Friday 22 July 2011

Virtual Hub

A quiet week by my standards with a focus on preparing papers for our Trustees meeting on Tuesday evening which went well, and we were delighted to welcome Nigel Biggs as a new independent Trustee (as opposed to a Member Trustee). His business expertise and links to the company and university sectors will be invaluable.

Met with the management team from NESCOT FE college on Wednesday to discuss close links and also the idea of a virtual hub whereby young people who are NEET can come into the hub to receive training to uplift their self-esteem, and be offered volunteering work and accredited training at a college , leading to a job. We see this Hub as a social enterprise.

I am Chairman of South-East Youth Partnership which as a network of senior local authority heads of youth services and voluntary sector youth organizations like ourselves.  We had a very useful meting on Thursday sharing experiences, from which came concerns about: whether outcomes can be commissioned; variations in transferring buildings to the vol sector..Bucks CC are doing so on a 25 year lease(!) and closely related to this the (im)possibility of running a youth centre as a profitable social enterprise without a much broader level of activity going on; a worry that volunteering may dry up if seen as substitute cheap labour for a service that has been withdrawn, and so on.

Just a reminder that the DfE has its “Positive for Youth “ (embryonic White Paper) on their website with some 12 discussion papers.

My close colleague, Jean Roberts – Jones, Chief Exec. of Surrey Community Action has announced she is leaving to take up an equivalent post with Eastleigh CVS, just 2 miles from where she lives!

And finally…I am now on holiday for two weeks and will be back on the blog on Friday 12 August.  Enjoy the summer! (weather permitting)

Mike

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