The Newsletter from the desk of Clare Hanbury
Issue 2
May 2009
Hello readers!
Here is an update from the desk of Clare Hanbury to summarise the key events of April 2009 and recommendations for resources, organisations and blogs I am finding useful. I am sending it to all those who have signed up on my blog or websites: www.lifeskillshandbooks.com, www.youngsolutionsinternational.com and www.clarehanbury.com.
Summary
In this e-newsletter I describe:
1. Work completed
- The Booklet on Street and Working Children for Comic Relief
- A visit to DANIDA in Copenhagen to talk to the policy department on the Role of Children and Young people in Development
- Participation in the Be the Change Symposium
- Audio resources on sex education and child health
- Life Skills Handbook blog posts
2. Work in progress
- Evaluation proposal on Children's Participation for DANIDA
- Social marketing and Social media for promoting social enterprises
- Young Solutions international Handbook (second edition)
- Building alliances
3. Special thanks this month
4. To conclude: ideas and outrage…
Your comments and ideas on any of this would be greatly appreciated.
1.. Work completed
- The Booklet on Street and Working Children for Comic Relief
This month I completed a booklet for Comic Relief on street and working children. Between 2000 and 2005, Comic Relief funded many partners and projects that assist children living in a variety of difficult circumstances. They then gathered information about the programmes and distilled what they had learned into reports and films. This booklet aims to communicate the key messages and lessons from these reports and films to all those involved in the massive fund-raising efforts made on Comic Relief’s Red Nose Days. One of the findings that interested me most was that children who have nothing feel that having opportunities for them to contribute to family and community life is crucial for their health and happiness.
- A visit to DANIDA in Copenhagen to talk to the policy department on the role of Children and Young people in Development
Kirsten Havemann is a senior health advisor at DANIDA – the Danish Government’s international development agency -. We have known each other for many years and she has been a practitioner and advocate of the Child-to-Child approach for many years and especially when she was working on nutrition projects in Kenya. She invited me to Copenhagen to talk to some of her colleagues on The Role of Children and Young People in Development.
When preparing my talk to them I identified the DANIDA Guidelines on Children and Young People in Danish Development Cooperation. January 2005. On page 6 there is this elegant statement… “Children and young people are viewed not only as a target group and beneficiaries of aid but also as stakeholders in the development process. As a present and future resource, children and young people are thus seen as active and valuable change agents for their societies.”
However, how these fine words are being played out in practice was not something that members of the group could answer. One outcome of the meeting was an invitation to propose a systematic review of the evaluations on children and youth participation. With the help of an academic colleague, we have outlined the study and submitted the proposal and it is currently under consideration.
- Participating in a Be the Change Symposium
This Be The Change event is one of many similar events taking place around the country. The participants all have a common interest in wanting to learn about the impact of human civilisation on the health of the planet and what can be done as individual and community level to live in a more self–sustaining way. My interest in Be the Change is two–fold. One is that I want to be better informed at a personal level and the other is that it’s an important content area for my work. Children and young people soon will be grappling with the consequences of our neglect and abuse of Earth’s natural resources. I am keen to contribute to finding ways to mobilise children and young people now as activists in their families and communities.
I came away from the day much better informed and with lists of books, websites and other resources that can tell me more. The ones that I have followed up are: www.thestoryofstuff.org. This video was a good information piece that set the scene for the day. Stick with it – it’s fascinating. Also I love this simple video from Global Mind Shift of the wombat.
It would be interesting to adapt the symposium so that it works well with youngsters. The first symposium to be delivered at a school is on July 10th this year. I’ll be following the progress of this initiative closely.
- Audio resources on sex education and child health
The wonderful, Sarah Newton, a Gen Y guide and superb coach for teens and parents, did two interviews with me this month. The interviews are on FINK, a blogsite set up to support good communication in families. You can hear the interviews on my blog too. In one, I am talking about sex education and in the other about child health. They are about 20 minutes long and for those of you wanting to hear my voice click on these links and there I will be!
- Lifeskills Handbook Blog Posts
I have spent part of this month putting onto the blog, extracts from sections of the Life Skills Handbook that currently are only available when you BUY the whole book. These extracts cover subjects like:
- What are Life Skills?
- Tips for Life Skills educators (3 parts)
- A training course for Life skills Educators (3 parts)
Visit the blog and use the ideas. Please let me know what you think by e-mailing me directly as some of you do – or by using the comments box on the blog.
2. Work in progress
- An evaluation of evaluation of children’s participation!
First is the evaluation proposal for DANIDA. If they do not go ahead with the full 2-3 month review then I’ll be persuading them to let us scope the project and find out what’s out there. If you are reading this and know of good evaluations or research in children’s participation then let me know. I am familiar with the UK research and some of the evaluations into children’s participation in health but DANIDA are looking globally…Please let me know if you can help or if you want to find out more.
- Social media for social causes
Last month in my ‘ideas forming’ section, I noted my interest in learning how to use social networking and social marketing well to promote social enterprises and cause based concerns – such as children’s participation in health through Young Solutions international. Well this month this idea really took off and I have been in touch with a person who is experienced in all things to do with the Social Web. She has been working for and with clients for 10 years or more. Her careful analysis of the way this noisy, fast-changing world works for the likes of social entrepreneurs is that many of the strategies that work well for business heads and internet marketing folks DO NOT work well when it comes to promoting social causes. (She goes as far as to say that many of the things you need to do are the opposite of what you would do as a business head – which is FASCINATING!)
She has learned this through her work with some of her ‘change the world’ type clients and specifically with another wonderful colleague of mine who is trying out the new methods. So the three of us are contributing to a new product and service…I am not mentioning any names! It’s all top secret and it’s going to be GREAT. I’ve already learned so much. The basic stuff, which is where I am, will be FREE! And my role in the project has been to make sure that the language used is clear so people like me can really get it. I’ll be involved in supporting clients at the basic level and I am looking forward to this.
I’ll be blogging separately about this as soon as the product is available. So all those reading this who are thinking about starting or developing their web expertise, sign up to the blog and you will know as soon as I do when and how to get hold of this precious stuff.
- Developing the website for Young Solutions international
There is now an articles section on the website. Go and have a look! There will be a new article posted here and on the blog each month for the rest of the year.
I have had more feedback on the Young Solutions international Handbook. Thank-you Carolyn! And this time by an expert editor who is an ally of mine and involved in promoting children’s participation in health. So, with her help I am completing the second edition of the YSi handbook. As mentioned in the March newsletter, I have been amazed and delighted by the numbers of people downloading the 61 FREE Life Skills activity sessions. This has made me think and I have now decided to prepare the biggest section of the YSi handbook as a free download too. I’m also preparing many extracts from the handbook as blog posts. There are so many people who have written to me who want this stuff and who cannot make on-line payments. I’ll be blogging about this when it’s available and contracting all those in my network.
- Thinking partnerships and a SPECIAL OFFER to my readers!
Last month I mentioned that I was reading Nancy Kline’s, Time to Think. I have had coach training and have spent many years thinking about how to incorporate coaching and mentoring skills to strengthen my international development work. I have decided to do more practice coaching and Nancy’s thinking partnerships framework is the place I will start. If any of you could use a free hour to think through an issue or concern then please let me know. It does not have to be related to international development. I have 12 slots and will be doing this over the next three months. The only catch is that I would like a feedback discussion on the session a few days after our session together and I would like a paragraph from you in writing. 3 slots have been taken and I have 9 slots left.
- Cooking up a nice little workshop this month
...with Evelyn Brealey, the Project Manager for Addenbrookes Abroad based at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. We are doing a joint workshop later this month on children’s participation in health for 4th year medics on an international development module. Should be fun!
- Building alliances
This month I have been grateful to link up with the Humanitarian Centre based in Cambridge UK, with Emily Mendenhall, Global Health Narratives for Youth and with Adam Fletcher or http://freechild.org/ . It is extremely exciting to be finding new people and thank you Twitter for helping with this! I am also reading about the Knowledge is Power programme in the States (KIPP) I am sure I have a lot to learn from their innovative teaching methods and school organisation. The Book, Work Hard Be Nice featured on my reading page on the blog is the story of its founders and is a great read.
3. Thanks this month to….
David Briggs for helping me kick starts a new venture Youth Action for Health. Dr Anita Schrader for helping me understanding exactly how great research is conducted and not to skimp on standards just for money. Carolyn Conway for her generous time reading through the Young Solutions international handbook and for a very many interesting and helpful suggestions. Elizabeth Pisani for her book on the HIV and AIDS industry, The Wisdom of Whores and for sticking with it - we must all be grateful! And lastly to great friends Sharon and Dave Wilkinson who are in the UK from Cambodia and stayed with us last weekend filling our days together with funny stories about international development and related travels.
To conclude: ideas forming and something that outraged…
Young Action for Health
After 24 hours on Twitter I found Dave Briggs who is helping me to find a way to get messages about what children can do about their own and others health and well-being. We have set up a website, Young Action for Health and I am building the content for this site. Much much more to come on this. And I will for ever more be grateful to and a fan of Twitter. (Find me!).
A Wiki on children's participation?
I am talking to Adam Fletcher this month about setting up a hub for people interested in mobilising children and young people as activists. We are both convinced that making information FREE and co-creating is the way forward and you will all be able to join in the conversation. Visit his blog www.youngerworld.org or my blog for his fascinating ideas and further updates on this.
Research with Young People?
I have bought two snazzy pocket sized gadgets this month: A flip mino - which is a mobile phone sized digital video camera. Easy to use and great picture quality for its size; and an H2 zoom audio recorder. Both of these are being put into action as I interview teenagers I know or who live close by on the health issues that affect them and what they think they can do to help. Talking to my friend Dave Wilkinson (male sexual health expert and consultant based in Cambodia), he suggested doing some formative peer ethnographic research with this i.e. get teens to interview teens about this topic and then they report back on their findings. GREAT idea! So I am going to look into this and see if I can find a Cambridge-based collaborator.
OUTRAGE!
The other thing that has absorbed energy this month is trying to work out and ultimately turning down a consultancy with a UN organisation. I agreed to the TOR and then when I saw the background material on which I was to base a systematic review, I was shocked at how much they needed me to do to come up with an evidence base in a very VERY short amount of time. It was un-doable at even the most basic standard. Of course I discussed it and provided two suggestions for a more modest project but we did not manage to resolve it. I am outraged that so little time and money is to be spent on something of such far reaching importance and we are talking about global + education + HIV and AIDS.
This situation is not uncommon and features in the magnificent book, the Wisdom of Whores mentioned above. If you are even marginally interested in HIV and AIDS, BUY this book and READ IT! You will come back and thank Elizabeth Pisani. She is someone who has put her brilliance to work for the world.
It would be great to hear from you about what you are up to. Please send me your thoughts and news of you and your experiences!
All the best to all of you
Clare
