Dear Friend
Welcome to the latest newsletter from Staf. As we approach the halfway point of 2023 (really, how did that happen?) we start with some very exciting recruitment news.
Firstly, we are over the moon to share that Pamela Graham, whom some of you will remember was our Head of Learning and Development up until 2021, is making a comeback as our Head of Operations in August. This is a new role for Staf and will see Pamela draw on her wealth of experience to enable our small staff team to meet our organisational ambitions for care experienced people and their supporters.
In addition to Pamela’s return, we are also thrilled to be welcoming Thomas Carlton to the Staf team; Thomas will be joining us on secondment as part of The Promise Scotland’s Strategic Work Programme. Thomas will be working closely with Pamela and I, on a collaborative programme of work, to lead a holistic approach to ensuring that young people with care experience are well supported in making the transitions into adulthood. Thomas starts with us in July and therefore more information will follow in due course about the detail of this work and how you can be involved. You can read our full statement about our new team members here.
As you are no doubt aware, June has been an incredibly busy month on the policy and practice front. From the launch of the Promise Oversight Boards 2nd report, guidance on decision making and participation and keeping brothers and sisters together alongside developments on Stage 1 of the Care and Justice Bill and and update on the incorporation of UNCRC into Scottish law. All important steps in the right direction. You can read more about these in the Policy and Practice section of the newsletter below.
Many of our team had the privilege to attend CYCJ’s National Youth Justice Conference this month. It was a hugely informative and inspiring event and I was especially proud of our Youth Justice Voices team who, I think, won the award for the most entertaining workshop (if you know, you know!). Kev and Ruth brilliantly shared their important work with Liminal Studios on the use of Augmented and Virtual Reality to share stories and challenge stigma. You can read Kev’s blog about his involvement here and you can also read thoughts from Chris Kelly, who is heading up our North East Youth Just Us group here.
Challenging the stigma that care and justice experienced young people can face, which is often perpetuated by the mass media, is an area which will be discussed at our next Cross Party Group on Care Leavers meeting, taking place on Wednesday 13th September at the Scottish Parliament and online. Care leavers will be discussing stigma in education settings to an audience of MSPs and those in the education sector. If you would like to join this meeting please email marion@staf.scot
How we talk about stigma is also something we’ve been learning about thanks to Each and Every Child’s introduction to reframing sessions which we have been hosting for our members. We held the first of these this month and I know those who attended found it incredibly useful. We are holding the same session again in September so if you’ve not yet had a chance to sign up, please do so here.
As I mentioned last month, Project Return’s mental health and wellbeing hub is expanding this year with events in Edinburgh and Glasgow and we will shortly be opening up booking to anyone looking to attend. In the meantime, we are looking for partner organisations who provide mental health and wellbeing support to get in touch to share their services at one or all of our events. Please email cheryle@staf.scot if you have something to offer.
As the summer holidays kick off (along with the rain of course!) we hope that you are able to get some time off to recharge those all-important batteries. As you can see we’ll be as busy as ever preparing for an action packed second half of 2023 alongside the return of our focus groups in September, our National Conference in November and making sure we all continue to do our very best by our members and the care leavers we, and they, support.
Best wishes,
Jo Derrick Staf CEO | | | | | |
Youth Just Voices & Inside Out - Care and Justice Experienced Steering Groups
Attended Youth Justice Conference running Augmented Reality workshops alongside John and Jamie from Liminal Studios, focus on tackling stigma, capturing voice and empowering young people through movement and technology. Check out Kev's blog about the work here. Continued communication with some individuals who attended introduction workshops. Visiting residential care facilities such as Good Shepherd centre to engage with young people and learn about how legislation is impacting them Communications with local venues in Aberdeen for Staf intro workshop, dates being discussed for late July. Continued relationship building with key stakeholders, new key communications would be between community justice coordinator's from North East localities. Inside out members have shared why they liked to be part of the group.
If you know someone who would be interested in joining Youth Justice Voices, a participation group run with and by young people with experience of the care and justice systems, please contact ruth@staf.scot to find out more.
You can keep up to date with the work of Youth Just Us and Inside Out via our Twitter account @YJVScotland
| | | | | | | | | National Leadership Network (NLN) which Staf are lead hosts of alongside our partners at CYCJ, Columba 1400, Resilience Learning Partnership and Who Cares? Scotland.
NLN Development Co-ordinator Gary shares what's been happening this month
The Steering Group have almost completed their process for NLN hosts to bid for funding this year. They are about to complete their first 6 months of work and are taking part in appraisals and discussions about their next steps. The Consultants continue to work on various individual tasks including two people taking part in training to support the design and development of a volunteering strategy for the NLN. Others have been supporting the Steering Group, planning engagement sessions and producing a learning resource. Some of the Consultants and Gary and Lisa met up in person recently, more info on our Twitter account The Website Working Group have been updating the NLN website before it goes live later this year. The NLN Comms Team which is made up up staff from the host organisations have been giving advice to the Website Working Group including messaging, engaging people and social media planning. This month the NLN signed up to the Power of Youth Charter, more information here NLN staff continue to support work that is developing on the Online Channel which is another Life Changes Trust legacy project. There is now an NLN Funding Sub Group which has developed from meetings with the NLN hosts - recently one of the hosts shared their experiences of funding with the Steering Group. NLN staff visited National House Project (Fife) recently to meet young people involved in their Peer Review Project. NLN staff had an info stall at this year's CYCJ 2-day conference in Stirling. This was a great chance to talk to people about the NLN and ask a question that had been posed by the Steering Group. A member of the Steering Group recently wrote a blog about their experience of taking part in some paid work with CYCJ. Another member of the Steering Group has taken part in week's work experience. He met people from CYCJ, Staf, Columba 1400, Who Cares? Scotland, Youth Just Us and grilled the NLN staff! He has written two blogs one of which can be found here. He has inputted into a particpation session, read up on The Promise, shadowed meetings and much more.
For more information contact gary@thenln.org
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