This morning the young people’s homeless parliament met with Jack Dromey, Mark Prisk, and Don Foster to voice concerns around affordable housing.
Making history it all kicked off in December 2012 with the UK’s first ever young people’s homeless parliament, in parliament event. The young people’s homeless parliament is made up from representatives from seven charities; The Foyer Federation, St Mungos, St Basils, Homeless Link, Crisis, Centerpoint & YMCA England. Together they are the voice for young people across the UK who has experienced homelessness.
The meeting was impassioned & vibrant; touching on the importance of a youth led approach to building facilities & the right to a stable home rather than a shelter.
But housing for young people is not just a matter of four walls and a roof; it is people who can make all the difference. Our representative Steve explained how his Foyer has helped him to go to college and apply for university, recognising the positive impact of having staff to support young people 24/7. Another young person with Foyer experience stressed that it was her support staff that encouraged her to volunteer, opening up a world of opportunity.
Unfortunately the meeting had to come to an end; I suspect to the young people’s disappointment, although there is an exciting flurry of activity ahead, I will be sure to keep you updated.
Intrepid Explorers Bootcamp Opens Talent
Last week young people from across the country joined the Foyer Federation at the Intrepid Explorers bootcamp to develop the confidence and skills to capture stories of impact from across the network and beyond.
On day one we kicked off with Open Talent & Advantaged Thinking activities, followed by an afternoon of hands on journalism training delivered by the Media Trust. Day two was packed with open discussions around how to gather & share stories of impact followed by more journalism practice.
There was an abundant of energy within the group and we can’t wait to see what can be achieved from such a talented group of people.
Inspiring Impacts Network Event, 12th March 2013
Shared measurement is about gathering impact not subscribing to data capture tools. They are offering signposting to a few types of tools but it’s more about learning about what outcomes our beneficiaries need and creating a consistent line between deliverers, funders and policy makers.
This work has been started in more depth in the US by FSG who are looking at shared impact. New Phil atrophy Capital (NCP) who hosted the event today are the UK equivalent and are working with the Inspiring Impact Network and Triangle consulting, who developed outcome star, to carry out work towards a ‘Blueprint of shared measurement’. I am eager for the Foyer Federation to be involved so we can make sure that it is filled with advantaged thinking outcomes rather than deficits.
They explained steps towards agreeing a shared measurement that I will be applying to the first PopUp Talent Monitoring & Evaluation meeting in a few weeks’ time:
1. Understanding your sector
2. Developing shared outcomes
3. Using common tools
4. Using common methods
5. Sharing and comparing results
As a result of today’s event I will start thinking about how we can ask Young People what other employability, youth housing or personal develop schemes they’ve attended in the last 6 months. I think the Intrepid Explorer round tables, happening later on, would benefit by NCP chairing or attending a shared measurement discussion. Our beneficiary data needs to be aggregated in order to provide evidence to policy makers & commissioning changes that affect young people.
There was a presentation by Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA), who are quite similar to us in terms of evaluating external service delivery impact. They made me feel better as they work with 100 services but had 14 to compare in a chart. They showed me that at Regional meetings and Practitioner Forums we could share project or FSM data from other services, maybe anonymously, to start conversations about best practice. “It’s our day job to worry about what is being collected then share it with delivery services”. But mainly to show that Foyers are doing a good job and make hard working support staff feel better about their work. This was described as professional nourishment!
Bond also presented and one of the things they talked about was Mybond. It sounds like MyNav and aims to share ‘Improve it framework’ impact tools for organisations in their network.
There were worries about actually being able to share data across sectors in light of competition. I have heard this mentioned amongst Foyers before. It got me thinking about how do we find out and track who is re-tendering and which services are at risk? Could we use the new CRM to do this? Or it is recorded elsewhere internally?
We will be demonstrating an approach to collective impact, on a smaller scale, in the PopUp Talent Partnership. In year two we are committed to sharing the evaluation and findings with a network of 400 organisations. I think what is different about our work is we will be achieving the above goals by working outside the sector as we are partnered with Good People and the companies they will bring into contact with our beneficiaries.
I very much hope that later this year we will have an opportunity to share our work in PopUp Talent digital impacts capture plus the Intrepid Explorers with the Inspiring Impact Network. This group is made up of some influential third sector organisations and funders so will be a fantastic chance to demonstrate an asset based approach to measuring the impact of youth programmes.
Finally, during the networking at the end I spoke to Eibhlín Ní Ógáin (pronounced Evelyn) about a report being launched in May about NPC measuring youth employability programmes and they are very excited about PopUp Talent digital data capture and would like to talk to us about that once we get started in the summer.
Open Space Technology Session at the South-East Regional Meeting, 21st February
I facilitated an Open Space Technology session at the South-East regional network meeting earlier today. The group looked at two questions: how can we make it affordable for young people to work whilst living at a Foyer?; and how do we open up access to the private rented sector for young people when moving on from Foyers? Brief summaries of each discussion follow:
How do we make it affordable for young people to work whilst living in a Foyer?
We immediately identified the intensive housing management charge which is added to young people’s rent as the source of the problem. We discussed how to embed aspiration in young people, such that making oneself temporarily worse off, or at least not much better off, by working is seen as a rational decision by young people. We discussed how, as landlords, we could provide incentives for young people that are based on what we ourselves like to do, such as go out to eat, or to the cinema/theatre, or buy new clothes, go on holidays. Perhaps there are companies that would provide in-kind donations of these things that young people in Foyers who are working might have access to. Finally, we discussed the possibility of forming a group that could approach companies on a collective basis, perhaps with a Board of Trustees made up of young people as the ‘gatekeepers’ or ‘grant-givers’ of such a fund/bank of incentives.
How do we open up access to the private rented sector for young people moving on from Foyers?
We discussed how it was very different in different areas: those areas outside London generally finding it much easier to find move-on accommodation than those in London boroughs. In Ipswich, for example, when a resident has been at the Foyer for approaching two years their case is automatically escalated through the local area’s letting system, something which amazed delegates from London! Delegates generally agreed that more needed to be done by staff to promote the private rented sector as a viable option to young people, and that this needed to be done consistently with all staff, as some still seem to promote social housing as the ‘holy grail’ of move-on. We identified a number of barriers in access to the private rented sector; chief among these being access to deposits, and poor/nonexistent relationships with private rented sector landlords. We suggested that there is a real need for a dedicated role within Foyers to progress this, as neither managers nor support staff have the time available to dedicate to developing such relationships. We identified the work of Habitat for Humanity in bringing empty homes back into use as a model that could be pursued, and also looked at rent deposit schemes that facilitate move-on to the private rented sector.
Young people’s open letter to Michael Gove
Last week the Foyer Federation along with our partners responded to comments from the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove regarding his comments on the future of youth policy at the DFE. Since then we have been signposting young people in our network to a survey hosted by YouthNet. Using the feedback from young people working at, volunteering for or attending youth work projects the organisations have drafted a second open letter to Michael Gove.
Youth letter to The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
Dear Secretary of State,
As young people who attend, work or volunteer with local youth projects across the UK, we are writing in response to the comments that you made in your evidence to the Education Select Committee, stating that “youth policy is a priority for local government and not central government”. This is alarming for all of us, as not only could it put our futures at risk, but also those of younger generations.
To support our letter, we conducted a survey asking young people their views: 92% of young people feel that the government doesn’t do enough to show they care about young people in the UK and their futures. 95% of young people also think that youth policy should be a key priority for national government, much like health, policing, and other areas that government deals with.
We agree that all sections of society need to work together to support young people to achieve, but for this to happen we need the Government to recognise the importance of youth services. Removing responsibility from central government would be hugely damaging to both the quality and quantity of youth support on offer. Good youth organisations and community projects are pillars of their communities, offering support in safe and stimulating environments, which we actively choose to go to. Good community leaders are trusted, supportive, and positive role models – for some young people, this may be their only opportunity to find an inspirational adult.
We are not saying that schools aren’t important. But young people need both, and for some of us, our centres and projects have offered a lifeline.
In January you said that your main concern was that “every child arrives at and spends their time in school fulfilled, happy and learning”. The fact is that not everyone enjoys their time at school, whether it is because they’re being bullied, or because their preferred learning style does not match that set out by the National Curriculum. DfE data shows that in 2010/11 only 34.6% of pupils on free school meals obtained five A*-C grades, including English and maths; and overall only 58.6% of pupils achieved this. Learning outside of school enables all young people, especially those of us not doing so well at school, to learn what we’re good at. We want more investment in and outside of the classroom for young people so that we can all get the best chances in life.The country spends 11 times more locking young people up than we do preventing youth crime (ippr, 2008). A survey in America found that for every $1 invested in young people, $17 is saved further down the line in the criminal justice system. In addition, a strong link has been found between employability skills – communication, confidence, professionalism, entrepreneurship, and independence – all skills that the youth sector supports young people to develop. Investing in us now will make us far more likely to contribute to society in the future.
We would like to invite you to come along and see a youth project in action. Recent data shows that you have in fact not been out to visit such a project since your appointment in 2010. We hope to help you understand why we and so many other young people need our youth projects; what they mean to us, and how they help us feel a part of our communities.
Appreciating the fact that you have a busy schedule, we’d really like to share our views with you at a place and time that suits.
We look forward to hearing from you.With best wishes;
Michael Adams, on behalf of London Youth, its youth advisory board, Dare London, and 75,000 young people across the capital
Juliet Amponsa-Gyasi, on behalf of YouthNet and its network of 200 volunteers (of which 150 are young people aged 16-25)
Joelle Bradly, on behalf of Prymface and 95 young parents
Richard Cullen, on behalf of UK Youth, its steering group, UK Youth Voice, and its network of 790,000 young people
Natalie Dent, on behalf of the Jewish Lads’ and Girls’ Brigade (JLGB) National Youth Forum and 4,000 young people
Fi Durrant, youth trustee of The Scout Association, a movement of over 400,000 young people in the UK
Alex Godfrey, on behalf of the Street League Academy programme and its 1,200 participants
Natalie Grant, NCVYS Young Trustee, on behalf of 340 young people
Steve Hughes, vInspired Youth Advisory Board member, on behalf of a network of 130,000 young people
Shiza Khan, on behalf of Brook and 100 young volunteers
Kareem Maizi, on behalf of Leap Confronting Conflict and 905 young people
Rebecca Murgatroyd, on behalf of the National Youth Agency and over 100 young people
Hannah Pollard, on behalf of Artswork and the 5000 members of the English National Youth Arts Network (Enyan) who work with young people across England
Rosina St-James, on behalf of the British Youth Council, and 7 million young people in its member network
Tom Williams, young volunteer, on behalf of StreetGames and its network of 1,700 active young volunteers aged 16-25 years old
A chance to Rock the House of Commons
I’ve just spotted the promotion for the finals of a competition for young people to use their music production skills to gain a production scholarship. It’s called House to House and Fatboy Slim will be DJ-ing in the house of commons to celebrate the winners.
This is in connection with Rock the House that was founded by Mike Weatherley MP of Brighgton and Hove. It’s not too late to apply for Rock the House at http://www.rockthehousehoc.com/apply.html On June 26th 2013 live finals will be held at The Bedford and awards party at the House of Commons.
Lots of Foyers have in house bands and should get involved. There’s only 2 weeks left! It closes 1st March 2013.
Inspire Day with Braintree & Newhaven Foyer
Last week me and my colleague Harman held an Inspire Day hosted by Braintree Foyer for residents from both Braintree & Newhaven Foyer.
Our aim for the day was to inform young people of the Foyer Federation, Open Talent & the role of a Talent Champion.
There was a lot of energy buzzing around the room, just a few of the highlights include young people created their advantaged thinking mood boards covering the floors with unwanted disadvantaged words & images. A passionate debate following a screening of Loserville centred around youth homelessness, the labelling of young people & young people thriving not surviving.
But it wasn’t just me & Harman running the show, at lunch time we were treated to a performance by the young people in the sound academy, they are fantastically talented, it was heart-warming to be invited.
I can’t give too much away, I don’t want to spoil the surprise for those attending future Inspire Days, I just wanted to let you all know how much fun we had!
Thanks to everybody who came along & got involved!
