Newsletter from the Desk of Clare Hanbury
Issue 6: October 2011
Summary
In this e-newsletter I describe some of the work I’ve completed since January 2011. In summary…
- A feasibility study for a Research, Consultancy and Training Service for The Child-to-Child Trust
- Evaluating the work of The Public Health and Medical Development Fund, Georgia for the UBS Optimus Foundation,
- Four publications finalised or published
- HIV & AIDS Good Policy and Practice Guide. Pre-service Teacher Education. Booklet 6, UNESCO
- A chapter on Child Participation for the UNICEF, Child Friendly Schools Manual (publication forthcoming)
- Guidelines and Toolkit for Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills for Youth Development for the Jacobs Foundation.
- Training materials and Toolkit for adults working with children on Child Participation in Child Protection. The Keeping Children Safe Coalition and The Child-to-Child Trust (publication November 2011)
I’ll also summarise some of the work I am involved with right now.
Work Completed
1. A feasibility study for a Research, Consultancy and Training Service for The Child-to-Child Trust
This was a great opportunity to find out more about children’s participation in health and development. I developed the study alongside Tricia Young the new Director of The Child-to-Child Trust. The study included key informant interviews and desk research. We wanted to collect views on the work of the Trust and its positioning among other individuals and organisations seeking to promote children’s participation and to understand what these people feel is the possible future role for the Trust.I wish them well as they enter a new era.
2. Evaluating the Child Protection work of The Public Health and Medical Development Fund, Georgia for the UBS Optimus Foundation
In May I visited Tibilisi, Georgia to evaluate the work on Child Protection being rolled out by the PHMDF. I have never visited this region before and I was struck by its beauty and history. My hosts were wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the city and learning about the work of this small but highly influencial organisation. I enjoy the role of an external evaluator. Contact me for more information.
3. News on my publications
- HIV & AIDS Good Policy and Practice Guide. Pre-service Teacher Education Booklet 6. (April 2011)
This was a project I told my reader about way back in Newsletter 4 and was a publication I completed in April 2010! It took a year for it to be published. Click here to download it.
- A module on Child Participation for the UNICEF publication and global Child Friendly Schools initiative.
I have completed a module on Child Participation for The Child-to-Child Trust and the UNICEF global Child Friendly Schools (CFS) initiative! The chapter was commissioned to be a supplementary module to the free manual available online here.
In the course of UNICEF’s work during the past decade, the child-friendly school (CFS) model has emerged as the organization’s signature means to advocate for and promote quality education for every girl and boy. As the main proponent of this model, UNICEF has developed the manual as a reference document and practical guidebook to help countries implement CFS.
Click here for an example of how its making a difference in one of South Africa’s schools. The module I have written pulls together many of the children’s participation issues raised within the main body of the handbook on CFS and other supplementary modules. All the supplements are to be published soon.
- Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills for Youth Development for the Jacobs Foundation. Guidelines and Toolkit.
The publication I developed with the Jacobs Foundation was published in April and has been well received and I am currently posting extracts from the Toolkit on my lifeskills handbooks blog to help publicise this practical field guide.
It is FREE to download, click here.
The toolkit was been co-created with 15 partners from all over the world. We are all calling it a ‘work in progress’ and our ‘first version’ and there are many elements, which have felt very experimental.
- Training materials and a toolkit for adults working with children on Child Protection in Children’s Participation
Last year I developed a training module and toolkit for adults working with children on Child Protection in Child Participation for the Keeping Children Safe Coalition and The Child-to-Child Trust. I did this with wonderful colleagues who came from all over Africa to a writing workshop in Sierra Leone. We developed ideas with 80 children! We found several flaws in the original project design and we worked on a new structure together. These colleagues then tested a revised version of the materials that emerged from this work at the workshop and the next version was then tested in London in a second workshop. It was a co-creation! I wrote a piece on the process for the newletter of the Child-to-Child Trust. Its on Page 14 and 15. The newsletter link is featured on the side bar on the left if you click on the link here.
Like so many publications, it has taken a LONG while to get the materials ready and they will be launched in November at a training of trainers workshop.
Child protection issues have to be handled very sensitively and need careful adaptation at a local level. It is my hope that anyone using these materials will have the courage to adapt them as much as they can AND that soon the materials will be freely available from the KCS website.
Work in Progress
1. The 100
Some of my time is being spent on developing my own child health project for mobile phones. I call it The 100,as its content that links 100 child health messages and children’s participation. My parent for the project is the INGO, New World International. We have had enthusiastic support from people who are working at the front lines in establishing mobile health platforms and conducting public health campaigns. More next time.
2. Updating my blog sites
- The Lifeskills Handbooks site
Please send any feedback and comments on this site. I am THRILLED that the Lifeskills Handbooks community has 700 members with many more signed up on the RSS feed and receiving posts! If you have useful resources to share then please let me have a look at them and help to publicise them for you. I am especially interested in resources that are FREE. There has been some useful email exchanges with some of the group and I am being gently persuaded to complete my online training course to go with my Life Skills Handbook. I began to develop this a couple of years ago. The software to do this is now much better and easier for me (and you) to manage. Please let me know if you would be interested – I am sure it depends on the price and the quality of course but if it was good and affordable do you REALLY think you would use it or promote it to your readers or community?
- Clare Hanbury dot com
Over the summer, I have put some time into revising training courses and handbooks I developed for my Young Solutions international project in 2008. The new courses and books have a broader appeal and make more detailed reference to a number of participatory frameworks currently being used to mobilise children's action. I am switching my emphasis to one that explores expanding what works well. This instead of the more traditional route of solving problems we identify. It feels more powerful. In addition the more theoretical chapter did not seem to work well with my target audience. Feedback suggested that I need to focus on creating a very practical training resource book. The handbook will be ready at the beginning of next year. More information on my site, www.ClareHanbury.com
I have added a 'toolbox' to my blog. I developed this for colleagues at the Children's Radio Foundation and when I did I thought it would be useful to this community too. Please tell me what you think and send me any other resources or lists of links you think should be included. THANK YOU!
Other Work
- I am delighted to teach on children’s rights and children's participation on several international development courses in Cambridge. It has been exciting to be invited to do follow up talks and provide advice to medical students interested in pursuing their interest in public health.
- I have been conducting individual and small group training linked to my Building Foundations course and these have been going well. The case for the careful preparation of practitioners to work on children’s participation work seems to be made.
- I have been very pleased to assist with the development of three major funding bids for large international agencies. We are waiting to hear if these have been successful!
- I continue to have one or two clients for mentoring/coaching. I love this work. I have one space opening up at the end of October. Please contact me if you are interested.
...and to those people who have inspired and supported my work in this last 6 months: Sarah (always!), Violet (always!) Anise, Ken, Hajo, Adrian, Laura, Mariama, Natalie, Paul, Carolyn, Claire, Judy, Nigel, Fiona, Charlotte….you know who you are! …a very special THANK YOU.
Lastly
I send many thoughts to colleagues working to promote lifeskills work with young people in Syria.
