Last week I flew to Budapest to take part in the International e-Participation and Local Democracy Symposium. 3 days of hotel air-conditioning and PowerPoint presentations. Joy. Griff Wigley and a few others kept a blog through the event and I hope to be able to contribute to it soon. It Read more
Today sees the launch of BeaconLifeSwap. This is a spin off from LifeSwap where 21 young people from seven Beacon councils were invited to tell us about "my life: my community" through photos and captions using mobile phone cameras kindly supplied by O2. The eight Beacon Councils are expected to Read more
The Russell Commission is moving on. Yesterday, the vwell funded charity recommended by Russell was launched. It is called v and their website is at www.wearev.com. It is a vnice website and vwell branded. At the moment the site is about providing information about the organisation and I’m sure over Read more
Last week I was invited to speak to a Citizenship Co-ordinators Network event in Bristol. It was held at a City Learning Centre at Brislington College and the facilities were superb and, judging by the number of students who tried to get into the computer room where we were meeting, Read more
This poster stopped me in my tracks as I left Westminster Tube stations a few weeks ago. The design was striking and the copy was spot on. They are simple and strong and, I think, they convey the frustration many young people have with the way they are perceived by Read more
Gillian Simmons, from England’s most northerly council, Berwick-upon-Tweed, was telling me about their youth engagement plans for this year. The council is supporting a venture between Berwick High School and a local music company PFL Studios. The venture Berwick Music is setting up a music festival in July. Students at Read more
I’m not normally the biggest fan of Youth Councils as they seem to be a way of replicating the mistakes of "adult councils", but they do have their place. Equally, though, I don’t believe any council should set up a Youth Council and think that the job of youth engagement Read more
Last summer a very creative and clever lady called Fran Farrar from Norfolk Children’s Services mentioned an idea about getting vulnerable young people and Councillors to use cameras to share their life experiences over the period of a day. Working with Fran we took the idea one stage further and Read more