Archive for the 'Youth Engagement' Category

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‘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

SID 2010 Survey Results

Published on 4 February 2010 in Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

The results of the survey indicated that the majority of staff would prefer to have a booklet/leaflet resource.

The top subject that staff wanted to be included was a ‘guide to safeguarding children and young people’, with an ‘overview of social networking’, ‘risks and benefits of the internet’ and ‘security of details’ all close behind. (See pie chart).

 piechart

I have decided the best way to present staff with this information is to produce an online newsletter complete with a Q&A section which can be accessed from the Intranet, the idea being that if the resource provokes any further questions, staff can submit queries which I will answer and publish.

I hope to send out the resource next week in conjunction with Safer Internet Day 2010.

The Samsung Q1’s… so far!

Published on 22 January 2010 in Emerging Technology, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Projects and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

We have now had the Samsung Q1 Ultra Device for a couple of days and had time to get to grips with them. Several pros and cons have arisen in this time.

Pros

My first impressions are that they are great for activities such as video diaries or capturing a discussion.

The option of either using the front or back camera is extremely useful, especially in combination with the preview screen which allows you to see exactly what it is you are filming. The microphone is sufficient to pick up a conversation.

The size of the device is respectable; whilst still portable the screen is big enough to see what you are doing which out having to squint.

The option of using either the mouse function or the Stylus Pen is also effective as it allows the user to select either option dependant on what they are doing; different functions lend themselves better to the different options.

Cons

When filming, any fast movement makes the footage distorted and blurred. Although the lens focuses quite quickly on a subject, it is much more effective for slow moving or still action.

Upon first use and without a helping hand the devices are not the easiest devices to operate, however once you get used to the functions it is quite straight forward. The mass of buttons of fascia can appear quite confusing and until you learn what each one does it is luck if you can right click or change the screen brightness! So much so, I have created my own ‘Quick Guide’ to hand out to those using the devices!

For anything more than short filming the device is very slow and hard to operate. I would not use it for word processing or web browsing. I found it is best to pull the footage off the device and then edit it using the PC or a laptop.

When our Prince’s Trust Team took the device out to a team building day, the device froze and crashed several times, we suspect this may be due to the cold weather.

I am still yet to connect the device to internet so have not had chance to test the speed of uploading footage straight to a blog or internet site; something which I will be interested in doing.

Conclusion

First impressions are good, despite a couple of drawbacks, the device appear to be perfect for creating video diaries and capturing indoor group activities. Depending on the ease of uploading footage to the web, these may be ideal for what we want to achieve with the Prince’s Trust students.

The next couple of weeks will really test the devices as we start to get more footage and create PodCasts.

Lights, camera, action….

Published on 19 January 2010 in Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Today saw the first test for the Samsung Q1 Ultra. Using the handheld device myself and the Huyton Prince’s Trust staff took some footage of the new team that started yesterday.

We were quite impressed at what the device have to offer, having a front and rear camera, however we found that it does not react will to fast moving subjects, so we had to ask the Team to try and be as still as possible when being filmed and limit their hand movements!

Once we have got used to using the devices and the footage starts coming in I believe we will be able to produce some excellent podcasts.

MF&RS on Facebook

Published on 19 January 2010 in Facebook, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service, Social Media and Youth Engagement. 0 Comments

Following the meeting with Steve Haw from Formby, I met with the Publicity Officer, Communications Officer, New Media Manager and ICT Infrastructure Manager about using Facebook within MF&RS.

Straight away we were informed that allowing every station access to Facebook regularly would not be possible at this time, this is due to the large amount of bandwidth Facebook takes up due to the media content (videos / photos / applications, etc), this may have a detrimental effect on other core functions that requires bandwidth. This however is subject to change in the future, opening up new opportunities.

For the time being, we discussed opening up a Facebook Page for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. The page would inform the public about news and events, as well as issue safety advice and useful contact details. It would also enable the public to ask the questions directly and receive a personal response.

Before setting up the group, a Social Media Policy must be in place to safeguard and inform staff on the correct procedures.