks we had available BUT we are hoping to use some of the ideas next term. So watch this space!

Dragons' Den up date

2009-03-13T15:10:00.002Z

I have been blown away by how much the young people have got involved with this activity. I thought that the possibility of £150 would get a lot of the group interested but i was so impressed with how much effort people have put in. We have had one club complete the idea interview stage already and it was a fantastic evening. The variety of ideas was truly impressive. Everything from hiring in sumo suits, to getting a chocolate fountain, to giving the money away to a good cause (which i will be talking about in a later blog), going to the cinema and so many more great ideas. the winning idea will not be announced until Monday evening but i can promise you that the idea is fun, original and was very well presented. The presentation of the idea and the effort put in really impressed all the dragons.

The concept of the idea is simple and is used in many forms of youth work. Get the people to be involved in decisions. The particular idea of young people being involved in the spending of money is done well by the Youth Opportunities and Youth Capital Fund. Both of which the D'Biz network have benefited from. Young people are ideally placed to make decisions on what should happen in youth clubs. Leaders, no matter how cool or relevant, will never be as in-tune with the young people as the young people are themselves.

£150 is not an earth shattering amount of money but it is a significant amount for a group to have use of and this time it was the sum of money we believed was justifiable and appropriate. It is big enough to make a genuine impact and that is what matters. But lets imagine for a moment what would happen if we multiplied that number by 10 or even 100. Would we be as willing to listen to young peoples views on how to spend thousands of pounds? and what would they see as the priority. It could create some very interesting youth work situations.

I am confident that young people given the chance and assistance could do a great job but if the amounts got bigger would we be willing to take the risk?

Dragons Den

2009-03-02T17:06:00.002Z

This term we are running a dragons den style event at two of our clubs. Click on the below link to find out more.

Dragons Den

Creative Competition,

2009-01-28T13:52:00.002Z

Tuck at Crypt is nice,
Although none of it has any spice.
There are no Sunday roasties
But there are drinks and toasties,
And everything is worth the price! (except Freddos)

We have our first wave of creative work by young people on the website! Please click on the below link for more.

Creative Competition

D'Biz Charity Cruise

2009-01-21T12:48:00.009Z

I am delighted to announce that on the 1st of June 2009, D'Biz will be hosting its first charity cruise along the River Dee, starting at 7pm the evening will include a finger buffet and light musical entertainment.

Please downlaod the pdf below for more information.

River Dee Cruise Invite

Website Competition

2009-01-07T10:49:00.002Z

We have our first Website competition for young people.
Click on the above link to find out more.

Happy New Year

2009-01-05T11:21:00.004Z

Happy New Year

It is the start of a New Year and this is always a great time to think about resolutions, plans, aims, visions and dreams. And I have been thinking about D'Biz and the year coming. I love the way D'Biz clubs meet young people and provide so much for them, especially ears that listen. For years we have done clubs and I think we have got very good at running them.

However, this year should we push the work we do into new areas. New stuff can be scary and it can go wrong. This is no reason not to do it and I always enjoy challenges. We have lots of possibilities and I believe the first area to work on is youth voice. Watch this space for some news soon.

New D'Biz Hoole videos

2008-12-18T16:17:00.004Z

I have been working hard to edit some videos for the D'Biz website from Hoole D'Biz. We did two special events,
We ran a special boy's night with a gladiator style inflatable game and then we went bowling!

Computer games

2008-12-11T14:57:00.002Z

Yesterday at a youth club i was asked why we didn't have and FPS (first person shooter) games at any other clubs. I explained the main reason was because all (at least all I can find) FPS games have a 15, 16 or 18 age rating and we cant legally have these in clubs. I asked them if they knew of any FPS games which didn't have such age ratings, they said they couldn't think of any but they would try and find some. I doubt there are any.

When I was growing up I did play a lot of FPS games and found them very enjoyable and also strangely I found they could be very social. The team based Internet games encourage online friendships and personally i had a group of friends who i played games with, talked with and was part of a community with. But these were people I had never meet and never would. The age rating is a problem we can not get around but I would love to find a good age appropriate FPS game which we could have in clubs especially if we could also then link into online game play. Imagine inter club gaming with people all across Chester working together to play online games together as a team. I don't know if this would ever be possible but i think that online communities is an area of youth culture D'Biz (and most other contemporary youth work projects) do not engage with.

I want to change this and I hope that D'Biz will be able to interact with young people online in a safe, professionally, appropriate and relevant way.

Meeting the needs

2008-12-04T13:14:00.003Z

Different D'Biz youth clubs offer very different things. Different activities, different structure and different ages and we aim that each club meets the needs of the local young people. But sometimes it can be hard to find out what the actual need is. We can look at statistics and ask about individuals experiences but this isn't a full proof way to find out what the real need in the community is. I love asking young people about what they need. I think this gets the most useful information but this isn't always simple. Recently a problem we have found is trying to separate wants from needs. for example

"We need the new Grand Theft Auto game in club"

This isn't a need this is a want and often i find myself (and other leaders)ignoring these kind of wants as not that important. But look behind the simple want and sometimes you find a genuine need that can help shape the future of the club. The above want can be interpreted as

We need more up to date activities to hold our attention as we get bored at the moment.

This is one example where a surface want can sometimes represent a deeper need. Unfortunately sometimes a surface want is just a surface want and isn't representing some deeper need. I believe the hard part is trying to decide when a want is a want and when it is a need. The best way I've found to make the distinction is by trying to frame the want in a wider context of how the young people are acting in club. Are they engaged in the current activities? Are they alone or do lots of young people feel the same? Have they talked about this a lot or is this the first time it has been mentioned? Are they willing to help find the solution? These are just some of the questions I try to ask. Sometimes I get it wrong and sometimes I get it right. I believe the desire to try and discover then needs and then meet the needs of the young people is essential to doing high quality youth work.

D'Biz VX Leaders Profiles

2008-11-27T12:53:00.005Z

Ive been working hard on filling the website with intressting stuff. Click on the image below to see the leaders profiles for one of our D'Biz youth clubs

D'Biz Frodsham

2008-11-20T15:08:00.002Z

On Sunday the 2nd of November D'Biz Frodsham was launched and I received an email from one of the club's leaders saying

"We did our D’Biz launch last night which went extremely smoothly. We had a team of 8-9 youth leaders and 13 YP turned up. Whilst the number may seem low it was relaxed and it has meant that already we have started developing a rapport with these YP. As a testimony to the success of the first night, straight out of the mouth of one young lad to his mum came ‘that was well good, I’m going every week’."

It is always great to hear when things are going well. Personally I really enjoy running youth clubs with small groups of young people. Small groups always provide excellent opportunities to build positive helping relationships and do lots of fun activities with the young people. This creates a great group atmosphere so the young people invite their friends. The group then grows slowly and naturally. I think this is so much better then big advertising campaigns which suddenly double the size of a youth group over night. I truly believe that in youth work slow and steady is always best.

I look forward to seeing how this new group develops in the future.

D'Biz online

2008-11-19T09:42:00.003Z

After Weeks of Delay the D'Biz Website is now up and running, it still has 1 or 2 bug which we are working to fix asap. Please stop reading and go have a quick look.

D'Biz Website

I think it looks great,friendly and easy to use. Over the next few weeks I will be working hard to fill up the website with lots of interesting information and distractions. I am aiming that this website will not be just a simple information site but also an interactive website were all the club leaders and more importantly the young people will contribute content to the website. To start with something simple I have put a computer game review section on the site, leaders and young people can add their own game reviews to the website. But in the future we will also have competitions, event reports and so much more. If you have any ideas please let me know.

Also D'Biz now has an Amazon Wish List, Why does D'Biz have a wish list you may ask. Well coming up to Christmas lots of people like to buy presents and also lots of people like to support charities. This is a way people can do both. I understand that some people are worried that if they give a donation it wont be spent on something to benefit the young people. The wish list is a way for supporters to donate direct to the young people by providing equipment for a club. Also on the Wish List are books which i believe will be useful resources for my development and for the development of staff and volunteers. Please have a quick look on the list and see what we are hoping for.

D'Biz Amazon Wish List

sad news

2008-11-06T10:54:00.001Z

On friday the 31st of October Joshua Easton was tragically killed in a traffic accident. Whilst he was not a member of a D'Biz youth club the sad news has shocked, confussed and upset us all. We would like to extend our best wishes to the family, are thoughts and prayers are with them.

This the 2nd time in recent years that Christleton High has suffed with fatal traffic accidents affecting their students. We hope at this time that our D'Biz leaders can be a good listening ear for the many young people who are struggling to come to terms with the situation. As a team we are praying for the young people affected, the teachers, parents and others who are trying to help the young people. It is a difficult time for all and we hope and pray that everyone effected will find comfort and peace.

Bouncy Castle

2008-10-25T11:08:00.003+01:00

This week at both our D'Biz Hoole youth clubs we made use of a bouncy castle. The young people loved it and (as the video shows) after club the leaders also had lots of fun. We don't often get such high energy equipment at club but occasionally it is good to do something a bit different. Something loud and crazy using up lots of energy.

D'Biz Hoole Bodyshop Event

2008-10-20T13:21:00.000+01:00

D'Biz Hoole Bodyshop event
Hey just a short blog to show a video. On Thursday the 16th Oct we invited The Bodyshop to come to D'Biz Hoole to do a pampering and make over session for the club. It was a great success with everyone enjoying the night. Lots of the events we provide at D'Biz clubs end up being male centered. This isnt ideal and we are hoping to change this, running The Bodyshop workshop was one idea and it worked well. We are researching other ideas. If you have a great idea of a special event for D'Biz please email me at Gareth.Cheesman@lightproject.org.uk We are looking for ideas which will be inclusive of males and females OR an event that would be more female centered.

The video below is of one of the leader (Andy) getting a make over at the end of the session.

D'Biz online

2008-10-12T13:58:00.002+01:00

At the moment we are working hard to get D'Biz a useful up to date presence on the Internet. this blog is part of it. However, our main focus is get a D'Biz website up and running. We want the website to be more then just a simple information site, instead we are hoping to launch a website that young people come to and spend time on. Then over the next few years we will grow the website so that it has more involvement from young people. We have lots of plans and it will be exciting to see what happens in the future. We are hoping to launch the website within the next month. i will let you know when we do.