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Old Swan Residential with Boulder Adventures

Published on 26 May 2010 in Youth Engagement. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This week Old Swan E.A.R.L.Y. Team are on their 5 day residential with Boulder Adventures in North Wales. Yesterday I joined them to help out with some extra filming and ensure the camera were functioning and had enough space. The change in the team member was apparent straight away, they had gone from being strangers to a close-knitted group who look out for each other and work together. It felt like I was with a group of people who had known each other for years, despite the fact they had met for the first time just over a week ago.

They were all enjoying using the cameras and found them extremely easy to use. Having used the underwater Flip Camera the day before they were really impressed by it and were looking forward to seeing the footage.

After a much needed cup of tea we set off to Anglesey with the Boulder staff to go rock climbing and abseiling. This was the perfect opportunity to try out the head camera. Nearly all the team were really nervous about the rock climb and especially the 120 foot abseil and were swearing blind they were not going to do it. We recorded them telling us this, however we also recorded them conquering their fears and having a go! It was excellent to be able to capture these moments and play them back to the team afterwards to show them how much they achieved in that one session.

Tom abseilling

I am confident that they will carry on recording not only throughout the week but right through their course. The difference that the Flip Cameras have made is incredible – the ease of use and quality being the key factors.

Thanks to all the Team and the excellent staff at Boulder Adventures for a great day!

Week One of using Flip Cameras

Published on 24 May 2010 in Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

The Old Swan E.A.R.L.Y. team have been using the Flip camera for a week now and the feedback has been really positive. All the team have been impressed by how easy it is to take footage and the quality of the film that is produced. The real test will come this week when the team are on their 5-day residential in Wales. This will see the cameras being plunged underwater, abseiled down cliffs, walked through gorges amongst other physical activities.

The ease of using these cameras will enable the team to capture their emotions before and after doing these activities and show how the team bond together and gain trust in each other.

Footage captured so far shows each member on their first few days and their initial thoughts and feelings, I am looking forward to comparing this with the footage through out the programme to show how each individual has changed.

New equipment, new team!

Published on 5 May 2010 in Youth Engagement. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

After working with Huyton Prince’s Trust Team 19, a number of lessons were learnt and experience gained. As we trialled and tested the Samsung Q1 Ultra devices it became evident that they were not up to the job. We wanted devices that were ready to use at the touch of a button, uncomplicated, portable and would work in rugged conditions… too much to ask? Not when it came to the Flip Video Ultra HD.

After a lot of research and testing we decided to purchase the Flip camera, having already gained an excellent reputation for recording video at ease, the Flip cameras came highly recommended. We opted for the Ultra HD model which would not only provide us with 2 hours high quality video and audio footage but would also be tough enough to be out and about without being too small to lose or damage! We also purchased an underwater case (up to 9 meters) and a mini tri-pod for the camera. This would allow the next team we work with to capture all their experiences whether it be in air, water or land! We are hoping that we will be able to capture the development of each young person along with their thoughts and feelings throughout the course including rafting, work experience, fire fighting and community projects.

We will now introduce the Flip Video to the young people and integrate them into the programme they are completing. Although I expect some resistance to speak into the camera at first it will soon become an enjoyable task and the young people will enjoy filming each other and themselves throughout the 12 weeks.

Team 19’s final night

Published on 8 April 2010 in Emerging Technology, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Huyton Prince’s Trust Team 19 came to the end of their course last night when they had their final presentation. Having collated footage that had been taken over the course of their journey, I created a short video montage to try and capture the feelings and emotions of the young people whilst completing the programme.

The footage was heavily focused on showing the physical activities the team took part in, such as rafting and climbing, this enabled the audience to see exactly what the young people did and how challenging it was. However for the next team I would like to focus more on the personal journey of each team member, showing the transformation from day one to the end of the course. I would like to show the various parts of the programme including fire safety, community projects, work experience and how the young people feel at the end of each section. This will show exactly how the programme helps young people develop personally and professionally and how influential it is in shaping their future lives.

‘Get Into Reading’ Sessions at Greenbank

Published on 23 March 2010 in Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

After completing the Readers Organisation ‘Read to Lead Training’, myself and two colleagues are going to be delivering two sessions in the Easter Break. We are delivering the sessions to a group of young people from Greenbank Sports Academy.

The Greenbank Sports Academy is operated by Greenbank and is the North West’s leading sports and leisure facility for disabled people located in the Sefton Park area of Liverpool. They provide school holiday activities for disabled children aged 8 and above, their friends and siblings. Over Easter we have two, one hour sessions where we will use ‘The Savage’ as our reading material.

The difference between the Read to Lead sessions and normal reading groups is that the reading is shared. We, as the facilitators, will read the book aloud (members can choose to join in, but there’s no pressure to). This provides immediate engagement with the text, which is enriched by the spontaneous sharing of life stories and experiences as confidence builds.

Follow links for more information. Details of how our sessions go will be posted here soon.

Schools Parliament Consultation (2/2)

Published on 15 March 2010 in E-Safety, Emerging Technology, Facebook, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Social Media and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Last week I and two colleagues attended the second phase of the Liverpool Schools Parliament Consultation which took place in Liverpool Town Hall. The group was split into three rooms each holding thirty young people to allow the consultation to be more personal. We decided to asking the young people leading questions to generate conversation around the topics we were particularly interested in to get real responses and spark ideas. We felt that giving out a questionnaire or list of set yes or no questions would not only make them bored, but would not capture the true views and opinions of the young people.

Although we were hoping to split the group into three and each tackle a different subject we unable to do this so the three of us stood at the font and tried to keep a conversation flowing throughout the group.

Our main focus was around what online resource the young people wanted and felt would be useful, along with what makes them visit websites and the features, design and content they expect.

Out of the thirty young people in the room, none of them had ever visited the MFRS website, meaning that they were not even aware that there was a Youth section. When asked what else they knew about MFRS, apart from putting out fires, the only responses were fitting fire alarms and dealing with road and traffic accidents… and of course the usual rescuing cats out of tree’s line!

We then spoke about what websites the group use now, due to the wide age range the answers varied, most popular answers included Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Habbo Hotel, MiniClip, Wikipedia, Google and Bing. It was not surprising that the majority of their answers were social networking and free online gaming sites. Out of the thirty people only ten said they had a Facebook account, however this may be due to the age range of the group as others said they do use Habbo Hotel and Bebo, social networking sites aimed at younger children. All the CYP use MSN and some use MSN and Twitter. Interestingly, half of the group said they had covered e-safety in school but only some of them had changed their security settings after, others kept their profiles, including details and photographs, open not thinking they would be at risk. The top reason for using the internet was for chat and if they needed information the first place they would go is Wikipedia or a search engine such as Google or Bing.

Having got an idea of what resource the CYP are already using and how they spend their time on the internet we channelled in to what they believe we could do. We used A3 coloured screenshots to show them our website and the current ‘Youth’ page and also some examples of other websites aged at CYP including the BBC Bitesize and ThinkuKnow website. They liked the idea of the website being split up into age specific sections similar to the ThinkUKnow website for example Primary Schools (under 11’s), 11-15, and 16+. For the younger members of the group said that they are attracted to brighter colours and cartoons and characters. The older members said that they prefer more statistics and facts. The entire group however said that they would want interactive games linking to fire safety messages but that were fun.

It was suggested that unless there was a reason for them to visit the website they would not think to go, therefore it should be linked in with their curriculum, possibility PSHE lessons. This could cover fire safety messages and information of what the MFRS does. The most popular resources that the CYP suggested were virtual tours of Fire Stations and other areas of MFRS, detailed staff roles, careers information (not just fire-fighters), fire fighting games, statistics and case studies, live chat to staff, online application forms and information about activities open to them. They also talked about discussion boards where they could post up information or queries however when we spoke about this further they suggested that using Facebook for this would be better than trying to re-invent it. We should also make sure that pages are linked to other useful sites such as Connexions and schools and they are linked to us.

The consultation was invaluable and has given us a lot to think. It was excellent to see the CYP thinking out loud and watching how different ideas linked and led onto others. Although having a wide age range there meant it was hard to be specific about certain points it was extremely useful to see how the needs and opinions varied so much from those aged 11 to those aged 16.

Street Based Teams

Published on 10 March 2010 in Emerging Technology, Facebook, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Social Media and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

MF&RS run a Street Based Team Project. This team engages with Young People in Liverpool signposting them to support/advisory and diversionary activities available within the community. They are looking for new ways to engage and inform the young people about the activities that are put in place, for example diversionary events around and on Bonfire Night. Having another form of engagement will allow the workers to continue supporting the Young People they meet after they have left the area and allows the Young People to contact the workers. This may be particularly useful if a Young Person does not feel comfortable asking the workers about an activity they are interested in, in front of their peers.

After meeting with the Project Coordinator we discussed using social media to connect with the Young People before, during and after the Street Based Team has been in the various areas. After hearing about the Police Officers using Twitter to keep their communities up to date with where they are patrolling and any important happenings or events, the team are keen to do something simular, inspired by the success of the Police. Using an instant feed such as Twitter or Facebook (or both!) will allow the workers to update the communities they are in about where they are, what they are doing and details of any activities or events or any safety messages or warnings.

Other ideas that we discussed included Bluetooth marketing. This is when a device pushes out Bluetooth messages to any mobile phone which has their Bluetooth enabled. The message can be text, images, video or audio. This has become a popular method of advertising on the high street, one example includes the public receiving a Bluetooth message when they walked near Pizza Hut, and the message would then enable them to receive a discount or an offer. Devices are also being used in combination with billboard advertising. With regards to the Street Based Teams, we discussed using these transmitters to send out messages to Young People when out on patrol to give out safety messages or details on where the team is or where an event is. They could be used during events as part of a game or offer incentives to help engagement with the Young People. There are endless scenarios where a transmitter could be used to push out messages containing various content to the public.

Schools Parliament Consultation (1/2)

Published on 5 March 2010 in E-Safety, Emerging Technology, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Social Media and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Yesterday I attended the first of two consultation events with the Schools Parliament. 120 Children and Young People from Primary Schools around Liverpool came to the Town Hall to consult with myself and other organisations about health and safety.

Other delegates were from Liverpool Primary Care Trust, talking about obesity, Liverpool Safeguarding Board, talking mainly about bullying, and LifeStyles, talking about the free sports and activities for children around Liverpool. I focused my session on how MFRS can engage with young people through technology. This included giving out Fire Safety messages, allowing direct contact between us and them for queries and questions, giving out news and updates and informing CYP about the Fire and Rescue Service.

Only having 10-15 minutes I decided that the best strategy would be to ask the group a series of questions, some that everyone answers so I could get a percentage and some more specific where I would ask a selection of children their answers. I found that this worked well and despite the large group and small time frame I gained some valuable information that will help to develop our online resources and develop future initiatives.

Some of answers that stood involved all of the children having access to the internet in their houses and a shocking 83% had access in their bedrooms via various sources ranging from their televisions to wireless laptops. Even more surprisingly every single person put their hand-up when asked if they had Facebook; the maximum age these children could have been in 11 and the minimum age for Facebook is 13.

All the participants enjoy using the internet and especially playing games on the internet where they can chat to other people, when asked about which games they play popular responses were ‘Club Penguin’, ‘Habbo Hotel’ and even ‘Call of Duty’ – a war game which is rated an 18.

When asked about E-Safety a small number of the young people said they had learnt about E-Safety in school, I found this extremely surprising considering it was Safer Internet Day last month. When I enquired what they had learnt, only a couple raised their hands and were unsure about exact details.

Furthermore, in one of the other talks, one child even suggested that there should be a ‘Panic Button’ for children so that they can alert someone when they feel scared, bullied or unsure, they also suggested that there should be a way for parents to restrict what websites they have access to. One of the suggestions for a resource was a site where they could learn about E-Safety. All of these things exist and have been highly publicised by CEOP. I found it surprising that the children weren’t even aware of these resources and therefore parents were also not aware.

Their lack of knowledge about E-Safety and the resources that are already available for them together with their expansive experience on the internet; using social networking and games that open them up to the world from their bedrooms really opened my eyes to the work that still needs to be done on E-Safety.

Using these results and the information that I get from the consultation with secondary schools next week I plan to put an action plan in place to educate parents, carers, teacher and children and young people about safeguarding on the internet and the importance in doing so.

Young Advisors

Published on 18 February 2010 in Youth Engagement. 0 Comments
Young Advisors Logo

Young Advisors Logo

Whilst looking for ways to consult with Children and Young People I came across the ‘Young Advisors’. The Young Advisors are aged between 15 and 21; they show community leaders and decision makers how to engage young people in community life, regeneration and renewal.

There are various groups around the country, in the North West there are 3 set up – Knowlsey, Sefton and Wirral. Having looked at their websites I am keen to work with the Young Advisors, getting their opinions on the work that we are doing and getting a different insight in the projects. They offer various services from ‘youth proofing’ documents to consultation events with young people.

I believe that using the Young Advisors to engage with the CYP we are working with and learning from them how to set up a Youth Advisory Panel would be an invaluable experience; getting real opinions from real people.

Caught In The Web

Published on 9 February 2010 in Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Newsround has put together a special programme called Caught In The Web. It is all about staying safe on the Internet, it tells the story of a girl who gets into trouble after her virtual life in an online chat-room spills into the real world.

There are also real-life case studies with kids who’ve had bad experiences online, like a girl who was cyber bullied and a boy addicted to gaming.

The programme is narrated by former Doctor Who star David Tennant. Caught on the Web gives lots of tips on how to stay safe on the Internet, and highlights how important it is not to give out your personal details.

For more information click here