Rotary Wessex (District 1110) Our Children; Our Future Presentation to – District Council – Saturday 9 November 2013 The Rotary Foundation is the largest giver of educational grants in the World. From funding our own RYLA students to supporting our Peace Scholar programme, we give an amazing amount of financial support to the development of young people. We are also great at providing opportunities for our young people to explore, grow and demonstrate their talents through our numerous youth competitions. We have been delivering this service for some years, it is highly valued, highly commendable, and we should definitely keep doing it! We can be proud of … RYLA Youth Speaks Young Chef Young Writer Young Musician Young Photographer Peace Scholars! Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex But, this is our “comfort zone” – whilst we are very good at running these programmes, we don’t reach all our children and we aren’t doing enough about this … April 2013 UNICEF report … Out of 29 rich countries the UK ranks: Material well-being 14 Health and safety 16 Education 24 Behaviours and risks 15 Housing and environment 10 Overall – average 16 Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex In its April 2013 report into “Child well-being in rich c ountries”, UNICEF ranks the UK 16 th out of 29 overall (below Slovenia and the Czech Republic) and 24 th out of 29 for Education. We have improved. In 2007 we were ranked 21 st out of 21 – bottom, and it was this stark picture that triggered our first Our Children; Our Future Conference in 2009, and has prompted the various consultation conferences and meetings that have been held since. We wanted to know what was going on; why are we failing our own children; what’s missing from their childhood experiences ; who is doing what and how, and are these organisations and bodies even talking to each other about the issues and their activities. I think that those of you who have attended one or more of these events would agree that we learnt a lot and we opened up some very useful dialogues. And, since the 2009 conference, we are even more convinced that there is a magic triangle that impacts the experience of childhood and that Rotary can do something to improve the impact of each of its cornerstones. Our role … Community “ The Family ” Parenting Education Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex Our Children; Our Future – Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Page 1 of 3
But talking and thinking is no longer enough. We need to take action. Do something! Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex Here are two things that you can do and that some of you may already be doing: Take action … What ’ s going on where you are? What do schools really want? Mentoring Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex Consult with any and all of the organisations in your area that have anything to do with the welfare, safety, education and health of our children – find out what is going on, what the issues are, and how you might get involved. Speak with your local schools about what they might need by way of support – by all means show them our menu of youth competitions etc, but the hugely successful mentoring programme that continues to be delivered by members of the Southampton Clubs to students at Woodlands School was only developed because that’s what they said they wanted. We can organise mentoring training, and even the most successful secondary schools are suggesting that literacy mentoring would be extremely welcome. But here is something else; here is an activity that can put Rotary right at the heart of the magic triangle and really demonstrate our leadership abilities, and it is something that any of you could do: Discover what is really important to children – and respond to their concerns. What do the children think? Rather than relying on what the professionals tell us, by applying tools that have been developed by The Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex Children’s Society , we can find out what our children actually think and feel about their “lot”. Tools like the “Magic Carpet”. What do the children think? A key conclusion from the Layard Report … “ Magic Carpet ” “ We are too quick to ‘ professionalise ’ responses to children ’ s issues. What is needed is a community response; a caring and collective responsibility for our young people. ” Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex Our Children; Our Future – Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Page 2 of 3
We take a small group of children on an imaginary magic carpet ride around their own community. They decide where we go and what we “hover” over and then they tell us about it. At our first trial with this exercise, with some Years 3, 4 and 5 primary school students in Southampton, we floated over their skate park. Here we discovered a serious dislike of teenagers – being in the park conjured up memories of bullying and vandalism of the skate pipes … their solution was to put two policemen on each gate! “ We don ’ t like Bursledon Bumps … teenagers boss us around and steal our food! ” Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex It’s extremely unlikely that we can do anything about the policing issue, but we could lead a community response to their concerns. I f you’ d like to find out about some of the other tools and techniques we could use, and how you could learn to deliver them all, join us after lunch and we’ll tell you about “Pants and Tops”, “Time Machine”, “Ginger Bread Men” and “Priority Stickers”. Pants and Tops Time Machine Gingerbread Men Priority Stickers Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex We are very good at leading, organising and facilitating, so let’s put those talents to good use by garnering some community responses to the issues that are really concerning our children. “ The true measure of a nation ’ s standing is how well it attends to its children – their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialisation, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies into which they are born. ” UNICEF Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Rotary Wessex For more information contact one of the OCOF Steering Group: Bob Bax (Southampton East), Debbie Dunford (Wareham), Bill Hunsley (Chandler’s Ford & Itchen Valley), Paul Isted (Southampton Clausentum), Richard Maunder (Southampton Magna), Keith Millman (Salisbury), Caroline Millman (Ringwood), Mary Pye (New Milton), Julian Sandy (Westbourne), Richard Scriven (Andover). TheDitrict Website contains copies of OCOF Newsletters and articles as well as lots of information about previous OCOF events. Our Children; Our Future – Presentation to District Council – 9 November 2013 Page 3 of 3
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