young, gifted and incharge

Croydon Xpress are leading on a new Young People Power Programme called Young Gifted and In Charge. We are looking for young people who are interested in becoming young trustees for community organisations.

So what is a Trustee: Trustees work as a group to manage charities, they have ultimate responsibility to ensure the charity is well run, that money is well spent and that the charity helps people in the way it says it will. To be a trustee requires time, understanding and effort. It is also a rewarding opportunity to serve the community and develop personal skills.

Young people will receive support and training on how to be a trustee, depending on their interest they will be matched up with a community organisation looking for a young person to join their board of trustees. As a trustee you will learn how organisations are run in the voluntary sector and gain experience such as setting strategic goals, accountancy and financial planning – and it is great for the CV.

Trustee Flyer: Be A Voice For Young People

We are looking for voluntary sector organisations to join our list of community groups who would like to recruit a young person onto their board of trustees. Organisations can benefit from young people’s involvement as trustees in a  range of ways:

• knowledge of new technologies and communication forms
• insight into the attitudes of young people
• strengthen quality of discussions
• young people focussed solutions

Trustee Flyer: Recruit A Young Trustee

This opportunity has been made available thanks to the support of the Croydon Volunteer Centre, Croydon Council and CVA People Power Programme. CVA’s People Power Programme is a series of learning events designed to support, guide and advise those wishing to play an active part in making things better in Croydon.

We are running the following training sessions …

If you are a young person interested in becoming a young trustee your next training session will be on:

Saturday, 22 June 2013 from 10:00 to 13:00 at the Croydon BME Forum.

The following areas will be covered:

• What is a trustee?
• Safeguarding policies
• The benefits of working in a voluntary organisation at a strategic level
• The impact you can have on an organisation.

To register click on http://youngtrusteestraining.eventbrite.co.uk/#

If you are an organisation looking to recruit a young person your next training session is on:

Tuesday, 18 June 2013 from 09:30 to 12:30 at the CVA Resource Centre.

The following areas will be covered:

• The benefits of involving young people at a strategic level
• Supporting a young trustee
• Working affectively alongside your trustee
• Safeguarding policies

To register click on http://communityorganisationstraining.eventbrite.co.uk/#

ABCD draws on the existing assets of a community (ie the residents’ skills, its diverse local businesses, organisations and clubs) and the ongoing development of the community itself, and manages them in a supportive role so as to strengthen their presence and reach for a stronger and sustainable engagement for both existing and future generations.

Ten Xpress members are working with ABCD coordinators in delivering assistance to young connectors and exchanging assets, knowledge and skills, rather than money.

Keep Croydon Clean & Tidy!

 Help us to reduce the litter and rubbish in your streets, parks and public spaces to make the borough cleaner for those who live, work and visit here.

What is Keep it Clean?

Keep it Clean is a new campaign that encourages residents and local businesses to work together with the council, to take pride in their community, look after the environment and dispose of waste responsibly.

Our job at Xpress is to create an eye-catching Keep it Clean campaign aimed specifically at young people living in Croydon, to facilitate an online discussion and  encourage children and young people to commit to 1 of the 5, 10 day challenges to make a difference and tackle littering problems in their area Flyer.

Have Ur Say and get involved in our polls and online debate: How can we stop people from littering? and Is littering OK in some cases? 

Which challenge will you accept? 10 Day Challenge 

Listen to Jennie May’s (Xpress Workers) interview on Croydon Radio: Podcast

Volunteer with us:

• Are you aged between 15-20 years old?
• Creative and conscious of the environment?
• Looking for some experience in advertising and campaigning?
• Then we NEED you!

If you think you can help us design and promote our Keep it Clean campaign then please get in touch by texting or calling Nicole on 07958004813 

Help us to make Croydon a clean and attractive place for everybody.

The project has been delivered in collaboration with Croydon Healthwatch Pathfinder and wants to address some of the concerns that were raised in the Croydon Healthwatch Get It Right Report. The Get It Right report was written after a visit to Croydon College earlier on in the year that found that many young people do not recognise common conditions such as depression, self harm and stress as mental health issues while they can immediately identify others like schizophrenia, bipolar and personality disorders. The fact that young people don’t recognise stress, depression and self harm as important or worth asking help for was obviously a huge concern for us as a community; it showed that many young people might have mental health problems, but consider it normal and therefore continue to go on feeling unsupported and unhappy.

We formed a young steering group to lead on the projet. We went back to Croydon College in November, and ran workshops at their “Adopt a Cause” conference, with other community projects. The MAD Project was presented to 300 students, encouraging them to commit to our cause and gain volunteering experience and recognition for university applications.  One of the students from Croydon College told us that this project really appeals to him because it focuses on a health problem that isn’t a physical illness and that can be easily overlooked; and he recognised how some young people who suffer from mental health issues feel ashamed and isolated. We want to change this!The MAD project would like young people to take charge in educating their peers about issues surrounding mental health and make sure they know where the many free and local mental health services are.

We had the opportunity to promote and talk about the MAD Project on Croydon Radio. The steering group also successfully applyed to the Croydon Healthwatch Pathfinder Community Empowerment Grant to run a one week campaign to address the lack of awareness around stress, depression and self-harm at Croydon college in March.

Local charity Friends of Church Alley 

The results can be seen in an exhibition to be launched in Broad Green Library, 89 Canterbury Road, Croydon CRO 3HH on Friday 22 March 2013 from 5.30 – 6.45 pm. The exhibition can also be viewed on Saturday 23 March, Monday 25 March, Tuesday 26 March, Saturday 30 March, Tuesday 2 April, Friday 5 April, ,Saturday 6 April, Monday 8 April, Tuesday 9 April and Friday 12 April. For the library’s opening hours see their website www.croydon.gov.uk/libraries, or telephone 020 8726 6900.

Members of the public are invited to add their own contributions either at the library or via the project website: www.documentingbroadgreen.org.uk.

Existing contributors include two of our Xpress sessional young workers, Shani and Stephanie, who helped interview local people on Saturday 24^th October 2012. See their comments below:  

“Saturday went quite well although we were hindered a bit by the weather. Firstly, we met Cathy from ‘Friends of Church Alley’ and she trained us on how to use a series of recording equipment. Using the training we’d been given we then went down London Road, Croydon, to record people’s memories of the area in a voxpop interview style. We asked them about any specific landmarks they remembered and memories associated with the area, this including the riots and any improvements they would like to see. Although there were only a few people who gave us permission to record them the information we received was definitely valuable, and is going to be put in an exhibition in Broad Green Library and made available to Croydon schools.

We interviewed two shop owners who both said they had felt the effects of the riots on their business and mentioned fly tipping and crime as problems. They hoped that there would be a greater sense of civic pride and that empty shops along the high street should be used as community spaces for arts and music projects or free meeting spaces for small-to-medium enterprises.

Lots of people said that if there was more parking, more people would visit the area and increase the rate of tourism and attraction to the area. We were lucky enough to interview a man that worked in a Croydon estate who spoke to us about his memories of growing up in the area. He remembered the old Safari Cinema and also mentioned that in Croydon although the riots had taken their toll on the area and their businesses there is still a strong sense of a community spirit that is unlikely to be found elsewhere. We also interviewed two community workers, one from CVA and another from the Red Cross charity who kindly spoke to us about the things they favoured about Croydon and their experiences of growing up in the borough. We also interviewed Cathy herself, who told us her memories of when the printing works in Broad Green located near to her house burned down.”

The project and exhibition are supported by Croydon Local Studies Library & Archives, Broad Green Library, Broad Green Residents’ Association, Kingsley Primary School, Elmwood Junior School, CVA, Croydon Xpress, Lives not Knives, Christ Church and Praise House.

Police Youth Engagement Training

Our report on the training we gave Police officers to better interact with the youth of CroydonYouth Engagement Police Training Report 2012 Final

Stanley Halls, South Norwood

Here’s our report on our sucessful work in deciding the future of Stanley Halls. The bid was successful in getting through the first stage and is the current front runner.

“Xpress have done a great piece of work for the Stanley People’s Initiative.  They generated lots of enthusiasm amongst the young people and provided us with some very useful feedback on the things that young people would like to see happening at Stanley Halls.  If we are successful in our bid to take on the running of the halls we will not only be using this feedback in deciding what should be happening there, but we will be asking them to get involved again in the future.”

  Kathy Bee, treasurer of the Stanley People’s Initiative and local councillor.

Stanley Halls Report Final

For more information see http://croydonxpress.com/2012/06/29/stanley-halls-south-norwood/

DoH Plain Tobacco Packaging Reportv

For more information www.croydonlink.org.uk

Get It Right Report Young Peoples Voices in Healthwatch Croydon 2012

For more information visit www.croydonlink.org.uk

Norbury Manour Primary School Project

This report was put together by Croydon Xpress and details the work our team did: consulting school pupils, parents ad residents to capture their thoughts on the proposed development of a community play area between the school and the nearby Children’s Centre.

Norbury Manor Primary School Community Play Area Report

To see a brief summary of the work we did please visit www.croydonxpress.com/2011/09/26/norbury-manor-primary-school/