The Shepherds...

Some of you will be aware of my Christian beliefs, and my faith in God. I don't like to say "I'm religious" because for me, the word "religion" doesn't sum up quite how I feel. I understand my belief in God to be a relationship with him, and all relationships involve dialogue and time invested into them to make them work, and faith and trust in the other person. As someone who has studied relationships and Hegel in depth I could go on to bore you about mutuality and the Master/Slave, but this is a blog about Christmas so I will save that for another day.

One thing about my relationship with God is that I don't always put as much time into it as I should, which I am ashamed of. Yet a positive thing is that I always come back, like at your birthday when you can always rely on that friend who you might not see that often, but will always be there with a cake for you (Naomi!), well for me that's what I am like with church, I always gravitate back to church at Christmas. My church is St Johns in Fareham, carefully chosen for me by a friend, and one that I have been going to for 6 years (wow, didn't realise it was that long!). This is the church where I met some of the most wonderful people in the world with the dearest hearts and kindest words. If you ever needed to feel loved, this is the place to be. This church helped me through my really bad times, and sailed me through my good times. So to me, it's like home.

On Sunday, I went to the usual "carols by candlelight" service, because I love seeing the church lit up with candles and full of people. This service was focused around the voices of Christmas, and the readings were the voices of the people involved in Jesus' life - Mary, Joseph, Herod, John the Baptist...but for me, one voice stood out, the shepherds.

The shepherds, that group of men who sat on the fields and the hills watching over a bunch of sheep, in the freezing cold. We have all heard the story of the lost lamb, and the shepherd who goes to find the lamb and brings him back to safety, thats the job of the shepherd - to herd the sheep, and to look after them. The shepherds are not the glamorous people who are blessed with money, or saintly people with halos and wings, or mothering people with a new baby. Shepherds are the overworked, underpaid, and often forgotten people. The shepherds are so often overlooked, and yet Gabriel came to the shepherds first out of everyone, and told them about the new arrival over in Bethlehem, and invited them to go and visit the new baby Jesus. Remarkable.

It makes you wonder why he even bothered to go to the Shepherds, because I wonder if they would have even been missed if they were not a part of the story? The wise men brought gifts, Mary had the baby, the innkeeper gave the barn...but what is the purpose of the shepherds in the story? There must be a good reason for hundreds of children (and adults!) to dress up in dressing gowns with tea towels on their heads each year, carrying a Shaun the sheep toy...??

If I were to choose one of the nativity characters to relate to, it would be these guys. I think of Christmas, and the parts that everyone plays. I'm not a Mary, never been good with babies or mess. Definitely not a Joseph, not quite got the beard yet. Wise man - except I lack common sense. Angel? (Now we are just being silly!). Shepherd - looks after their flock - yea. That's me. The keeper of the flock. I think of my own Christmases, and what my role is, which is generally looking after people and caring for them. My own flock of young people is more like herding cats than sheep at times, but my job as the shepherd is to let them wander and to remain there to protect and guard them. I count them in at night and count them out in the morning. I call them each by name and know their tricks and habits. I would defend them to the end. They are my flock and it is my job to give them the food, water, and shelter that they need to feel loved and warm. Whilst the Mary's of this world will be pandering over their own children this Christmas, my role is as a shepherd of the world to care for others whom I have no biological bond to. The wise men of the world will be bringing expensive gifts to give to babies, and the angels will be singing in the choirs at church. I'll be sending a text to see if my flock are having a good day. Because that's who I am, that's my role at the moment, to shepherd.

So why were the shepherds in the story? Well, I bet that the bit that the Christmas story misses out is the bit where the shepherds are making tea for everyone and getting enough blankets and food, and looking after the animals so they didn't wake up the baby. The shepherds run around in the background keeping the world in equilibrium and making sure people are happy. Every walk of life needs a shepherd, and everyone will probably know a shepherd - the person who looks after the flock. Maybe you are the shepherd, who knows?

One thing I have realised this Christmas is that I might not be an angel, but without the shepherds like me the Christmas story wouldn't be the Christmas story. We all have our part to play, and it is our job to play it to the best of our ability - so remember the Christmas story as you celebrate today, and remember to take the light of the star that guided the shepherds and wise men to the stable, and use it to shine on your daily lives and work.

Happy Christmas, God bless.

Acceptance

Knowing that there are followers and people who read my blog, I am going to carefully choose some words for this thought provoking blog.

When you are a child, you look at the world through children's eyes, but now I am an adult I thought I would look at the world through adult eyes, however as I reflect back there are some things that can transform me back into being an 11 year old.

When I was 11, a major thing happened in my life, not like the normal 11yr old thing where you go to secondary school, but more the traumatising situation of losing a parent. That event happened 13 years ago today, and yet I can remember absolutely every detail like it was yesterday, I assume that this is one of the moments in life which you never forget.

I won't go into the detail, because I don't feel this is the appropriate forum to do so, but believe me, there are some things that any child should never have to experience and this is one of those. There are however small things that trigger memories, things that remind you of silly things and things that remind you of the person you loved and lost. One of the silliest and most notable for me is the Christmas lights that go up every year at the place where my Dad worked, he was some kind of electrician/worked for the MOD/not entirely sure, but one thing he did do was set Rudolph's red nose to flash, and since he has been gone it has not flashed again.

Anyway, this blog is not a self pity blog, but more of a statement of things getting better. Of course I will always miss my Daddy, and it hurts that he has missed out on so much of my life - graduation, boyfriends, scouts. However, the final stage of the grieving process is acceptance, and I have accepted that no amount of wishing will ever bring him back. But my wishing must have done something, all those shooting stars and birthday candles must have worked. All the saved up wishes when all I wanted was my Dad to be back with us, I eventually got something else. Not a replacement and not a new Dad. No one can replace the bond that a little girl has with her Daddy, especially not mine. Rather more I was blessed with strong family relationships with my granddad and my brother, as well as a very strong and special lady who has to play Mum and Dad all the time, she's really awesome. (Love you Mummy!)

Another blessing is the band of merry men who have affectionately become known as "Fi's adopted Dad's". What a truly special and wonderful thing, that I have been able to get to know some people who between them could easily run the world, and certainly hold a lot of knowledge. Some wonderful men who I believe genuinely care about me and always make the effort to spend time with me, be it 20 mins in a Starbucks in Soho, or sharing a train journey home, and sometimes even having dinner in a nice restaurant. How lucky I am to have been able to have found these wise men, (very apt at Christmas) who offer me all the things I need in just the right proportions: friendship, advice, careers guidance, relationship counselling, travel advice, laughter, hugs, and compassion. Not everyone in the world has the wonderful fortune of being able to have a team of fathers, and I feel very blessed I have these people in my life. It feels like the wishing was worth it, my prayers were heard, and my Daddy has found these people to look after me on earth, but he did always get me great presents :)

Look back and remember always those you loved and have lost, but don't forget to look up and to the future, and keep wishing because it might just come true one day.

God bless.

This ones about being a trustee...

It's trustee week! So this blog is all about being a trustee, the good and the bad, what it means to me and why it makes me tick.

Most of you probably know that I am a trustee of a national charity, which has around 525,000 members aged 6-96 across the UK and further afield.

After much thought and consideration, and working with the headquarters as a volunteer I decided to apply to become a trustee - which in my position means that I had to go through an election process for one of the three positions on the Board which are reserved for young people. All the candidates who apply for the positions are very well qualified and enthusiastic young people. I was voted on to the Board in September 2011 for a term of three years. Whilst on the Board, we are each expected to serve additionally on a committee as a trustee representative. In my first year I was a member of the operations committee and also part of the delegation to the British Youth Council. In addition to being on these committees, I attended a fundraising event, the national St George's Day service, and was part of a task and finish group looking at induction and appraisal processes.

So let's test my maths now...(figures include travel, reading papers, and stop over times! - and are approx)
4 x Board meetings a year = 88 hours
4 x Ops meetings = 82 hours
BYC delegation = 121 hours
Fundraiser = 10 hours
St George's Service = 11 hours
Task and finish group = 20 hours
Trustee Induction = 24 hours
National AGM = 13 hours

Near the end of my first year I was also asked to join the Nominations committee...
Nominations meetings = 12 hours

So for the year Sept 2011 to Sept 2012 that totals = 381 hours or 15.87 full days, or 50.8 working days (I only get 25 days holiday a year) ...

Sounds a lot doesn't it?

It is.

On top of this, the constant "thud" of brown envelopes coming through my door (to the point where my Mum can guess which meeting I have based on the weight of the papers - I kid you not, she's incredible!), there is the added worry of what "Trustee" actually means... Google tells me that it is "An individual person or member of a board given control or powers of administration of property in trust with a legal..." (thankfully it cuts out here!)

So with the weight of an organisation on your shoulders, over half a million members, lots of money, budgets (which I can only understand thanks to the wonderful Director of Finance and her "blue columns"), train journeys to London, reading papers, missing out on parties at the weekend...is it worth it?

Well of course it is. As a youth worker I wanted to volunteer at this level of the movement to be able to ensure that young peoples opinions are taken into account when we make decisions about them. I wanted to advocate for the 425,000 young people who make up most of our membership, and as a result I have had input into planning strategy and agreeing projects to deliver the work we want to do, always keeping in the forefront of my mind the young people who this will actually effect.

Sure there are other benefits to being a trustee, and as a young trustee I do know that we can come under some scrutiny as to the value we bring. Naturally I am biased here, but we bring a very different energy and first hand knowledge to the role which the other trustees can't. At my induction I had lunch with our Chief Executive and told him I was worried I couldn't bring anything valuable to the table, and he simply told me that "as a young person in a youth organisation you have the trump card". Boards need a wide range of skills and a good balance of expertise in a spectrum of areas to be able to work, and so each has their part to play.

The beauty of being a Trustee is that I can literally tell people running our organisation what young people think, and I have the chance to do things hat I wouldn't otherwise ever had the chance to experience. As a trustee I have addressed audiences, represented our movement externally, met the Duke of Kent, and learnt skills in how to work on a professional level which I would otherwise not have done in my current job. Being a trustee sets me up well to apply for jobs and understand things that had previously been beyond my reach. I have had wonderful experiences, made good friends, input to the direction of a large charity, and even had fun doing it.

I know of a trustee of a local charity that I work for who has discovered her love for young people, and talent of working with them, as a result of becoming a trustee (and a very active one at that!)

Trusteeship can offer something to everyone, and as long as you have a real love for the organisation then it needn't be a chore - maybe combine it with making friends and you might even enjoy yourself!

But for me, being a trustee is all about the young people.

"But why"

Something very interesting came out in a conversation today. Sat around three tables are a group of adults who have been around the circuit for a while, in a number of roles and guises, and right now are potentially considered the "leading thinkers" in their field.

So having an after dinner discussion about how we can develop good youth involvement practice is a fairly standard exercise and one which most in the room are used to. Conversation bounces around the different models and methods, bats between the idea of governance and programme, and dances across tokenism. Standard values are shared in the room; the usual conversation emerges. Some people throw in some hand grenades to gauge a reaction or challenge a standard, but for the large there is good discussion about progression along the route of youth involvement.

One point did grab my attention more so than any other, and it was this:

"but why?"

A good question. Why are we investing so much money, resource, and time into youth involvement? What is the point? Is this just something we can put on our CV that we can tick this box?

As a youth worker, I am constantly challenged, and actually thrive from being questioned as it encourages me to step back and engage in the reflective practice which is so highly regarded and rarely utilised.

Why do we want to do youth involvement? Yes it is aspirational. Yes it ticks the box that Article 12 of the UN rights of a child set out for us. Yes it looks good.

But what will we benefit from doing it? I have no facts to answer this question so will use my experience as a guide.

By engaging young people in youth involvement (under all guises - asking a simple question to sitting at a board table), we are creating intergenerational dialogue. Dialogue between an adult who is in a trusted position of responsibility, with a young person. Adults in this position have the key to be able to change lives through their interactions with young people, and I believe that the core of quality youth work is voluntary participation. This essentially means that a young person makes a choice to engage or not, and cannot be forced. The magic key that fits alongside this is building positive relationships.

Let's use an example of a youth group leader, they could easily have a growing provision which works well and young people come to (and indeed keep coming back to). But for me, the thing we are analysing here is not numbers, but impact. Take the same group, but the leader takes time to consult their participants with what they want to do - the programme is then tailored to meet the needs of the group and young people. In meeting their needs, we are actively promoting their development through one way or another. A young person could suggest they want support around finance and budgeting - the leader provides a game or intervention that gives that young person the chance to explore finance in a safe way, and then leaves that experience having developed in some way.

Another reason for youth involvement is that by opening the dialogue to become a two way conversation we are setting an example of listening and responding. If we listen to what someone wants and then provide it for them, we are building a relationship of trust - for some young people, this may be the only positive relationship they have with an adult.

If we stretch the conversation further, and actually work with a young person to develop something that is tailored to meet their needs, and is actually delivered by themselves then they have the chance to learn a whole range of skills which are not taught in school - learning by making mistakes, developing confidence, learning to plan an activity and complete risk assessments.. It could be anything, but these skills are distinctly lacking in a school curriculum where young people are fed information in a didactic manner. Opening a conversation allows for challenge and development.

In my opinion, it is worth identifying why we are doing something to justify the expense before we do it. Having a purpose to hang our good intentions off helps, but regards youth involvement it is the outcome and not the number that is the key here. If we get it right we will reap the benefits of growing a provision at an even bigger rate, because the quality of delivery and the topic of delivery infill be improved. We also run the risk of "skilling up" young people who could then become leaders themselves and give something back. Then we will be able to count numbers.

To me, for an organisation that promotes the personal, intellectual, social and spiritual development of young people - youth involvement seems like an obvious next step.

However, unless we try we will never know. Maybe now is the time to take a deep breath, and get on with it.

"Youngsters have a new place to go as youth club opens"

The young people of Lee on Solent have their youth club back, so tells the evening news tonight. But it could have been a very different story...

The cuts have had a huge effect on all of society but particularly young people, and over the last two years I have faced redundancy three times and somehow managed to survive, but had a job change as a result of streamlining services.

The youth provision in the area was commissioned to local charities to deliver and unfortunately there was simply not enough money in the pot to stretch to Lee on Solent.

But when has money ever stopped anyone from doing what they believe in?

By making enough noise and causing enough fuss, and sticking up for what I believe in (young people!) we managed to secure the building - save it from being abandoned. This was only possible due to local councillors getting on board and shouting our case in the right places and to the right people.

A local community group provided a background to support the project and apply for funding to deliver youth work from the building.

A local councillor gave £1000 from his devolved budget to allow us to renovate the building and buy much needed resources.

Young workers volunteered to give their time in attending meetings and running a consultation with local young people through the Gosport Youth Council. They chose furniture, artworks the walls, and tidied the building - as well as sitting GCSEs and A Levels!

The local college provided support in giving us a group of students to paint the end hall and freshen up the building - simple things like sorting out board games and cleaning the cupboards.

Last Friday we had the grand opening for our new youth centre, and we had support from lots of local people and the charity I work for as well as our mP and the local councillors.

This was a long process, from start to finish about 8 months in the making... But it goes to prove that when in need, a community can pull together and produce something remarkable. The part we all played was small in the scale but will hopefully reap benefits for hundreds of young people and the local community, in giving a safe space for young people to access youth workers. Through this process all I did was spend money on nice things and do lots of cleaning and removals. However, being thanked publicly by the local community was truly humbling and made me feel like my time was not wasted - the hours I spent volunteering, after a long day at work and then heading off to a brick built hut to make a safe place for young people, all that work was valued by the local community. I have played my part and made a positive impact in the community in which I live, through working with young people in partnership with adults and supporting those young people to become active citizens - giving something back to their community. Does this all sound familiar?

It should do.

Over 100,000 adults do this every week, for one of the largest co-educational charities in the UK, who provide nearly £5m of public service to the UK by training volunteers to give them the skills to work with young people or support the process. A charity which I happen to be a trustee of, and whose work I support implicitly.

So on Friday at our big launch, when I was asked why I did it, what compelled me to spend so much of my time creating this youth centre and bringing it back to life.. I answered "because I'm a scout".

www.scouts.org.uk/join

Emlyn Trophy Presenting Officer speech

Good afternoon everyone, it is a real pleasure to have been here this year and also to be the presenting officer. I took part myself in the Emlyn trophy ten years ago, which does make me feel old when I realise that I am 14 years older than some of you here!

I wanted to say how proud I am of you all. You have all been here and taken part in a county competition, and whilst there are trophies, for me the participation is the most important part of the weekend.

As I have been walking around and chatting to some of you, I have gotten a feel for what you have been up to, and what have been the highlights of the weekend.

Some of the answers I got were as simple as being allowed to cut the chicken for the curry, because they don't do it at home. Someone else said they liked using the axe because their Patrol Leader trusted them to do it. Another told me they enjoyed doing the challenge and seeing the whole campsite.

One of the best things about this competition is that you develop new skills, experience leadership and teamwork, and learn to look after yourselves. For me, this is an incredible achievement which you should all be proud of.


Something I love about Emlyn is that you always get to try new things, this weekend I had lemon and cheese popcorn, saw a magic blanket, watched our county commissioner be an undertaker, and danced to someone playing anarchy on an accordion. Even when you get to being as old as me, and I am sure your leaders will agree, you still are surprised by the things that young people come up with. It amazes me, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for being so energetic, fun, and friendly.

One of the things that has impressed me this weekend is your commitment to scouting, and commitment to achieving - as I have walked around, I've had chats with some of you about what you can do next, some of you are excited about joining explorers, some of you want to do your chief scout award, and some of you are thinking about the Japan jamboree in 2015. This is a credit to yourself and to your leaders who have supported and inspired you and I hope will continue to do so.

For me it doesn't matter where you come in the competition, it only matters that you came. You took part, you learnt new skills, you made friends, and you had fun. That is the most important part of scouting, and that is what I want you to tell all your friends when you go back to school tomorrow. Tell them what you did, and be proud to be a scout.

The Scout Association - reflection for AGM

Good morning everyone, last year I came here for my first time and was elected to serve on the board of trustees, which has been a massive honour, and I have had the good fortune to have taken part in so many opportunities this year, but I wanted to share with you just one for our reflection today.

Within my role I have served this year on the scout delegation to the British Youth Council. I understand that at 24 years old I am just about clutching on to my youth, and stand as the oldest member on the 10 person delegation.

For those of you who don’t know much about them, they are a group of young people aged 14-25 who aim to represent our members around the table of the British Youth Council. Each year the young delegates attend an induction weekend, national evetns, and the BYC annual council meeting.

This year’s annual council meeting was a policy making meeting - all BYC members are allowed to submit up to 3 motions which are debated on and voted either into or out of the BYC manifesto.

Our delegates carefully prepared 3 motions this year, based on evidence collected from local and national consultations all organised by the delegation. The final 3 motions were: Support for uniformed organisations, Support for informal international opportunities, and support for skills from informal learning. Im sure you will agree that these motions are all in line with our ethos, and I assure you it took a great deal of conference calls and rewriting to whittle it down to these three which not only represented our members but also our association and our beliefs.

Two weeks ago today, our delegates, supported by staff, attended the largest ever BYC Annual Council Meeting on record in Cardiff. If you can, try to picture a room twice this big, with nearly 300 people from all parts of the UK and different organisations, including youth workers, youth councils, uniformed groups, policitcal youth groups and faith groups.

Now, without wishing to get into the politics of it all, the ACM threw up a few challenges and one of the motions we submitted was amended and fell by the wire. It would have been easy at this point for our young delegates to lose heart and lose face, however they did not.

Our delegation stood strong and our youngest delegate took to the stage to propose our next motion, in a room full of strangers with lights shining in her face and on her tiptoes in order to reach the microphone. This time, our motion passed unamended and unanimously. The young person returned to the table and whispered “That was amazing”.

When I joined the BYC delegation, I was told by someone in this very room that it would be a good development opportunity and would serve me well in later years, following in the footsteps of many of the people whom I respect the most. At that point, I think I just shrugged it off a little, if I am totally honest. But now, having witnessed what it is like to be part of an empowering group of young people and seeing that one young person suck up all the courage within herself to address a bigger and scarier audience than this one, now, I get it.
2 weeks ago in Cardiff I was put through my paces, fighting a battle which I couldn’t win when we proposed a motion to support uniformed youth organisations. That day I came away feeling angry, disappointed, frustrated. Empowered, valued, and proud.

Proud that I stood up for what I believed in.

Proud that I was able to represent the half a million members of the scout association, on an external platform.

Proud of the young people, who smiled and whistled in difficulties.

Proud of a delegation who stood united and strong whilst facing many challenges.

Proud of the impact that we have, training volunteer leaders to support our young people, inputting millions of pounds of youth services to the public.

Proud that we are a movement that embraces change and accepts individuals differences.

Proud to be part of an organisation that trusts its young people and empowers them to speak up on their behalf.

Proud of the uniform that I wear which unites 32 million people worldwide.

Proud to be a scout.

So, as we look towards our vision for 2018, I would like to ask you all what makes you proud to be a scout? How can you empower the young people you support? How can we value our volunteers? What is it that makes you go back to your friends and colleagues, and say to them, "That was amazing”.


Sent from my iPad

Youth Work Can be Consistent

It's time for my monthly blog about something inspiring, so today seems only fitting that I check in and write something about Youth Work. 

Many of you know that I fell into this profession by accident, whilst scraping to get some money together at University - I had been sick from work for 6 months and a friend suggested I applied for this job - 6 hours a week at a youth centre. So I applied, and got the job. 6 hours "casual whilst I finish Uni so I can go to complete my PGCE" turned into 6 hours "and NVQ, additional work, youth council, rock challenge, special needs, part time certificate.." 

So as I finished University I landed myself a part time job at a Sixth Form College as a pastoral assistant, and combined that with the part time youth work I was doing. I was actually offered at this point from two different schools a full time job - one in welfare, and one as a trainee teacher - probably would have been the logical option, however part of me just loved what I was doing so wanted to carry on. 

Over the past 18 months, Youth Work has undergone some changes. These changes have been largely due to the cuts that have had to have been made by the government, which has resulted in youth services coming out fairly low down on the agenda. Practically, this has meant that in some local authorities, the traditional "youth service" has been phased out, with youth workers being directed down a different route within the authority, or being given the option of redundancy. For those taking the latter of the two, they may have been fortunate enough to find employment in the voluntary sector - owing to the local authority still having a duty to offer social activities and informal education for young people outside of the school day, funding from some local authorities has been directed into the voluntary sector to deliver this - in a more "cost efficient" way than ever before (funding being released annually, voluntary organisations paying less wages..)

So now we are in a position of "The Big Society", where Cameron wanted community organisations to work for their communities. More and more youth workers are feeling either the pressure of being put into more social work situations, or the fear of losing funding if they do not meet specific targets. This is a big time of uncertainty for everyone. 

But, what we can get from this is the fact that there are consistencies in youth work. All youth workers are effectively striving towards the same common goals, to support young people in a child centred way and help them achieve their potential. The services that used to be delivered by a Local Authority are still there - but now being delivered by a number of organisations in a number of ways. Our challenge as youth workers is to stop mourning the loss of our fantastic youth teams (trust me, they were incredible!), and now look to the future and try to work together to achieve the same goals. The difficulties here being that each organisation is different, with different policies and procedures, and different uniforms and buildings - but ultimately any youth organisation is committed to delivering for young people - and with this mission statement being consistent and universal across all young people's organisations, doesn't it just make sense to work together? Whether a uniformed organisation, or local government, or small youthwork charity - if we all helped each other and brought the core of our work back into focus wouldn't we all be doing what we set out to do - when we made the conscious decision to become a youth worker? 

Today I attended a fantastic Youth Workers Development Day, which was attended by loads of different people from loads of different backgrounds and organisations - but the one thing we all shared in common was our passion for young people - and I have come away today buzzing with excitement about working in partnership to deliver some really positive outcomes for young people, which is why I made the choice to go into youth work as a profession, and yes it has been a really tough 18 months - but now I feel excited about what I am doing again; whilst my remit of work has changed my overall goals and values have not. 

Never forget... (the gang show blog)

Today I did something I haven't done in over a decade, I watched the Gosport Gang Show from the audience - not from the box, or on stage, or through a screen in a dressing room. This is the first year I can remember where I had no idea what was going to be in the show, and absolutely no involvement whatsoever, and I must say it was quite refreshing.

Watching a Gang Show can always be a bit, cheesy... because of the traditionalist ideas of boys in shorts and Ralph Reader songs that go on (and on and on), combined with sketches with bad punchlines and the stage hand who gets spotted. What you have to remember when you are watching a Gang Show is that the show is just a mask and a guise for something much more special and magical. Scouting.

As a Youth Worker, I have been lucky enough to deliver my own projects - the one I am most proud of is the Rock Challenge. I worked with 14 teenage boys, and one teenage girl, all of whom were in some way "disengaged" or a bit of a "square peg in a round hole". We worked together for 9 months to produce an entry for the Rock Challenge Youth Division, from finding funding to having the after show party - we went through it ALL. It was a very stressful time, and whilst I have a hard earned degree in Drama and Education, my choreography and dance skills leave a lot to be desired - however we plodded through together, choreographing and making costumes, painting set and cutting music - we did it, as a team.

This brings me back to the gang show - yes there are lights, there are costumes, there is music and dance, but what is the most important measure of the show? Is it breaking the box office record? Is it getting as many VIPs to visit as possible? Is it how many new costumes the costume mistress can sew? I believe not. The greatest measure of the show might not be seen for many years to come, but to me it is the impact that taking part in something positive can have on a young persons life.

Watching the show tonight there was a song that I remember singing in my first show, when I was just 10 years old, wearing the same costume and with the same amount of nervousness about myself that some of the young people showed tonight. Funny to imagine that the first show I ever did was a gang show, and that I would go on to get a degree in Drama having written and performed my own material. It made me wonder what exactly I got from the gang show without even realising it at the time - commitment, passion, confidence, a sense of belonging, friendship. All these things that shaped me through my teenage years into who I am today.

I have heard argument about whether gang show is "proper scouting", and whilst I appreciate I have a degree of bias, I would say of course it is. Anything that can give you the tools to develop the necessary skills for adult life, and do it with a scarf round your neck - well, of course it is scouting. Scouting is flexible and the magi of it is that it comes in many forms, I am often ribbed by my network friends because "Fi's kind of scouting is meetings, her sense of adventure is buying new paperclips" (and yes that may be true). However isn't it marvellous that we as an organisation can fit so many young people in, and adapt to suit their needs and wants? My brother, he likes kayaking, he can do it in scouts. My mum, she likes sewing, she can do it for the gang show. Me, I like notebooks, I can use them in meetings!

The other wondrous thing about Scouting, that baffles me even now, are the leaders. How incredible are these people, who volunteer their time to do something for young people. For example, Bill, the producer of Gosport Gang Show - he has been producing the show for 35 years, and each year the cast is made up of 100 people, with probably another hundred backstage and helping in the run up to the show. Imagine the amount of impact that Bill has had on people's lives, and he might not even know it! I myself was part of the gang show, and loved it. Now I sit around the table at county core team meetings, and on the national Board of Trustees, as well as on the Youth for Change WOSM group. Would I be here if it wasn't for the leadership and trust that was put into me as a young person by people like Bill? Probably not. I gained confidence and responsibility, as well as commitment and teamwork by being in the gang show. I am just one of the thousands of young people whose lives have been changed by the Gosport Gang Show.

So I would argue, the good measure of a show is not in the applause or tickets sold, but rather in the personal development and distance travelled by the young people taking part in this life changing experience - they might take 12 years to realise it (just as I did) but trust me they will, and they will be thankful to all the Bill's out there who are changing lives week in, week out, every year. I would call them the "unsung heros" of society.

On this occasion, I would like to add my congratulations to Bill on being awarded a Silver Acorn, and also my congratulations and thanks to all the adults who are making the Gang Show possible for young people today. You are all truly amazing and doing an incredible job, local scouting is where the magic happens and Gosport is very blessed to have such a diverse range of options available to it's young people.

The Gosport Gang Show is running until Saturday at the Fernham Hall, Fareham - http://www.gosportgangshow.co.uk/ It's another brilliant and very professional show, taking you through a wide range of music and dance, as well as a big dollop of catharsis. You will leave feeling refreshed, happy, and hopefully proud to have been a part of it.

Youth Involvement in Scouting...

For those of you who missed the article I wrote for the Hampshire Scout News on Youth Involvement, here it is:

Why is Youth Involvement so important?
Part of The Scout Associations’ Vision for 2018 is for scouting to be “shaped by young people in partnership with adults”. This means that more young people have an input into how their scouting is run both locally and nationally. Youth Involvement is about engaging young people in decision making, and working alongside adult volunteers as a team; decisions are made in partnership. When you reflect back to scouting in the early years, the young scouts were much more involved in the running of their troops and took on more responsibility from an earlier age. Throughout the years this element of leadership seems to have been lost along the way, and we want to bring it back.  Youth Involvement has many opportunities for both young people and our adult volunteers; a recent article I read online described how young people who are given opportunities to become managers within charities and the voluntary sector learn a lot more and gain excellent skills, preparing them better for adult life and high flying management careers.  As a leader or adult volunteer within Scouting, we have the opportunity to really change the lives of the young people we are working with, by acting as positive role models and encouraging them to always go a little bit further - we often push our young people to climb a little bit higher, or to paddle a little bit further - so why not encourage them to speak a little bit louder about some of their ideas.

One of the challenges I have had as a young person was that I had to always follow in my big brother’s footsteps - and believe me they are not easy to follow - aged 24 he has a degree in watersport management, his own business, sponsorship from companies, and coaches the Irish Canoe Team, as well as having competed at European and Global competitions. I’m only a year younger than my brother, but we couldn’t be more different - don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of adventure, but my brain lends itself to a very different style of scouting - and so I have taken part in world conferences, arranged youth forums, and worked with a whole range of adults and young people. It is important to remember that both me and my brother learnt our skills through scouting - and both of us were inspired at different points in our lives by different people whom we came into contact with as young scouts. Whilst my brother was inspired by his kayak instructor, I was inspired reading an article about young people written by a County Commissioner, but both of us were encouraged and motivated by our leaders and the adults around us.  This is where we all come in, because scouting is diverse and as adults we should support our young people to achieve their potential; look for the talent in the young people you work with and encourage them to shine.

By working alongside our young people in partnership with them, we are able to support them to make decisions about their lives, and as an adult volunteer sometimes we can pre-empt how the story might end, but it is important to remember that we learn by making mistakes. If we make mistakes together then we can learn together. It is easy to see that a leader who has been scouting for 40 years has a lot of experience, however some of the young people we work with also have a lot of experience and expertise of being a young person - and when these two forces are combined to work together, we can achieve more.  

 Understanding Youth Involvement

To assist adult volunteers in understanding what Youth Involvement looks like, the Youth Involvement Working Group at Headquarters have developed the “climbing wall of youth involvement”, based on a theory by Roger Hart and transposed into scouting language. (sorry I haven't worked out how to paste the pic in to this blog!)

At the County Conference, we asked participants to use the climbing wall to show examples of youth involvement, from network committee meetings to having young people organise a camp. One of the key things to remember about the climbing wall is that you can very rarely start at the top, and indeed climbing up the wall is the most logical way to achieve good youth involvement and working relationships with young people.

Youth Involvement and me
Some of you may now wonder how you can be a part of developing good youth involvement practices, and whilst here in Hampshire we are fortunate to have a well established youth council, this doesn’t mean that you all need to go away and start running youth conferences and forums. Instead, here are some ideas that you could start with to develop better youth involvement in your groups:

·         Building relationships - those of you who are leaders and work face to face with young people will already know the people you work with, but those who are not lucky enough to be a leader you might like to take the opportunity to go along to a cub meeting or an explorer night and spend some time just chatting to the young people at the group. Find out what it’s like to be a young person in 2012, and share some stories over a cup of tea.  Be genuinely interested in the people you are talking to, and find some common ground that you can laugh about together.

·         Asking questions - once you have build up good relationships with the young people, start to ask for their opinions and see what they think of things, talk to them about what they want to do at their meetings and where they want to go on camp.

·         Being unprepared -  try not to enter a conversation with a view of how it will end, listen to the ideas of the young people and take them on board, then make sure that they know you have listened to them and show them the outcomes of the conversations.

What the future of Youth Involvement has in store
Youth Involvement has been high on the agenda for a number of years, and has been given a real focus by World Scouting to encourage National Scout Organisations to be more proactive in listening to their young people. As a result of recommendations made at the World Scout Youth Forum and World Scout Conference in 2011, a working group called “Youth For Change” has been set up on a global level to prepare a proposal for NSO’s to adopt around installing and measuring youth involvement. 

Scouting - filling the gap!

Today I spent the day at Gilwell Park, better known to many as the headquarters of UK Scouting, for my Trustee induction day. I decided to apply to become a Trustee because I wanted to instigate change and was keen to represent the 400,000 young people that The Scout Association work with.

One of the conversations I seem to be having a lot with people is about the relevance of Scouting, and what impact we actually have on young people today. From my short time so far on the Board, I have seen that work has been done to measure the impact of Scouting - PACEC Report

In the report it is highlighted how 88% of youth members feel Scouting has helped them develop key skills, and 92% feel Scouting has helped with relationship building. Understandably these results are not reflective of all young people, as only scouts were surveyed. However, to me this figure is phenomenal - of 400,000 young people we are essentially saying that 368,000 young people have been able to develop better relationships as a result of Scouting (excuse my crude maths here, but for arguments sake!)

As a professional who works with young people, I may come into contact regularly with anything between 10 and 200 young people a week - and some I may see once and never again, whilst others I may see every week for 3 or more years. I know that whilst I am working with these young people, I can see the positive impacts that are taking place. Now imagine the good that the 100,000 adult volunteers in Scouting can do - each of them having regular contact with young people, raising their confidence and self esteem as well as improving their employability and relationship building.

As a young person, I never "had it easy". Life in Gosport is hard, and for a number of reasons I found myself in some challenging situations as a youngster. Aged 11 my life was turned on it's head, as my father died very unexpectantly and I was forced to grow up very quickly; at this point it would have been very easy to go "off the rails" and make some poor life choices. However, I was lucky enough to be a part of a scout group, with a scout leader who was a positive role model and good influence in my life. He recognised strengths and challenged weaknesses.

Scouting is part of the reason that I have managed to survive the last 12 years. I have unfortunately not had a father figure in my life since 1999, and for over a decade this gap in my life has been filled (inadvertently) by various scouting role models - my first scout leader, my cub leader when I was an ACSL, and more recently my county scout network commissioner. All these people have been there supporting me all the way through my teenage years and into adulthood, helping me by going above and beyond - to the point where when I unfortunately crashed my car last year the first person I contacted was my network commissioner to ask what I should do!

Friends of mine often hear me joke about "Uncle Nigel" or hear me speak fondly about "Uncle John" or "Uncle Russ". Well, whilst I may be jesting that I have a group of friends who are old enough to be my parent, the truth is that I count myself incredibly lucky to know that there is a large support net of male adult role models within scouting who I can turn to over anything. Off the top of my head I can think of nearly a dozen people whom I regularly turn to for support over a number of things, sometimes as obscure as careers guidance or advice on studying; sometimes as trivial as "Can I have a hug?". Without scouting - I would not have these people in my life, and my life story may have turned out very differently. Whilst I may not have a Dad that I can turn to, I am incredibly fortunate to have a whole series of "dad-like" figures who are there at every step of my journey through life. I only hope that if a young person needed me in the same way, I could do half the job that my "adopted father-figures" do for me.