Excluded Young People

Announcing a new Innovation Exchange website

John Craig — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:19:33 +0000

We are in the process of soft launching a new website for Innovation Exchange. The new site will do a much better job of drawing together innovation activity from across the third sector and helping innovators, investors and commissioners to connect around it. Click here to see a video of the new site and stay tuned for the transition in the coming weeks. Thanks to the clever people at Headshift for all their hard work.

Breach social engagement project for marginalised young people aged 14-21

Juanita Johnson — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:43:10 +0000

With a high percentage of young people disengaged and disillusioned with
modern society and with many youth being unaware or disaffected with
the real answers & guidance as to why, who, where or what can be done
to make real change Breach is a three year project that will engage young
people in social issues that affect themselves and their peers via the arts & a social media output.
Breach is an agenda for empowerment that reaches right across the board,from Supporting young people who want to take an active role in their communities
to giving them better access to information and the chance to get more
involved in key local public services that have been specifically designed for
them or will be in the near future.Th

We are currently seeking partners who would be interested in working with us on this project across all aspects whether it be via a creative arts medium/delivery/ICT skills.This project will be based in Birmingham with the view to replicate the project in different cities.

If this project is something you would be interested in participating in or contributing towards please email Juanita Johnson
jhfoundations@email.com

Expression of Interests

Raj Cheema — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:42:56 +0000

Dear friends,

Thank you for your expression of interests in relation to the Next Practice Programme – the response was quite overwhelming! We feel humbled by your energy and enthusiasm.

We hope to respond to applicants by the end of August – please bear with us in this month of annual leave!

As always, feel free to email me if you have any queries.

NEXT PRACTICE PROGRAMME - DEADLINE 31 JULY 2008

Raj Cheema — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:06:40 +0000

Dear friends,

Please note that the deadline for submitting expression of interests (in relation to both themes) is Thursday, 31st July 2008.

If you are interested in participating in the Next Practice Programme and applying for the Innovation Exchange NESTA fund please follow this link to the right page on the website.

In order to understand what the Next Practice Programme entails, we would advise you to:

1) Find out what the Innovation Exchange is about

2) Find out what the opportunities for innovation are under the themes of excluded young people and independent living

3) Follow the links to our work on excluded young people and independent living – this will update you on our work in the past 7 months and give you a sense of what we are trying to do.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me - more than happy to help. Good luck!

Excluded Young People, Crime & Pathways to Employment

Jai Shalimar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:29:00 +0000

We are a diverse voluntary cultural organisation wishing to engage with partners on a variety of issues.

One of our current projects is an environmental art initiative in partnership with British Waterways. We also have other projects supporting artists and orphan children in other countries.

If interested in being our partner under the theme of Independant Living or Excluded Young People, please email: jai.shalimar@cimpa.org.uk

Video coverage of the festival of ideas event

Raj Cheema — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:59:43 +0000

What happens when you put innovators, commissioners and investors who share one interest in the same room? Well, check out the clips below and find out what happened at the Festival of Ideas: Innovation for excluded young people event.

See John Craig present a research report based on our research paper and surveys delegates completed before the festival. What were their responses to the field of innovation? What are the key emerging opportunity spaces in the field of excluded young people?

Click below to hear Campbell Rob, Director General of the Office of the Third Sector, explain why the Government is looking for innovation in this field.

But what did delegates really think about the event? Did it help them to make connections and collaborate? If you want to find out then please click here. If you have any thoughts about the day and would like to share these please feel free to get in contact with us.

Research paper - Innovation for excluded young people (by Margaret Bolton)

Raj Cheema — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:04:23 +0000

Earlier this year, we commissioned independent research into opportunities for innovation on the theme of excluded young people. Over 20 people were interviewed via telephone including commissioners, social investors and innovators. Before releasing the final draft, we wanted to know your thoughts in response to the key emerging questions that were coming out of the research – please click here for a reminder.

The research highlights the key challenges to innovation for excluded young people and identifies the emerging opportunity spaces where unmet needs have yet to be supplied with great innovative ideas. To read the research paper follow this link – we would be really interested in knowing your thoughts and opinions. If you have any suggestions on other pieces of research that you think would be valuable to the work of the Exchange or have any comments please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to reading your comments!

NEET solutions

John Craig — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:38:38 +0000

One of the issues that animated conversation at our Festival of Ideas last week was the issue of helping young people who have dropped out of education, employment or training. One participant at the event, the Private Equity Foundation, is now actively looking for a small number of ‘ambitious third sector organisations’ to work with on this agenda. Click here for more information.

Insight Journey on Excluded Young People

Menka Parekh — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:19:38 +0000

“The desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world” wrote espionage novelist John LeCarre. Yet since the rise of the ‘knowledge economy’ that is where most leaders stay, locked away by organisational priorities and packed schedules. This can be an effective approach when we already know what needs to be done and just need to get on with it.

But for complex challenges like tacking exclusion for young people, we also need to invest in exploration and discovery, to tap into the emerging opportunities for innovation, and to develop ‘next practice’. What new thinking, model or approach - be it tacit, fragmented, unproven or distant today - will be core to public services tomorrow?

So we invited together a group of innovators - from the third sector and public sector – to be our ‘search party’ over two intense days (26-27 March). Their challenge was to identify some of the key opportunity spaces for the future of excluded young people. We designed an immersive field trip to a number of people, projects and places rich with raw insights – some familiar territory, others less so (more here).

To extract the most from these visits, the group was encouraged to learn and practice new skills of observation, much like an anthropologist might in the field, eg.:
- Experience ‘vu-deja’ (looking at things as though for the first time),
- Let your curiosity be in charge, using all your senses,
- Suspend judgement, for longer than what feels normal,
- Focus on ‘what’, not ‘why?’ (parking your hypothesis for now).

In addition, and unlike a conventional field trip (eg. in & out, see & leave), the group had structured time to share insights, add up pieces of the picture, and find connections between what different people were observing. On a number of occasions insights from the same visit were very different, leading to some of the most important conversations, and ultimately an expanded, shared sense of the possibilities.

We weren’t really sure what we’d find, but wanted to make sure we could share the experiment with the rest of you working in the area of excluded young people. So a camera was introduced as the ‘shortest member of the group’, and all of us tried to make sure it got to see and hear what the group did. First screened at the Festival of Ideas last week, you can now see the short film here.

Here are some of the themes and opportunity spaces that emerged:

Themes in the insights:
- Retreat - changing the environment can be inspiring
- Structure and boundaries are an important success factor (How do we get from ‘Start’ to ‘finish’?)
- Open invite - can’t focus solely on ‘excluded youth’
- Young people don’t call themselves ‘young people’ - there is a communication challenge
- Respectful culture must be established in which we don’t make promises that can’t be delivered
- Work with people’s aspirations, not their fears
- Young people want to go out and meet each other - they don’t want ’services’.
- Employing previous programme participants can help with credibility and relevancy
- Need to look at the young person as an individual, not a collection of problems that need solving.
- Best services are youth-led with adult coaching
- Excluded youth need a substitute family and community identity
- ‘No one’s going to do it for you’ approach can reduce dependency

Opportunity spaces:
- How do we change the way young people are perceived by adults?
- How to focus on talents and passions rather than deficit?
- How to create freedom for young people to explore, self organise, and create?
- How to align funding with success?
- How to enable and empower young people to be at the heart of the solutions?

My hope is that this initial intervention will help set the tone for the kinds of creative collaborations the Innovation Exchange can support, not just for scoping opportunities on behalf of the sector, but for generating ideas and implementing them. Would love to hear what you make of it.

This intervention was designed and delivered by The Hub. For more information please get in touch on menka.parekh@the-hub.net or 0207 841 8900.

Festival feedback

John Craig — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:55:27 +0000

Thank you so much to all those who attended our Festival of Ideas yesterday and contributed so generously. As with last week, it felt to me like a real success. However, what matters is what you the participants thought. We would hugely value your feedback through this very quick feedback form and if you would like to leave a public comment below, please do. I have put other links related to this event here.

My presentation on the opportunities for innovation in this area is here and you can also view the research on which it drew.

You can also now read in more detail about some of the opportunities for innovation discussed at this event.

Whether you attended the event or not, you may also be interested to see some of the materials used on the day or produced on the day. Menka Parekh has already posted the video from our Insight Journey. In addition, David Wilcox has now posted videos from the day showing both presentations from the front and people’s own thoughts and responses. During the afternoon, David also shot countless one-to-one conversations with partcipants, many of which are extremely powerful.

Most importantly, this Festival of Ideas is just part of the Innovation Exchange process. We will continue to process the ideas and connections generated on the day, support people to develop them and help people work together to take them forward.

And don’t forget, we would be hugely grateful for your feedback.

Click here for more information about the Innovation Exchange Next Practice programme and Fund