TKAP event Plymouth

I attended an event in Plymouth over the last two days to talk to groups of young people about the consequences of violence. The film was shown then followed by a talk and finished off with our awareness advert. The audience were wonderful and very receptive. I think they took it all in and certainly the comments left demonstrated that.
At the end of the day they were all asked to write down on a paper table cloth words that had stuck with them and any emotions they felt from the day. You can see below what words and thoughts those were.

Education Show drawing closer

The Education Show is now 4 months away. It seems like ages i know but there is still much to do and with xmas on the way that means even less prep time. We now have a design for the stand and are preparing to order and submit the plan. To keep costs down and save money my family have been kind enough to lend a hand in building the set tables! A bit of DIY fun and father son bonding for me. Ha. So here are the designs for your viewing pleasure.

The leaflets have been ordered, we have our new look pens, the bands are on their way and our branded clothing is here!
Yes i said it...branded clothing! Very snazzy and professional! We have shirts for public and smart events, t-shirts for the more informal and fundraising events and most excitingly we have posh jackets for the winter street collecting!

All the accomodation and train tickets are booked for us to get to the BETT show in January too.

Im off to Plymouth Monday to give a few talks at a knife crime prevention day which will be interesting!

We have also recruited a couple of new volunteers who have qualifications in counseling and psycology. We are looking in to ANOTHER website redevelopment where we will add a branch aimed more at young people with an online forum and counseling service.

One of our trustees has now been appointed as Youth Coordinator and is leading the website changes and working on getting us into the college community safety weeks around the south west, we are doing this in association with FM entertainments. Kirsty has also attended a rather important O2 conference in London to represent our charity. I am eager to catch up with her following her brief but promissing text!

So thats the main developments for now i think. I believe Josh is keeping you posted on the development of the new resource which we will soon be submitting an application for funding.

Oh and on that same note we may soon be applying for funding to facilitate lessons in Devon! Exciting!

Cheers

Adam

Charity Band Night

Just a quick entry to say that the Charity Band night was a huge success! We raised a total of £340! The bands were great so a big thank you to Silent Mob and The Blue Room Baboons. It was a fantastic night that everyone enjoyed. Thank you also to the Ring of Bells pub! I will look forward to the next fundraiser if they are all this enjoyable!

INTERACTIVE DVD MAPPED OUT

Script writing for an interactive DVD turns out isn't straight forward! Somewhere between making a video game and film it has taken a little while to create the structure, after a half day creating this:

This led to it being turned into a power point with descriptions and multiple decisions, which I've now translated to DVD Studio Pro so that a rough layout of a playable disc exists - the next stage will to add a bit of visuals to give a taste of the experience, then it'll go off to drink aware as part of the application and fingers crossed will become a new STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE / YPFC bit of media to help prevent mindless violence:

NEXT FILM!

I think it's fair to say that from the reactions of people on the STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE film that it had the impact that was intended, which is a real achievement as we avoided the problems with so many educational videos which are patronising, funny or an rebel and do the opposite of what they are promoting.
But the film doesn't lecture anyone, it simply shows the consequences and allows them to absorb and reflect with a fight scene which doesn't glorify violence.
So how do we follow this?
I feel that the film illustrated the consequences of violence through Lloyd's murder and then opened it up to show that it was not a one off, it is a nation wide problem. What I want to next though is rather than repeat this film, is to look at why violence exists in our culture -
What makes one person insecure and unstable enough to carry out these actions while other people can go out to have fun without harming someone else?
With the potential funding from a drinks awareness campaign, we are now aiming to make a violence related to drink film for the web and DVD that will be interactive in a similar way to the fairly pioneering youtube anti knife crime which you can watch HERE
I'll use this blog as an update of this films concepts as it develops, it'd be great to have any ideas or inspiration or criticisms as a response as it goes along to make a film with the impact of the last one while developing off it to explore and prevent violent culture further.

Website link

New link to fearless website. http://www.fearless.org/fighting-murder they have a link to our website, our recent awareness advert and i have just finished writing an article for them which they will be putting on their site soon. I shall update and add the link when it is complete.

Update and proposal

An update following our most recent meeting.

Stand Against Violence is looking for new Trustees, three to be exact. Our board currently consists of six.

We are particularly looking for people who are secondary school teachers, social/youth workers, magistrates, background in PR and media, health professionals and emergency service workers.

Obviously we only have three spaces and we do expect our trustees to take an active role and attend the monthly meetings. If you feel up to the challenge and think you would like to get involved please get in touch for more details.


We luckily now have enough money to attend the Education Show but we are looking to raise money for all the leaflets we will be taking. There are some grant applications pending which would be brilliant if we could get one approved.

Our website has now been updated and we have backing from Somerset County Council so their logo is on the site along with Taunton Deane Council. www.sav-ed.co.uk

The gaining of council support is one of several aspects of our O2 Think Big project. You can keep an eye on our progress here. http://www.o2thinkbig.co.uk/Projects/Project-Home/?clubId=47

Our new radio advert is in the making process. Another awareness advert to add to our library.

The Learning Resource Centre which provides schools with information and educational materials now stocks our material and will be sending our leaflets out with their next batch of newsletters to Somerset Secondary schools.

Our completed ITV Fixers Advert

Our new awareness advert made with the help of ITV Fixers is now finished! Check it out below.

Urgent Appeal! We need help!

Hi All,

We have been confronted with hidden and unexpected costs for the Education Show next year. 

16,000 educators attend the 3 day event and we need a stall there. We have a lottery grant for £2500 but when i was trying to book it all it turns out we need an additional £4000!! Thats charity rate too!

We have sent a mass of letters to grant making trusts but its a slow process with no guarentee. If anyone has any ideas to help PLEASE get in touch! 

The chance to attend an event on this scale packed with our target audience is a huge opportunity and will thrust our charity into the spotlight nationally! Help us get there!!

O2 Think Big

As some of you may remember we recently won an opportunity to join the O2 Think Big project. This means we get £300 to put a project into action. We attended a workshop in Cardiff to plan our project and now we are nearly ready to go! We will be recording our progress on a new O2 Think Big website. If we meet our goals and have a good result we are eligable to be selected for further workshops, goodies, professional help and £2500!

So heres our project:
Originally we were planning on using the money for promotional purposes aiming for national awareness. Due to our budget of £300 this is unachievable. Our material is already being used on a national level but awareness of our charity is minimal and the plan is to increase awareness of SAV and increased use of our resource. We are therefore going to focus on local and regional promotion. Our plan for doing this so far is as follows:

• Advertise with other organisations (to a degree we are already doing this online)
• Local and regional magazines
• Encourage local and regional newspapers to support us by printing our logo and web address at the end of any story of violence they report on and may be get them to include a quote by the charity
• Online advertising
• Radio advert - sponsorship from local stations to allow us some air time
• Approach county councils and local councils and ask for their official support with links on their websites and permission to include their logos on our website

We will be monitoring our progress by watching for increases in website hits, increases in feedback and requests for DVDs.

Most of these goals are achievable and we will be discussing a plan of action at our next Trustee meeting. We are sure we can achieve most of this for free but the £300 will come in handy for offering to cover various expenses. If anyone would like to get involved and help us achieve these goals please get in touch as your help would be very much appreciated!

So thats the latest. Wish us luck.

The Big Fix Event and Merseyside Secure Unit presentation

Wednesday 21st was the ITV fixers Big Fix event up at the London Studios! It was very exciting and a proper tv set. Its the same studios that they film some of the x-factor series and other shows like loose women and graham norton! Fab! It was a pretty great night too although the prison cell style accomodation for the night left something to be desired! Ha. I met a fantastic guy called Evans who also campaigns and works to prevent and raise awareness of violence. Fantastic guy. He went on set the same time as me so we had a lot in common and it was brilliant to meet someone on the same wave length! Our part in the live fixers event is embeded below along with some pics.

Fixers Set

Evans and Me

The Big Fix Part 2:  Fighting Gangs, Knives and Violence from ITV Fixers on Vimeo.

So after spending 2 days in London we then travelled up to Warrington, Merseyside to a secure unit for vunerable young offenders to give a talk and show the DVD. This was always going to be a tough challenge and a real test for the power of the DVD but it all went very well. There was a strong reaction from 2 out of the 4 groups and the other 2 were silent which is apparently a sign that it had a good effect. The staff were happy with the day and i felt that it all went very well. I going to contact the guy who arranged it in a months time to see if there has been any noticable long term effects. Fingers crossed!

Who else is fed up with the police phrase 'this is an isolated incident'!?

I would like to make an observation in this post and see how many others feel as i do. I also want to comment on the falsness and unreliability of statistics.

Everytime the police release a statement about a serious crime or murder they state 'this is an isolated incident'. What does this mean to you?? To me this means that it is a rare occurance and doesnt happen regularly. I have found out the true meaning of the phrase following a talk with the Avon & Somerset Constabulary PR officer. What the police actually mean when they say this is that 'the crime was not linked to any other incident that happened that night'! Miss leading? PR play on words to reassure the public? Out right manipulative lying? I suppose the power of language is powerful, using the right phrase, the right words in a carfully crafted manner can give an impression and im sure the police are all to aware that the public will see this as having a different meaning.

I want to demonstrate this over use of the 'isolated incident' phrase and demonstrate that it does in fact mean 'not related to any other crime that night'. In Taunton since Lloyds murder there have now been another 2. There have been atleast 2 before this too. So from Lloyds news report onwards, here we go:




Sorry, i cant find a written news report from that far back but the video says it all approx half way through. There was also another murder involving a polish couple but there was very little reported on this. The most recent story is below (01/07/10).


POLICE say they have launched a murder investigation following the death of a 53-year-old man in Taunton on Wednesday.Three people were arrested after an alleged assault at a house. The victim was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital but later died.
A police spokesman said: “Officers would like to hear from anyone who may have information to help their investigations and would like to hear from anyone who was in the Severn Drive area between 8pm to 9.30pm. They have stressed that this was an isolated incident.

So thats a very small example. Next time there is a murder report on the news make sure you listen out to those famous words 'this is an isolated incident'. See how meaningless that saying becomes.

Talking about statistics, is it public knowledge that every year when police statistics on crime are published they change the definition of the classifications?? Assault can mean one thing one year and another the following year, this can give the impression of rises and falls in crime rates and on face value its true and accurate but underneath it all is clever manipulation to give the positive impression the authorities want. There have of course also been reports of false police statistics by the media and not to mention the fact that there is reported and unreported crime. There is a lot of crime that goes unreported and i would also like to point out that crimes are only taken into statistics when the perpertrator has been convicted. Now this bit was fairly obviouse however our slack and leanient legal system mean that alot of criminals do not get convicted. When i do school talks i rely more on the A&E statistics, it is always good to have statistics to back up what is being said and when people attend A&E it is recorded as to why they are attending. According to A&E stats assault has increased, but according to police there is no change and in some areas there is an improvement, this leads me to the conclusion that the stats are incorrect or more crime is going unreported to the police.

The Avon and Somerset Constabulary
Now, i have debated whether to share this with people for a long time. I used to be in full support of the police saying that they do the best job they can with the resources they have. However over the last few years my opinion of them has deminished.
During the filming process for our DVD we had to close a road, i was passed from person to person in the police to find the correct person i needed to speak to. I also had to deal with the coucil and the highways authority who were very helpful and supportive. The police on the other hand were very unfriendly and difficult and after wasting much of my time (approx 1 month!) promptly turned around and said i never needed to speak with them in the first place. So our first night of filming went ahead as planned. They initially offered us PCSO's for the night too which they then refused at the last minute.
On the second night we again submitted the road closure form and i, despite being told it was unnecesary thought it best to inform the police as this is the usual protocol. I was met with a frosty phone call and the chap said that he didnt know why i was telling him as he had already told me i didnt need to inform the police. So the second night of filming went ahead, we closed a road on a quiet industrial estate on a Saturday night. The first hour of filming went ok, then the police turned up, did they approach us, no! They drove up and down the road forcing us to stop filming and clear the road twice delaying our filming, we then moved on to a scene which required a crane which along with the ambulance meant the road was fully blocked. This time the police were unable to pass and so they stopped their car in the middle of the road directly in our camera shot and put their lights on full. After a short while we approached them, they opened their window and without any effort to elite the car they said 'we dont know anything about this, whats going on' and demanded to see our papers (which luckily we had). Now, on a busy Saturday night, what were the police doing on a quiet industrial estate, why did they not get out of the car to ask us what was happening the first time and why did they deliberatly get in the way. I complained the next day and had no reply.
When it came to doing ambulance and A&E interviews i asked them if they would like to be interviewed as well to give an all rounded approach to violence. Initially they did not reply but i soon got a call from a lady at HQ from the PR team. She seemed very pleasant and we met with her to show her the film, she initially seemed very impressed and keen to help. We arranged a meeting at my local police station under the impression i was going to meet the custody seargent to discuss interviewing. When i arrived alone i was taken into an office, next 5 police officers including senior police officers entered and they said they would like to see this film. I was unable to say much and felt very intimidated as they had blocked the door. They watched the film without a word. When it had finished i was bombarded with statements such as 'that will never be shown in schools on my patch', 'thats scare mongering', 'thats inaccurate', 'theres no violence in Taunton' and more. Whilst trying to stand my ground against 5 police officers i asked them 'if i was lying about crime levels in Taunton why had there been so many murders?' I then asked them if they knew how many there had been. They looked at each other at then said sheepishly they would have to check their records. I said there have been 5 that i know of in my lifetime, is that acceptable?! I was then accused of having a political agenda and the police said they would only be involved if i sensored the film, made it a 15 rated, put a password on the site, and remade the film to include a police interview (the launch was in 1 month!). After having a think i decided to compromise, i would add an interview if it was done within that month, i would put a 'suggestion' of 15 yrs and above with a warning on the website but that is all. This wasnt good enough for them, it was their way or not at all. So i said no. This film was designed to show and tell the truth and it should not be lightened or changed or sensored. I havent spoken with the police since.
Obviously this can be seen as a tall story so in due course i will be adding the filming footage showing the police in action on our filming set.
So for those of you wondering why there are no police interviews on the SAV site this is the reason.

Conference, grants and future plans

Hi All,

SAV has recently received a grant for £3600 from the Somerset Community Foundation! The Awards for All lottery grant is still in the process of being paid too. The monies will be spent on promotion of our charity, further educational resources including more DVDs and development of our existing website. More importantly for our local community this means we will be putting on a Fireworks display in October! The idea is to do a little bit of fundraising whilst providing our first family/community event. I will mention more on that as things develop.

Me looking like a muppet accepting the cheque

We have a new exhibition display on order from a company in Leeds which we will accompany us to various events to help raise awareness of our work in society as well as increase our presence. An example is seen below. This is possible because of our grant from the lottery and the Somerset foundation. We will also be booking a place at the Education show in March 2011.

Our luck was in as we also received a Google grant to advertise free on the Google search engine. The Adwords advertising campaign is currently being set up.

We now have a new volunteer who will be helping with events, attending other events with our material and stand, and will also be doing PR and fundraising.

We have also received an O2 Think Big award which means 2 people from SAV (most likley myself) will attend a workshop in Cardiff and then be given a grant of £300 to carry out a project. If we are successfull and show benifit from the £300 we can then go on to apply for bigger grants from O2.

Now, conferences. SAV gets a lot of support from a teacher training organisation called GLEAN. They respresent and support us at many events they attend. They distributed lots of leaflets about our resources at a conference that took place at UWE in Bristol last week. Both myself and a member of GLEAN are attending a large educational/teaching conference in London next month to talk about the resource. This is a high profile conference and people have to apply to have a slot on the stage to present products and resources. Apparently only about 1 in 100 applications are approved but they were so impressed with our application they have given us 2 slots! The plan is to do a powerpoint presentation, show the film and a new film that demonstrates how to use the resource in the classroom.

Finally, Kirsty is back from her Kili climb soon!! We are now starting to collect in the money and so far Kirsty has raised a total of £1300! I will update on the final figure soon.

Our next event we will be attending is the Bridgwater Young Peoples Festival which will be next Saturday on the East Bridgwater community school playing fields.

A long overdue update

Its been ages since the last post! So heres an update.

Anne Frank - SAV went to London to the Emirates Stadium to talk to young campaigners last month. It was an interesting day. The idea was to share our experience with young people who are starting out on their own campaigns. Im hoping it was valuable for them.

School talks - I attended 2 schools in Plymouth over 2 days to speak about what happened to Lloyd and show the SAV film. It had a brilliant effect as per usual. Im suprised at how much the DVD keeps its impact no matter where it is shown.

TrueTube - A website for films made by young people on topics important to them asked me to travel to London to interview a lady from the Department for Social Justice. They write policies and recommendations to Government based on crime. Their last policy was one on Gang Crime which was quite impressive. Providing the Governement listen it should be effective. They focus on short, medium and long term which is brilliant as most are short term solutions. They also base their policy on what the people of the UK think by doing polls and gathering opinion. Thats key to success in my opinion. They are currently working on youth justice at present to focus on youth violence and anti social behaviour. There may be opportunity to work with them which will be a great way to influence change on a Government scale. I will post the link when the interview has been edited.

Fireworks fundraiser - I am looking to team up with a local fireworks display to raise some money for SAV in November.

Summer Fete 2011 - Vivary park has been booked and we are starting the planning for this community event. Theres a lot of work involved but i have no doubt that we can pull it off!

Sponsored walk - Kirsty's Kilimanjaro walk is coming up next month and we are making good progress on sponsors. Thank you to everyone that has donated and to anyone that wishes to donate bear in mind that £1 from each of our facebook members will raise over £2000. So please sponsor this amazing challenge.

Kirsty's fundraiser - As well as the sponsored walk Kirsty is also organising a fundraising day in Taunton for the start of June. Its all ready just a case of encouraging people to attend.

Trustees - We have welcomed a new trustee to the SAV charity who will be our official treasurer. We are also going to be making Kirsty a Trustee to manage fundraising as she is doing a fantastic job and it would be great to have her continue.

Grants - We have received a conditional grant offer for £2500 from the Awards for All lottery grant program. This will enable us to attend an Education Show next March to promote SAV and our resource. We have 2 further grant applications pending.

ITV fixers - Im awaiting an edit day for the advert and hopefully it should be ready by the middle of next month! The task of finding places to show the advert then begins!

Website - Our website is being revamped which should be ready soon. We hope to have another page for feedback where i can post up some of the brilliant feedback we have received to demonstrate the positive impact our resource is having on young people.

I think thats it for the time being. Thank you for reading and i will post further updates soon. If anyone wishes to sponsor Kirsty please click the link: http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/kirstygough
If anyone wishes to join in on fundraising and promotion of SAV we are looking for volunteers. Please get in touch if you believe in our work.

Final day of filming with Fixers

Last day filming with ITV fixers today. We were at the Bristol medical simulation centre and everything went very well. We got some great shots in a great A&E setting. We even simulated a cardiac arrest, clever technology! We start editing next within the month, cant wait! This advert should be pretty impressive and hard hitting, well thats the plan. It will be up on facebook, youtube, the SAV website, crime stoppers affiliated website and hopefully it can be used by the NHS, Police, Cinemas and possibly TV. Its going to be a hard slog to encourage profit making organisations to take it up though. Hopefully we can do it.

Up coming events

I have been asked to attend Red Banks Community Home in Merseyside to give a talk in June sometime. The campaign is really reaching places now although traveling such a distance is pushing my comfort zone!
I will be giving several talks to year 9 groups in Plymouth on the 18th and 19th of May. The request has come from the Children and Young peoples services in Plymouth council.
Now we are a registered charity we have joined with the local CVS (Community Volunteers Service) who will help us find volunteers, find funding and any other advice we need. Im attending a funding fair on the 6th to speak with various funders about what they offer.
Its taking time but we are moving forward and i hope it continues!

Im waiting on a cheque from the Fox Glove trust who have kindly donated £700 to cover music license expenses. Once that comes through we can pay for the outstanding licenses and manufacture some more DVD's which we are in need of. Cant believe we got through them all!

We are adding new sections and revamping the website which will take a little time but Discover Websites are working on that. I will update everyone when its ready. The old look site will remain active so for those who want to use the film it shouldnt be a problem.

New lesson plans are expected to be received by the end of next month which will be added to the website for other teachers to use.

Kirsty's Kili walk

Kirsty Gough's sponsored walk up Kilimanjaro is fast approaching and she has currently raised £320 for Stand Against Violence. She is aiming for £1,500 so more emails will be going out on facebook! If you want to donate please visit http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/kirstygough and show your support.

Our first day of filming for the advert

Our first day of filming was tiering but enjoyable. We started at 9.30 and wrapped at 23.00. We filmed pretty much all the scenes including a fight scene. We had a 2hr break around 17.00 so we all piled back to a house to have a BBQ and chill out in the remaining sun. All in all we achieved a lot, it was enjoyable and is looking absolutly fantastic. We have one day of filming left for the 5th at the Bristol Medical Simulation Centre where will will film the A&E, intensive care and care home scenes. That day we dont expect to be quite so long. Everyone was extremly professional and it was wonderful to work with them all. Im really looking forward to the edit now. Got to go to Winchester for that!

Some good updates

Hi all,

Stand Against Violence is now a registered charity! Our charity number is 1135475. I'm in the process of calling our first AGM. Our main task is to get some funding so if anyone out there can help with that we would appreciate all the help we can get!

The issues we will be addressing at our first meeting will be;

• funding including the possibility of finding funds to employ a fundraiser. its extremly time consuming!
• account managment
• community events - we currently have a plan to organise a Summer Fete for Taunton probably next summer
• adjustment of the website
• launching the new youth filming project division of our campaign

Website - i have a meeting with Discover Websites (our web designers) in Taunton on Tuesday where we will be discussing some additions and adjustments. As we have now started charging for the hard copy of the DVD to cover postage and packaging we will aim to set up a dedicated page to buy this easily. I will also be looking at setting up a new area on the website for the new youth project that one of our trustees will be embarking on. This will allow all young people that make anti violence films with us as part of school projects, youth group activities etc will get their films online. Also from a funding point of view i will be looking to set up a proper donations page including a membership option where people can donate monthly/annually for which they will receive a welcome pack and regulare e-bulletins.

Fundraising - i am on the lookout for someone who, initially could work for free but in time may be paid, to apply and look for funding and sponsorship, also do regular fundraising. Essentially some one with a lot of drive that with some hard work will end up bringing in the money we will use for their employment! Strange but i dont see many ways around it.
We have a charity event coming up this year which is being organised by a friend, she is also doing a sponsored climb up Kilimanjaro to raise money for us.

Events - although as mentioned i am planning on holding what i hope will be the first of many community events in Taunton a group of us will be in town with a stall at somepoint over the summer to promote ourselves, answer questions, and hopefully collect donations and sell our merchandise. Oh that brings me on to the new bands that finally arrived, very nice! We shall be charging £1 per band. We also have car stickers for 50p and pens for 50p.

Youth project - one of our trustees is setting up a new project to work with young people to develop short films about violence and its concequences. This will provide another service SAV can offer to education.

I am in the process of registering with HMR&C to recieve Gift aid but im also hoping we can find an individual who is good with accounts to manage our accounts and tax returns. Im terrible with figures and tax. Again this would have to be done for free initially but if our fundraiser does a good job we could end up being able to pay that role as well. Again its a job open to bidders.

Oh also we are filming the advert with ITV fixers next Monday in Bristol and the final date of filming will be the 5th May. We finally have all our actors, stuntmen and locations organised so should be good.

Overdue update

Hi all,

Not a great deal has happened since the last entry but i feel its time for an update.

Charity status: We are making progress in terms of becoming a charity. Unfortunatly the trust deed needed revising so it now needs to be resigned by all the trustees but it sounds hopeful.

ITV fixers: Good progress is being made on this front. Unfortunatly we had a few set backs in finding locations to film the A&E scene as we have not been allowed to use the casualty set. There are a few other options we are trying and keeping our fingers crossed! I believe the rest is sorted although we are still waiting for one more stunt man.

Questionnaires: I have sent out questionnaires to all those i know are using the SAV material. I have received one back which was possitive so we shall see what the others say.

GLEAN: I attended a visit to The Kings school in Devon where they have been filming a teacher training video for PSHE using the SAV material. Fantastic responses from the pupils. According to the email i received from the teacher, one lad said "occasionally you are part of something that you know will effect you for the rest of your life"!

Funding: We have another avenue we are exploring for funding. One of Lloyds friends is also organising some fund raisers this year which is fantastic news. Unfortunatly i have decided to start a small charge of £2.99 for the DVD's. The website resource remains free but due to lack of money and the cost of DVD production, postage and packaging i have decided i have to cover some of our costs!

There we go. I think we are up to date now. More updates to come. Oh and we now have a Wikipedia article about the campaign. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_Against_Violence

ITV fixers

We had a day of filming today. This morning we had an interview with Victim Support then 7 of us squeezed into my little flat for the rest of the filming. This is mainly for a news piece which will be on ITV westcountry sometime in April.

We also discussed the advert. We are aiming at TV, Cinemas, mobile phone apps among others. It sounds like its going to be a great, impacting ad. Time to call up all my contacts that helped in the main educational film! We plan to film a fight sequence and follow through a story showing both the view of the victim and the view of the offender. I will elaborate further when we have a more detailed plan.

More positive feedback

Hi Adam


Yes, I have used the film very successfully in 11 sessions with the kids who have been referred to the Behaviour Support Team because they are at risk of being permanently excluded. It has been a source of great reflective discussion & 1 boy in particular has stopped his daily fighting as a direct result of seeing the film.

I hope that other people are having as much success in getting this message across to kids.

I think it would be an excellent film to show in Assemblies.

I'm going to the Education Show tomorrow at the NEC, an annual event much loved by all those who work in schools. It would have been an ideal place for you to have a stand.

Sending you lots of positive good wishes.

Donation

Another update.

We have just received a £500 cheque from one of the local Lib Dem councillors in Taunton Deane.





We will be using the money to pay for the music licensing on the DVD and due to demand for the DVD nationally we may need to get more DVD manufactured. As always we will also putting the money towards promotion.

At present we are saving to accumalate enough money to get leaflets into the Big Issue magazine but its taking a while!!

Reply from the DCSF - Finally

Hi, finally received a reply from the DCSF. Link to previous post below if you didnt see the previous entry regarding the unhelpfulness of the DCSF. The bit about them is at the bottom of the post.

http://standagainstviolence.blogspot.com/2010/02/nothing-for-days-and-then-it-all-comes.html


Dear Mr Fouracre


Thank you for your email dated 11 February asking to include a link on the teachernet site to your material relating to anti violence/alcohol awareness for use in citizenship.

Teachernet was developed by the Department for Children, Schools and Families as a resource to support the education profession.

In our previous correspondence with you we have outlined the Department's stance on endorsement, or promotion of specific resources or activities for use in schools, and the purpose of this Department.

I have passed your comments onto the relevant policy team, who have confirmed that they are unable to promote your material. As such, we are unable to pass this information onto the teachernet team for inclusion on the site.

I realise this must be frustrating, and that it is indeed time consuming to contact individual schools and Local Authorities with your ideas. However, because schools and Local Authorities make the final decisions on the resources they use, then there is no alternative other than to direct you to them.

I am providing the link to the Association of Citizenship Teaching site, which you might find useful. Apologies if we have already directed you there in any previous correspondence:

http://www.teachingcitizenship.org.uk/

Thank you for writing.


Regards



What a suprise, they cant help. I would just like to point out here that Teachernet contacted me a couple of weeks ago and have put a link on their website. I just do not understand these people. They are obviously spinning me a load of crap. I give up with the Government.

Positive feedback from the YMCA

'Just before Christmas I decided to show my senior youth club here at the YMCA, Taunton the awareness video that has recently been launched by Stand Against Violence. In all honesty I wasn’t really sure what to expect, even though I had seen the video and found it very moving, I didn’t think I would have such a strong reaction as I did form the young people I showed it to. The only reaction I really expected was for them to be quiet as it was quite an emotive piece, but I was mistaken. Originally I invited a local PCSO to come along and watch it with us, so that we could have an open discussion about the issues that were raised in the video- but due to work commitments he was unable to make the showing. Inviting the PCSO along in a fairly informal setting I thought would encourage young people to talk to him about violence and the issues around it.

As soon as the video came to an end you could visibly see that the young people in the room were moved by the video. All of the young people in the room had come from a variety of backgrounds and each one of them become deeply involved in an open discussion about violence with myself, Adam and Cllr Nicci Court. What surprised me the most was that the two quietest in the group spoke the most about how they thought differently about getting into fights. They talked about how they never think about the repercussions of their fights, how they just get caught in the moment- not thinking about the after affect. As the attackers in the video were under the influence of alcohol we also talked at length about alcohol. Some of the young people revealed about how easy it was to get hold of alcohol and drugs at school. What I found most interesting was that the young people really felt that PCSOs and the police in general didn’t do enough. One young person talked about how he was taken home by a PCSO for displaying anti-social behaviour and after a few minutes he just went back out again. I am not entirely sure if they would have discussed this if the local PCSO was present, but nonetheless it was an insightful discussion. When the discussion drew to a close I soon noticed that an hour had passed since we first had shown the video. We had been deep in discussion for all that time, which just goes to prove how powerful this video was. As we only had half an hour of youth club left some of the young people were still talking about the video and how they would like to do role play. They also requested if they could have wrist bands (one of which Adam Fouracre was wearing), in aid of the campaign and of course Lloyd.

With all the youth work I have done around social issues, this was the most powerful and effective piece of stimulus for all the young people.'

TV advert

Hi all,

Exciting update! As previously mentioned i have now had a meeting with ITV fixers, a major campaign enabling 16-25 year olds to 'fix things' for the better. As a result of this meeting we will be working together to make a hard hitting TV advert that we can use not only on TV but also to promote our material and even use it in A&E departments around the country. Better still, they will aim for cinemas too! This will be a very interesting ride!

Here is a previous advert made by the guy who will help me make the SAV one. Its powerful! Ours will be based more around the violence but his work is pretty amazing.

Boy Racers from ITV Fixers on Vimeo.

Anne Frank and SAV

Just a note to say that i am currently in talks with the Anne Frank trust regarding involvement in one of their new projects. They would like me to go to London to talk with young people about SAV the campaign and how it began. Im not 100% clear on the project yet but it seems like they will be working with young people who want to start their own campaigns using people and organisations who already run campaigns to offer advice.

Plymouth meeting and ITV fixers

Hi all,

A positive update this time.

ITV fixers, a major campaign enabling 16-25 year olds to 'fix things' for the better, are very interested in helping with the campaign. They would work with me using their knowledge, funding and contacts to develop the campaign. Like many others they cannot help with projects already in existence so i would have to think of a new project or a way of adapting the current one so they can help. I have a meeting with them on Monday and will update the blog on the outcome.

I attended a very positive meeting with 2 people from PSHEE Citizenship and Healthy Schools, Services for Children and Young People, in Plymouth. I contacted them a while back asking for their help to get the material used in Devon and Cornwall. We finally met and covered many areas in our discussions. Basically the outcome is as follows;

They will develop a couple of new lesson plans, one around violence and one around alcohol.

They have invited me to a meeting next month which representatives from many servces and the council attend to discuss violence and how they can tackle it. Here i can introduce the work i do and make contacts. This may also lead to working in partnership with community safety and allow possible funding.

They are very keen to encourage their schools to use the resource and use it in teacher training.


Basically their offer to develop an alcohol focused lesson plan can make us eligable for the Drink Aware grant of upto £100,000!

Whilst at the meeting we discussed ITV fixers and the need to develop a new project. We have now got 2 avenues. One is to hire/employ a facilitator and trainer who will travel to schools facilitating lessons and training PSHE teachers about using the material in an effective way. The other would be to employ someone who would be responsible for creating new lesson plans. The meeting threw up some names for possible employees which is handy.
The other avenue which can be explored as well is working with A&E departments. SAV would produce or adapt the film to play on screens in A&E departments which would be silent and have scrolling text. This is something i ITV fixers can help with im hoping as they can use their contacts to get me speaking to relevant people.

Obviously these are all at discussion stage although the lesson plans are a definet so i shall keep you all updated. I'll also raise promotion of new lesson plans with ITV fixers on Monday as they maybe able to help there.

So thats the update for now. Its been a good day! Im knackered!

Nothing for days and then it all comes along at once!!

Need to update on recent events (and have a bit of a winge).

The good stuff;

Take a Break
The article in take a break magazine will be published on the 18th of March which should be interesting to see what we get from that.

Anne Frank
The Anne Frank trust contacted me about a new project they are planning to run in education and want to discuss my involvement. Another possitive.

DVD request (latest)
We have sent a DVD to a Pupil Referral Unit in London following a request from them. Im planning to send out questionnaires online in March to those who have used the material to get some feedback. The idea has been raised to find a way to get pupil feedback so i want to look into an online link to a questionnaire and PDF form that could be printed off and posted to myself. Its always good to hear from the target audience.

Final steps for Charity Application
I am waiting for one more Trustee to sign the trust deed then we hope to get charity status. On that note we also have a volunteer to do accounts and manage the finances for audit and returns for the charity commission. This is a great help as im rubbish with that sort of thing.

Link to Teachernet
After much hassel trying to contact them, Teachernet has put a link to our resource on their website. It is a well known site used by teachers and linked to the DCSF. This should hopefully raise profile and get more teachers using it.
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/usefulsites/index.cfm?mode=search&intContent=1&ShowAtoZ=0


Funding
I had a chat with a lady at the Princes Trust about funding and ideas. As a result i have a couple of other routes to take to raise some funds including the Vinspired program. I have registered but am trying to figure out a little more as to what it is about and how to use it. I will update with developments.

Next meeting
I have a meeting next week in Plymouth at their council offices which i will include in my next update.


Not so good news:
We were declined the Awards for All grant on account of my application form. The chap that contacted me was very helpful however and he said that he has a very keen interest in what SAV does and congratulates us on our work. He said he had experienced loss through violence and would like to help me get funding. He said to get in touch with him if i get stuck next time. This is a great help and im grateful but the problem is the Awards for All program. Basically as i run the campaign, at present, pretty much single handedly people dont like giving money/grants/funding to individuals and want you to have a managment team. Obviously this is more work trying to gather people to help. They also wont fund current projects so i basically have to create a new idea and apply for funding to do that. Again more work i cannot afford the time to undertake! Basically, i cannot get funding from them to continue a project that has been running for 4 years and proving effective however, i can apply for funding for projects that people think will work and are a good idea but wont necessarily work! Does that make sense?? Surely you would invest in something that is already working. The plan was to use funding to increase awareness and cover printing expenses etc. They wont support this because it is a current project. So basically i have to create more work for myself just to get a small grant, i also have to create more work for myself to become a charity in order to get further funding and official charity discounts. It seems this charitable world is set to break you rather than help you! The fact that the charity commision wont allow you to be a charity unless you have an annual turnover of £5000 is proof of that. What came first, the chicken or the egg???? How can u get £5000 with nobody giving you funding! Any way that is my moan on unfairness. Forgive me but at the end of the day we all moan from time to time and i think this is a valid point. Any way we managed to get the money eventually so i can stop moaning about the charity thing.


Point of interest:

I have something that a)is a little winge (again) and b) will hopefully also demonstrate the brick walls you are faced with when it comes to the government.
I have been trying to contact the DCSF (Department of Children, Schools and Families). I have sent them 3 emails and below are each reply i have received...

29/04/2009
"Dear Adam

Thank you for your email of 23 April, about the anti violence DVD you are producing.

The Department is always interested in receiving information aimed at improving the educational experience of children, and I can see how the DVD you enclosed could help children in learning. However, the role of this Department is limited to setting the policy framework of the National Curriculum of what is taught in terms of content, attainment targets and how performance is assessed and reported. Therefore, we do not endorse, fund or promote specific resources or activities for use in schools.

We leave such decisions for teachers themselves to make, as we believe they are best placed to recognise the needs and abilities of their pupils. With this in mind, you may wish to contact schools directly with your suggestion, or Local Authorities (LAs). Details of LAs can be found on our website at: www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities.

Once again thank you for taking the time to write to the Department.


Yours sincerely"


20/05/2009

"Dear Mr Fouracre

Thank you for your recent email with your project to encourage violent crime reduction through education. Your email has been forwarded to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. On this occasion I have been asked to reply.

The Department is always interested in receiving information aimed at improving the educational experience of children. However, the role of this Department is limited to setting the policy framework of the National Curriculum of what is taught in terms of content, attainment targets and how performance is assessed and reported. Therefore, we do not endorse, fund or promote specific resources or activities for use in schools.

We leave such decisions for teachers themselves to make, as we believe they are best placed to recognise the needs and abilities of their pupils. With this in mind, you may wish to contact schools directly with your suggestion, or Local Authorities (LAs). Details of LAs can be found on our website at: www.dcsf.gov.uk/localauthorities.

Once again, thank you for writing.


Yours sincerely"



Yesterday (11/02/10)

"Dear Adam

Thank you for your email dated 2 February about your resource for anti violence/alcohol awareness for use in citizenship.

The Department is always interested in receiving information aimed at improving the educational experience of children, and I can see how your resource could help children with anti violence/alcohol awareness. However, the role of this Department is limited to setting the policy framework of the National Curriculum of what is taught in terms of content, attainment targets and how performance is assessed and reported. Therefore, we do not endorse, fund or promote specific resources or activities for use in schools.

We leave such decisions for teachers themselves to make, as we believe they are best placed to recognise the needs and abilities of their pupils. With this in mind, you may wish to contact schools directly with your suggestion, or Local Authorities (LAs). Details of LAs can be found on our website at:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/_contacts/

Regards"



Something slightly odd about these replies me thinks!? Each one a reply to a different question relating to gaining support for the SAV material. Notice that the language sounds genuine and the 1st paragraph is personalised but then word for word in the following paragraphs its identicle. This is the government for you. Below is the email i sent in response to this final email. Please read it and let me know if you would write the same. I was pretty fed up!

"Hi Samantha,

Ive been in touch with the DCSF before and it seems that other than the initial paragraph, you send standard replies which can come across a little insulting. What i was trying to get at in my last email was that i was trying to contact teachnet as they do talk about available teaching resources. However every time i clicked on the contact page it referred me to your site. I am trying to establish whether you are the same people? If this is the case then teachnet do promote other resources and id like to contact them.

If you are not anything to do with them then can i just add that it is impossible to contact every LA in this country or every school. I am trying to get a bit of help. I dont make money on this so im not asking for advertising to make money. You may not be able to push certain educational material but surely you can suggest or provide resource links? Im supprised that an educational organisation wont help. This is the 3rd time ive had exactly the same reply almost word for word. This material is proving effective and if the home office are serious with their plan to 'reduce crime via education' and all these other government initiatives including those by the DCSF, why wont the department that can make a difference pick up and help with material proven to be effective? I just dont understand it. Can you explain to me what it is the DCSF actually do?

Sorry to be stroppy, i dont intend to be but it is extremly frustrating when the main people that can help me in four years of struggling to get the material used wont and only reply with exactly the same templated email. Id appreciate a reply.

Kind regards
Adam Fouracre"

now i hope that didnt sound too rude but i feel something had to be said. I just wanted to bring this up as its a pain and very annoying and also i would be quite interested to hear how you would react to this and your views on this sort of attitude. Im still waiting on a reply and will post it when it comes. This will probably take them another few weeks to reply to!

Anyway, a long and wingeing entry is complete. As you can tell the last couple of days have taken their toll!

Cheers

Probation Service meeting

On Monday of this week i met with the director of operations at the Devon and Cornwall Probation service. We discussed the possibility of the probation service using the DVD and material in their education programs. It is still in early stages but the outcome of the meeting was that not only do the Devon and Cornwall probation service want to use the material to educate offenders, they also want to use it to train future probation officers. It all sounds positive and i will know more by the beginning of April.

I have also asked my local MP to write another letter, this time to the department of children, schools and families, in an attempt to set up a meeting with one of their ministers. I have emailed the DCSF several times but they have only ever responded once and that was only to say that my email had been forwarded to the relevant department. The most recent email i sent wasnt replied to at all. Thats not unusual for a government body though, ive come up against this in the past although its still very frustrating. However, i have asked my MP to write a letter asking to meet with one of their Ministers. Maybe they will listen to him more than they will me.

Feedback

Hi All,

I wanted to share this recent email with everyone. Our material truely works, even as far away as Shropshire.

'Dear Adam , I have now managed to download the D.V.D and incorporate it into a PSHE lesson on Violence to my Year Tens. It has provoked much thoughtful discussion and the pupils have asked to continue working on the topic next week. I will certainly be using the resource again. Yours gratefully, Year co-coordinator.'

We dont have much luck at getting feedback so its nice to hear this occasionally and its possitive.

Two Meetings

Just a quick report/update on todays meetings.

The first with a local cllr who works for both the local and county council. He phoned me only last night asking to meet for a chat about some possible funding. It was quite a shock. Hes offered us £500 which is amazing. The only problem is i am not a resident in his ward but because the campaign reaches all wards he is going to try and get the council to agree. It will take a couple of weeks but he seems hopeful and will let me know.

The second was with SASH (which i believe is Somerset Association of Secondary Heads) basically headteachers from schools in Somerset. It was very brief but i got a 5 minute slot to speak. I planned it all yesterday, got up there, and forgot it all! I managed to get through it and my old secondary school head was there so he promted me on some important points i forgot. All in all it went well though, a possitive response. Its just a case of wait and see now. That was the people at the top so a good meeting to attend.

Thats the latest!

Todays developments

Hi All,

Today i have sent off the online application form to be a charity. Got some signatures to get from the trustees on another document that i have to send in but the first steps done.
Have briefly prepared something for my opportunity to speak at the SASH meeting. All those secondary school heads, be interesting to see how it goes.
Also, as of 15 mins ago following an unexpected phone call from a local cllr i have another meeting tomorrow about possible funding! So ive got 2 meetings and work in the afternoon! Its going to be a mad day!
I have been emailed a resource from GLEAN to put on the website as a pdf for primary teachers. Thats now under the primary section (Obviously).
Ive ordered some more car stickers and now the Pay Pal account is sorted ill be able to get the wrist bands. Ive transfered the money but it'll take 7-10 days to clear first! God its such a long process.
I think thats it for today.

All in a days work

Following up from the meeting with Drink aware i spoke to their grants manager. To be eligable we need a lesson plan focusing more on the issue of alcohol and also we need to have a board of trustees and preferably a charity status. As ive said befor this is in the pipeline. We need to find a teacher that can develop the new lesson plans!

I have applied for a few grants that i can apply for even though im not yet a charity. Shall see what comes of those.

Have contacted crimestoppers as a discussion last year lead to the possibility of having the material used in workshops they run. Will wait to hear.

Tried the Anne Frank trust today but the chap i needed to speak with was not in. He deals with education and for some reason i thought they had seen the finished film but it turns out they havent. Theres a good avenue to try there so i will certainly be following that up. Also tried the lady at NASWUT but following 3 emails and 4 phone calls i still havent managed to get through to her. Shes either busy or my reputation exceeds me and shes ignoring me??!! Oh well.

Drink Aware

Following Mondays meeting with DrinkAware we are looking in to producing a new alcohol awareness workshop using the film produced by SAV as a focus point. We have also discussed the possibility of a grant but after further investigation it would appear that we have to have already developed a lesson plan focused on alcohol awareness. Also it would help if we were a charity. So i think the first thing to do is focus on becoming a charity and then making some new lesson plans. Im waiting to hear from the lady at drinkaware following her meeting with their chief executive before things proceed.

Update for the week

So the end of another working week! What a manic day. 3 meetings in one day! First day ive had off work so only opportunity! Anyway, updates!


1)SAV is heading to charity status. Financial purposes mainly! One of todays meetings with Tony and Annie was about this move. After much discussion we have decided this is the right course of action. We are struggling to find funding and get the support to develop the campaign in the big ways it needs. Things are progressing fast now and we are needing the money to do it. From travel costs and production costs of material to promotion. Im now in the process of getting together a list of possible trustees. Obviously i have Selina but its been suggested to get about 6 people. Its been decided that i should look at those who have contacts within relevant organisations such as education aswell as those who are strong supporters. We shall see where this takes us. Tony is going to adapt the trust document i drew up last year. We were thinking about it then but i dont think i had the courage to make such a leap. My main concerns were the possibility of losing control but hes going to make adjustments that will mean this wont happen. He will be in touch at the end of this week.


2) A drama teacher contacted me from a local school about possibly doing some work together. Neither of us know exactly what yet but she focuses on anti violence with her students who performed an effective piece of work on the subject this week. It'll be interesting to see where this leads!


3) All the targeted pubs and clubs in Taunton now have posters!


4) A DVD has been sent to Milton Keynes today for a School request from a teacher who works with young people with behavioural problems.


5) New wristbands are designed and ready to be ordered in the next week. We have the funds but no credit or debit card for the charity account. Its problematic when buying things online but im working on it.


6) After sorting out the photos for 'Take a Break' magazine the article/story will be published in March. Exciting. Plus we get some more funding for it. I always wanted to avoid selling a story or getting involved with magazines but as we need funding i think it is worth it. Plus it was suggested by Nicci the local Lib Dem cllr as she started up a campaign through them. She said they were very helpful.


7)There is the possibility of having a slot to give a presentation at a large teaching conference in London in July. An application has been submitted but apparently only 1 in 20 applicants will be accepted so fingers crossed!


8) Following a meeting with the local MP the plan to have a meeting with some ministers at the home office is looking possitive! Hes very interested and wants to arrange it in the next couple of months. Hes sending out the letters next week. I hope to show the DVD, discuss it and then ask for feedback, ways forward, possible support and contacts etc.


So thats a round up of the week. Im bloody knackered. Going to London on Sunday to see a friend before my meeting with Drink Aware on Monday! Tha will be another big one! Loads going on! Exciting.

Update on developments.

So far this week this is what has been happening.
I have been invited to a conference in Plymouth in March. 120 delegates from schools across Plymouth will be attending and i have been given a stand to promote the new material. Promotional items like pens are left over from the launch night back in September 2009 which i will take. I will also take the left over car stickers and the banner stands from the launch night. Kim who is responsible for the car stickers has offered to print more at anytime. I have designed A5 size leaflets to hand out which sum up the new material and advertise the website. These have been submitted to print now. Example below.


The posters have started going up in the local night clubs and i have one more to target. Also a club and pub in another town, Bridgwater, have agreed to put some up.

We have been sent a donation by the Taunton Rotary Club which will help us with printing costs for the flyers. I have gathered some quotes to have 500 silicone wristbands produced advertising the campaign as a lot of people are requesting them. I was a bit torn between advertising the campaign and keeping Lloyds name on them as it is all in his memory. The solution we decided was to have 'In memory of Lloyd' embossed on the inside of the band so he is still there underneath it all. They should look good and i will hopefully order those in the next couple of weeks.

Sara from GLEAN who i met with before xmas has emailed a foundation about the possibility of a grant and we are waiting to hear back. I cant remember if i posted after that meeting but there is the possibility of funding and the probation service getting involved. Also they plan to incorporate the DVD and material into future teacher training programs so every teacher will be aware of it. Im waiting to hear from the probation service.

We were contacted by a college in Cornwall requesting 10 copies of the DVD. After a phone call with them they will be using the material via the website. Its difficult to supply all requested DVD's as we have a limited supply. Most places/schools project the computer screen onto whiteboards so im encouraging them to stream the film that way.

We have official quotes from CBS outdoor regarding bus advertising and are looking in to funding.

I think thats up to date at the moment. I must re read the previous posts encase im missing bits.