Your chance to support Rock on the Rec!

Last week we applied for funding from the Leicestershire Community Forum Budget which is run by the Leicestershire County Council. We hope to get a sufficient amount of money to help fund this years acoustic tent and PA system.

We need YOUR support to convince the council that our project is a worthwhile cause for young people in the community and deserves funding.

If you want to help this project follow the link below and leave a positive comment under our application

http://www.leicestershireforums.org/harcen/cfb-project,440.html

Busking

Written by Andy, Stacey and Kim (Marketing & Promo Team) 27/4/12

We are now arranging for some of the acts from Rock On The Rec to be busking in Market Harborough in June and July. If anyone fancies busking in town with us, get in touch at rockontherec@hotmail.co.uk

Rock on the Rec 2012 Is Coming…

Written by Luca,    20th March 2012

Following the huge success of the 2010 & 2011 festivals, a date has now been set for Rock on the Rec 2012.

On Friday 10th August 2012, Symingtons Rec will be turned into our very own ‘Glastonbury’ for the day & this years’ event promises to be bigger & better with more fantastic acts than ever!

If you haven’t heard of Rock on the Rec before, then here’s a quick guide to what it’s all about.

Rock on the Rec is a music festival run by young people for young people & best of all it’s totally FREE!

Rock on the Rec 2012 will consist of:  an acoustic tent, a main stage, mixed workshops, food catering & of course some brilliant performers.

LIVE MUSIC

We have 2 stages that showcase live music: a main stage where more established & experienced bands perform & an acoustic tent where we have a mixture of booked acts & open mic slots where anyone can have a go. There are just 2 rules for you to play at Rock on the Rec – 1) you have to be 25 or under 2) you have to live within the Harborough District.

We have already started booking bands/solo artists & over the coming months the line-up will be finalized. Last year we had some quality acts & this year we will have a variety of both new & returning acts. get in touch if you want to perform!

WORKSHOPS

After the success of last years workshops & the great feedback received, we  have made certain that they are a set feature again this year. We are pleased to already have confirmed the involvement of Rock Solid Academy who will be providing a bandoke workshop. This will involve a live band performing to give anyone the chance to sing-along on stage with the backing of an experienced band. We also hope to bring back some of the most popular workshops from last year such as digital graffiti by Sonodrome.

FEEDBACK

Can young people really make good choices when it comes to interviewing youth workers?

Interviewing people for jobs is a really tricky business, there are so many things to think about, and the success of a project or piece of work often hinges on getting the right person. So can we really rely on young people to make good choices about who to employ?

Over the last year or so, I’ve been involved in 4 different recruitment processes for 4 different projects. 2 of these have involved young people, and 2 haven’t. So what difference does involving young people make? How much trust can we put into young people making the ‘right’ decisions? And what do we do if we don’t agree who to employ?

To me, the difference young people can make is immense. They know the kind of person they want working with them, they are more than capable of creating tasks or questions to test these potential workers, and they can often see with total clarity who would be the best person for the job. I also want to see how the candidates relate to and interact with young people. If I was employing a chef I would want to taste their food, or if I was employing a hairdresser, I would want to see them cut hair. I’ve been recruiting youth workers, and so what I really want is to see is them working with young people.

In the most recent recruitment round, we had a separate youth panel, who asked and scored questions, and who got the candidates to run activities with them (which they also scored). We had a young person on the formal interview panel too, sitting alongside the head of the organisation, and 2 other staff members. They had an equal say, and after we’d seen everyone, we all sat around together and came up with the name of the person we all wanted.

Placing your trust in another person, or people, to make big decisions is a hard thing to do. They might make the ‘wrong’ decision – and they might disagree with you! Each time I’ve gone through the recruitment process, I’ve found it’s really important to spend time with the other panel members to make sure you all agree on what you’re looking for. Writing the job description, person specification, interview questions and answers together can help you to have the same vision. But there will always be differences of opinions. And that’s ok. Being able to put your case forward, and to see other people’s opinions is a skill – one I’m still struggling to learn!

Having clear criteria and scoring that you all understand and agree on is crucial, and should go a long way to ensuring you don’t end up in a situation where young people hate the person the adults like, or vice versa. In both the recent recruitment processes that I’ve done with young people, the decisions have been unanimous – there may have been some discussion around some parts of the interview or some people, but when it came to it we placed them all in the same order. Going through this has made me much more confident to involve young people in the future – and colleagues have also been encouraged and impressed by the young people we worked with.

We should take the time and effort needed to support and empower young people to be involved in deciding their own fate. Taking part in recruitment processes can raise self-esteem and confidence, and improve the young people’s interview skills and their chances of being successful when going for jobs themselves.

Like any youth participation work, involving young people in interviewing can only happen if they want to get involved, and you have to be prepared to put the time in to get the results out. But it’s so worth it when you come to the end of the process with an amazing new member of staff, appointed by a group decision by everyone who will work with them, and using this whole process to develop the skills and confidence of the young people who it’s all for.

You know its right when the young woman, who stepped in at the last-minute to run a recent youth panel, went straight home to post this on facebook:

So proud of myself for helping interviewing people for our new youth worker Never thought I would have the confidence to do it I wouldn’t of been able to do it without you Thank you

Can young people really make good choices when it comes to interviewing youth workers? Absolutely YES!

Rural Youth Voice – what have we been up to?

Posted by Sian, Rural Youth Voice project worker         23rd Feb 2012

Take a look at the Rural Youth Voice project’s end of year report and find out exactly what I’ve been up to over the last 12 months

Or download a PDF version here Rural Youth Voice 2011 – 2012

Harborough District Council Plans to Move Market

By Forest 13 January 2012

Today we’ve been given the chance to take a look at the Council’s new plans about Harborough’s market. In a nut shell, the council have proposed to move the market from the existing Market Hall into the Council office car park. The plans also include a refurbishment of the Council building – the ground floor will become the ‘food halls’ for the market, as well as providing some space for indoor retail. The existing part of the library would stay the same, but then be continued onto the second floor, which will also be the new location of Harborough Museum AND a trendy new café. The remaining two top floors will simply be brand new and improved office space for renting out, as well, of course, the Council.

The council has said that these changes should make the most of the Council Building and will help centralise Market Harborough’s best assets.

As for the Market Hall, the council plan to either sell or let it out, providing further funding for the proposed changes and any other development.

It’s a big change, but the here in the Social Media Group, we’ve been considering the good and bad about the plans, and we’ve struggled to make a decision on whether we like it or not.

On one hand, we’ve decided it’ll be a great improvement for the building itself and will be a great way of bringing Harborough together. It’d also use the Council Building’s space far more efficiently and provides the opportunity for the Library and Museum to grow.  And on top of that, the proposed café could also potentially provide jobs for local youths…

But on the other hand, the move could be a huge inconvenience for other members of the community, as the new market will be outside and it’ll be a long way from the bus stop. It could also be bad for the traders, as there are no plans as of yet regarding storage space, which they currently have upstairs in the Market Hall.

So there’s an overview of what we’ve been told, and what we think about it all; but what do you think? Take a look at the pictures we’ve taken of the plans and let us know what you think!

We’ve put together a survey to find out what you think – it’s only 10 questions so won’t take long. We’re going to pass the results on to Harborough District Council to make sure your voices get heard.

Take me to the survey!

Finally Back In Action!

After a rather long break, it seems that the Social Media Group is back together again and we’re heading straight into building up the website.

The planning and designing is finished and now the site is live, all we’ve got to do is write all the content!

So watch this space for news and updates about what’s happening at  Enable Youth, as well as seeing how the Social Media Group get on with the bright and snazzy new site!

Don’t forget that you too can get involved, just head over to the Projects page for more information.

Forest

Learning the ways of the website

6th December 2011

Well, here I am, sitting next to the radiator in my freezing office, trying to make some sort of sense out of Enable Youth’s fab new website. This isn’t the first time I’ve used wordpress, but this version is slightly different and there seems to be loads more options and things in the back of the site.

When we first set about developing this new online space for Enable Youth, we wanted to create something that Enable Youth members could use to promote the work they’re doing, events they’re organising and to give support, advice and create a kind of network for young people in Harborough District. It also had to be easy for us to get the hang of and change and update as we want to. And that’s what I’m trying to get the hang of now!

As this is my first blog post on here, I am crossing my fingers that it goes to the right place, and that people can find and read it! Once we know that’s all cool, we can blog away to our hearts content, bringing you all the latest updates and info.

Don’t forget though – this is a tool for you to use too – so get involved by commenting, giving us feedback on what you think of the website, and remember that we’re always looking for people to join Enable Youth’s Social Media group and really have an input into how this whole web based stuff progresses.