Young people go to the Youth Justice Convention with User Voice

Today young people from User Voice projects across the country are heading to Birmingham with members of staff to take part in this year's Youth Justice Convention. 

Young people will be taking part in a workshop and leading a seminar for youth justice practitioners.

A press release by the Youth Justice Board has said:

"Young people, who have experience of the youth justice system, will...take part in two of the convention’s ‘fringe seminars’. 

User Voice’s ‘Young People’s Engagement Marketplace’, is a series of ‘solution focused’ discussions, involving around 10 young people, which will look at: relationships between young people and the police; youth to adult justice services, and improving engagement between young people and youth justice workers." 

Read the rest of this article about the convention here. 

Thanks to all those who have helped make this happen by generously donating their funds, time and effort!

Young Adults Volunteering Event--User Voice in association with ICPR

User Voice in association with ICPR held an event which gave service users and third sector organisations the chance to share their views and experiences about how to make the most of volunteering opportunities.

Representatives from a wide variety of charities and third sector organisations shared their concerns that volunteering opportunities were not as beneficial as they could be, and that their adverts only reached a small proportion of service users. Young adults with experience of the criminal justice system, and that work on User Voice councils, gave valuable insights into what makes a good volunteering opportunity and offered advice on how to make them accessible to a wider variety of young adults.

Volunteering in the community is an extremely valuable way for service users to gain experience that can help facilitate their move towards employment. Having the opportunity to discuss these issues with the people providing the positions will help maximise the reach and benefit of voluntary roles for both the organisations and service users.

Many thanks to the ICPR for co-producing this extremely successful event!

NEW ENGLAND YOUR ENGLAND FILMS: Max and Mark

These new videos, first screened at our 'Marketplace of Ideas' Conference earlier in October, are now available to view online anywhere, anytime, and you can also share them with friends, family and colleagues! 

The films are part of the England Your England series of short documentaries directed by the UK filmmaker Matt Hopkins.They are incredibly powerful and we would like to thank all those at Your England who made them possible.

Max Tucker is a full time Programme Manager at User Voice. He began volunteering in July 2012 and has been in his current position since July 2013. Max is currently working on council projects with London Probation Trust (LPT).

Mark Nash is a full time Programme Manager at User Voice. He is currently working on council projects with London Probation Trust, HMP Maindstone and HMYOI Aylesbury. 

MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS User Voice Conference 2013

CLICK HERE for more info and photos as well as the videos screened on the night and a new film of the event itself!

On Wednesday 9th October we hosted our 'Marketplace of Ideas' conference in Parliament at Portcullis House. 

Guests included Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, academics and policy executives, those from the Prison, Probation and Youth Offending sectors and representatives from national charities and social enterprises. 

The event was a fantastic opportunity for User Voice staff and volunteers as well as the delegates that attended. To see so much passion for and dedication to Service User involvement was really encouraging and we’re sure the enthusiasm seen at the event will mean User Voice continues to grow so that more Service Users can have a voice in improving the institutions they’re involved in. 

A special thanks must go out to the venue staff as well our volunteers and Council Members who represented User Voice so well and did the organisation and themselves extremely proud.

CLICK HERE for more info and photos as well as the videos screened on the night and a new film of the event itself!

ELECTION RESULTS: HMP Birmingham and HMP Maidstone Prison Council Election Results

In September User Voice co-ordinated the elections for the Prison Council's in HMP Birmingham and HMP Maidstone.

The results were really encouraging with overall turnout increasing by 19% in HMP Birmingham and 9% in HMP Maidstone.

For more detailed results from these elections, please click here for HMP Birmingham election and here for HMP Maidstone.

If you would like to learn more about our Prison Councils generally, please click here

EXCLUDED YOUNG PEOPLE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!!

We don’t normally do things like this, but we felt it was so important…

We'd like to take a group of young people from around the country with experience of the youth justice system to this year’s Annual Youth Justice Convention on 26 November 2013 in Birmingham.

We'll ensure we get to the hardest to reach and most excluded groups so that their views can be heard by senior youth justice staff. But to get them there we need your help!

For this traditionally excluded group to attend and meaningfully participate in events like this they need support and training to engage with youth justice professionals.

The cuts are affecting all sectors, and this year we must raise our own funds to support this group of young people to take part in the Convention.

Young people from our projects at youth offending services around the country are already planning their own fundraising efforts.  But we need your help too. Anything you can donate will be gratefully received.

The link to our MyDonate page for the event is here.

We'd be grateful if you could share this link (https://mydonate.bt.com/events/yjconvention2013) with your colleagues and friends who may wish to support.

The process of involvement and being heard is a profound experience for excluded young people. Highlights of the event last year can be found here (http://www.whatsyourstory.uservoice.org/whats-your-story-2012). This is what some of the participants had to say on the experience:

"Today was great, I think people really listened, and it shows that we need to part of the solution"
 
“I never thought I would stood up in front of those people and been able to say my thoughts and people seemed to listen and kept coming up to me after saying how well I had done!"
 
“It was really good. I felt like I could do it for good, and I'm making all the people that I know proud of me…I'm making a change for the better and I could do it as a job.”
 
“I'm so glad I done it, was amazing to be honest. Words can't describe how amazing it was and how fab people were! Just mind-blowing!”

User Voice staff are also bidding for small pots of local funding and seeking sponsorship, please also let us know if you can support with either.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and your ongoing support.

Impact of Essex Peer Mentoring Programme Grows and Grows

Since October 2012, User Voice’s Peer Mentoring project with Essex Probation has been training ex-offenders to use their own experiences to provide support to other service users. The project harnesses the unique and invaluable experience of those who have successfully improved their situation to mentor others. With first-hand experience of how it feels to go through the criminal justice system, mentors can give encouragement and reassurance to those going through the same things they have.

Giving something back and helping other service users in this way is rewarding both emotionally and practically. Mentors, who are identified through a careful selection process, are able to add to their list of achievements whilst improving their own employment opportunities. Mentors have informed of the benefits they have reaped by taking part in the programme. This feedback has included; “taking part has helped me to stay on the right path”, “this training has helped me to come to terms with my own past and move on”, “by doing this training I can get a qualification and I have never had one before”, “the programme has helped to improve my self-esteem”, “by coming to the mentoring training I feel less socially isolated and actually feel that I belong”.

After completing the training the mentors receive a recognised qualification, an OCN Level 2 Award in Peer Mentoring. In addition, Essex Probation have committed to providing further support to mentors in the form of employment for successful candidates as Case Supporters. Four mentors have recently had successful interviews for Case Supporter positions, demonstrating the impact that the project is having.

This innovative Peer Mentoring programme aims to contribute towards the reduction of re-offending by offering a service that recognises the changes ex-service users of the criminal justice system make to their lives. Furthermore this programme is enabling such people to contribute towards the delivery of criminal justice services to aid their desistence from crime.