Urban Solutions Seminar

Again if any of you are interested I produced a document a few years ago for the street work project I was director of on making a case for supporting our work - financially speaking.  I made the arguments about investment now Vs paying for prison costs later....this will give you some ideas on how to maybe market your own arguments because it uses previous research that's 'out there' to underpin the arguments for investing in young people at a young age.

@joanl (who happens to be my mum, and a very experienced youth/community worker) commented that the term 'antisocial behaviour' was both classist and agist - that definitions of anti-social behaviour we largely used to confirm - and legislate in favour of - middle class, middle aged norms, and behaviors that the working classes and youth consider perfectly normal and unthreatening were squashed, or forced into out-of-the-way places because of those notions. 

Which reminded me of this interview with the MP (member of parliament) for Falkirk, Eric Joyce. Eric was in the new recently because he got drunk in the House Of Commons bar and got into a fight. He was expelled from the Labour party, though is still an MP, and he did a very revealing interview for Channel4 about his past, the altercation in the House Of Commons, and perhaps more revealingly, about his thoughts on how working class people should be allowed to solve their differences with a mutually agreeable fight, if that's their choice… Brings up some interesting thoughts about how we perceive (or as Dan was reminding us, 'frame') our approach to certain behaviours… 

here's the interview, with a text overview and video (if the video isn't viewable where you are, let me know and I'll see if I can find another version…) 

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If any of you are interested I'm attaching my thesis (I completed as part of my masters a few years ago) on the subject of anti-social behaviour.  It focuses on the are area I worked in but provides a useful insight into reasons for and causes of anti-social behaviour which of course often creates the conditions for riotous behaviour and civil disobedience.  Feel free to check it out and use and of course if using just reference properly.

...we've also got a Facebook group that you can join! :)

One of the specific events we heard about was an exchange visit for some of the players to Germany, sponsored by the Noel and Jacqui Martin Foundation, which in turn inspired the young people to write and record this song - 

Please do check out the work of Continental Star FC and support them where you can - http://www.continentalstarfc.co.uk - it was great to see youth workers from all over Europe so inspired by a grass roots community based project like this.