http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action en thechasecat@yahoo.co.uk Copyright 2008 2008-10-29T12:09:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/get_ready_for_change/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/get_ready_for_change/#When:11:09:00Z Hi Everyone, On Monday and Tuesday (27th-28th October 2008) it was the first Get Ready for Change! – yes CHANGE, residential. There was about 30 young people there plus all the GR4G staff , it was great to meet so many new people who also care about children’s rights and making a positive change. (LOL) During the 2 days we worked on learning more about children’s rights, the concluding observations from the Untied Nations, and we started working on the 3 campaigns which all come under Get Ready for Change. The campaigns will all have their own identity, – name, logo, tagline, and campaign goals, which most of which has already been created, although there is still work to be done on it! The 3 issues are about Children who are locked up – with the focus being on education, Age discrimination – with the focus on the portrayal of young people in the media, Mental health and stress – with the focus on counselling and confidentiality. As well as working on the campaign there was plenty of time for socialising, making new friends and having fun! :D Oh and on Tuesday at something to 3pm it started snowing! – Where I live it still hasn’t stopped snowing!... It was very different to all other residentials I’ve been to before, but I don’t know why! Lolz even still I think the resi was really good, and I can’t wait to continue everything we started there… We are getting ready are you?! Get Ready for Change… Best Wishes Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-10-29T11:09:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/staffordshire_update1/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/staffordshire_update1/#When:11:44:01Z Hi everyone, Im sorry it’s been so long since I wrote a blog (over a month!)... So what’s been going on? Young Equals, – There has been a national evidence collection day, where young people from across the country, doing it in my local area was a massive shock as there is a lot of age discrimination we have become immune to. Also the Young Equals steering group have been working really hard to come up with a campaigning plan and an equality bill (which goes to government!). This is an amazing achievement by the group! :D Stress and Strain of School – The campaign is now 9 months old and has been a national campaign for over 1 month, there has been a workshop and presentation about mental health and wellbeing produced and is ready to tour around schools and places of learning in the next couple of months. Also the campaign is being followed by a t.v. company called Raw T.v. West Midlands 2008-09-29T11:44:01+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/stress_and_strain_of_school_is_now_national/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/stress_and_strain_of_school_is_now_national/#When:06:50:00Z Hi everyone, As you may have seen from an earlier blog, a campaign I have been working on for ages, was planned to go national on Tuesday… Well I’m pleased to say, at 12pm, on the 12th August 2008 it was launched… The launch was really good, a group of 12 young people came to Stafford to help me run a promotion workshop and we did a public display of what the campaign is about, there was about 50 people who came to watch, alot of the were County Council Officials, wooo! In the run upto the launch it was a bit manic to say the least. At exactly 16hours before the launch, I decieded to creat a completely new website and logo for the campaign… and bareing in mind te orginal website took just under 2months to make! I wasn’t sure i was going to make it… But fear not, just 1 hour before the launch http://www.stressandstrainofschool.webs.com was finished and running perfectly with the interactive sections ready, Please if you can check out the site, there are some cool links on there and interactive sections! :-D Best Wishes Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-08-14T06:50:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/liverpool_childrens_festival/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/liverpool_childrens_festival/#When:06:40:00Z Hi Everyone, Last Sunday, 10th August, it was the Liverpool Children’s festival… I went along to help Children Are Unbeatable! run their stall, along with another volunteer and promote children’s rights… It was really good to see how many people who actaully cared about children’s rights and wellbeing, I was also impressed to see just how many people were there… Anyway, heres a link to find out all about it… http://www.liverpoolchildrensfestival.org.uk/ Best Wishes Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-08-14T06:40:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/stress_and_strain_of_school/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/stress_and_strain_of_school/#When:10:03:00Z Dear All, I want to tell you about a new campaign which I am running, as from the 12th August 2008 it will be a national campaign. My goal is to promote and improve the Mental Health and Wellbeing of students. It is called “Stress and Strain of School”… There is an official campaign website and there are various pages set up about the campaign… Campaign homepage – http://www.stressandstrainofschool.piczo.com Public page on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27626517808 There is also a campaign email address, -stressandstrainofschool@yahoo.co.uk About the Campaign, My aim is to create a system which is in all schools and places of learning to help young people deal with the stress and strain of school, exams, pressure of the work load, how to deal with sensitive issues and much more. By health and wellbeing I don’t mean all that healthy eating lark which everyone is always on about… I mean the mental wellbeing, I want for there to be a system in all schools to help all students deal with the stress and strain of school, exams, pressure of the work load, how to deal with sensitive issues and much more. I know what it is like for some students when they feel as if they have no-one to turn to, to talk about issues that affect them and how they can lead their lives. I hope to achieve this as soon as possible, as it affects so many young people every year. As there are over 11 million young people in England, that’s a lot of students who it could potentially benefit! How achievable is it? I’m not sure! It is going to need a lot of support and campaigning to make schools/local councils understand what I am trying to achieve and also it is going to need professional help! – You can’t have a service with somebody running it who doesn’t know anything about the mental health and well being of students! How will we be able to see if it has worked? – Well, that will be tricky, as everyone who is involved with the service will have different needs and different outcomes…. Background Knowledge? Well… Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) states that “Every child has the right to the best possible health and health services…” Also there are lots of stories in the media about stress and related issues that affect young people… Please feel free to circulate this as widely as possible. The more people it reaches the bigger the impact… Many Thanks and Best Wishes Laura-Liz Partoon Stress and Strain of School > Campaign Coordinator West Midlands 2008-08-08T10:03:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/web_team_and_investigators_meeting/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/web_team_and_investigators_meeting/#When:09:04:00Z Hi Everyone! The purpose of today’s meeting was to look at the restructure and designs for the project, as “Get Ready for Geneva” over and we are soon to become “Get Ready for Change”… The web team looked at and slightly edited the proposals for the new website, they look great, its actually strange to see the website on paper, but its exciting to think that soon this website is going to come to life, and be filled with new (and some old) information and activities! Woo… It’s going to be ace! Also both teams looked at what campaigns we want to take forward, from the Get Ready For Geneva report, it was actually harder than it sounds, as for all the recommendations are really important and need to be improved/implemented in society, also everyone has different opinions about each of the recommendations, (i.e. I am really passionate about getting better health and counselling support for young people!) but together we did it! Each of the teams came up with their top 3, which all linked to each others… It was great to see most of both teams there today… Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-08-08T09:04:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/whats_next_the_crae_conference_at_the_oval/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/whats_next_the_crae_conference_at_the_oval/#When:20:36:00Z Hi everybody, On Tuesday the CRAE, UNICEF and DCSF held a massive conference at The Oval in London (yes the famous cricket ground! :D :D ) At the event we watched/listened to a presentation from Sam, 3 GRfG volunteers about the project, the investigations the report and when the 12 delegates went to Geneva, also there was a talk by Tom Jeffery he is head of the Government delegation to Geneva… It was great to do the mini discussion groups and workshops about our own specialised areas within the report… I worked on Health, which is my most favourite section! The group sessions were really interesting and some of the stories about issues relating to different people’s lives were touching… I really enjoyed the event, I think its great to see that government is taking Children’s rights seriously and actually listening to what young people have to say, I hope that the CRAE (and the other charities) and the Government can work together to get all the articles in the UNCRC implanted to the greatest possible standard… These two links have been published about the event, one on the CRAE website and the other on UNICEF website, also there are pictures on them! … http://www.unicef.org.uk/press/news_detail_full_story.asp?news_id=1168 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/news/article/childrens_rights_activists_meet_with_the_government Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-08-04T20:36:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/my_first_trustee_meeting_and_a_trustee_training_course/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/my_first_trustee_meeting_and_a_trustee_training_course/#When:21:00:00Z On 19th June, It was my first ever trustee meeting… There have been others before now but for one reason or another I hadn’t been able to attend… It was very interesting, but it also was quite confusing as there were loads of things relating to CRAE and the running of it, which the trustees are involved with… During the meeting, Ellie, Sam and Katy were there helping both myself and another young trustee to understand what is happening… I really enjoyed the meeting overall… Then on the 5th July I went to an event called “Youth At The Table!” it was really insightful about being a Trustee, like learning about different key terms and finical calculations… It was a great event, and very interesting to meet other young trustees from various groups and charities… I look forward to the next meeting… Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-07-25T21:00:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/geneva_day_three/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/geneva_day_three/#When:13:07:00Z Day three… The final day, farewell Geneva… Again it was an early morning, but well worth it! After breakfast we all had to pack ready to leave… Once we had all arrive at Geneva airport, the team checked us in, then we had free time to go shopping around the airport, which was fun. Then before we knew it was time for us to go through to departures, and board almost straight away… The flight was again great, on this journey we got 2 special mentions one from the captain and one from the head airhostess, and almost everyone on the plane cheered when we were mentioned! When we landed it took ages for everyone to get all their luggage, but once we had, we went and did a photo shoot in arrivals, omg… it was like we were these famous important people, I loved it… Unfortunately that’s where the story ends… After the photo shoot, some people went home from the airport and others caught the train back to Paddington to then catch different trains to take us all home… It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we will definitely all see each other again at CRAE!! I really enjoyed Geneva! Especially being able to work with such an amazing team of adults and young people… Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-07-25T13:07:00+00:00 http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/geneva_day_two/ http://www.getreadyforgeneva.org.uk/take_action/article/geneva_day_two/#When:11:56:00Z Day Two! The main event! After an early morning, we were all ready to be out by 8:15am; we left the hotel and headed back to Geneva… I was so excited… By this time Sam, Imogen and Nathan had already left as they were doing the big meeting all day, so we weren’t going to see them till late that afternoon… We spent the morning in the UNICEF building; the room had been given to us so we could prepare for the meeting, we did a couple of mini run sessions, and played some games… After about 2/3 hours we went to the botanic gardens, for lunch it was great, we saw a red squirrel! We then found this little café/restaurant for lunch, but all the signs and menus were in French, – and Sam and Imogen weren’t with us so I had to attempt to translate, thankfully it was quite easy mainly pizzas, pasta and salads… Also Just down from where we were sitting there was a massive ride which some people went on! ;p Very funny!... I was starting to get slightly nervous about the meeting as it was getting ever closer… We arrived outside Palais Wilson, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, about 1:30pm, ready for our meeting at 2pm. We went through loads of security checks and were given special ID badges, and then it was into the conference room we went. Each of the countries gave their presentation, and I know I am biased but England’s was definitely the best! The committee then asked us all some questions to feedback on, also one committee member said she respects all the young people, from all ages and backgrounds and is very impressed and respects us all for having taken the time to investigate in to young people’s rights. Which I thought was really nice! :D The meeting was very eventful; it was such a great experience for all of us, after the meeting finished, all of the English delegation went for a debrief, we sat on some open grass land over looking the lake and each of us told Ciara and Krishna what we thought of the meeting. Later on after the other meeting had finished Sam, Imogen and Nathan came to join us, and told us about their meeting… We then had a mini tour around the area we were in, before splitting up into 3 groups to go shopping! Later that evening we went and had dinner in Geneva with the Children’s Commissioner, Professor Sir Al Aynsley Green. It was great! So that was a very eventful Day 2… Wonder what we might get upto on our final day, day 3… Laura-Liz West Midlands 2008-07-25T11:56:00+00:00