Cool Kids Club

Final CFM Newsletter (March 2008) now available - see News Page

Children’s Fund Medway

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This is the innovative Children’s Fund Medway children and young people’s consultative forum, which started in March 2005 and currently consists of 20 members (all classified as vulnerable)representing a variety of CFM projects and other agencies. Their ages range from 8 – 15. The aim of the club is to develop a core group of children from a range of community projects, who may not otherwise get the opportunity to be part of a committee or forum or are unlikely to get involved in some of the traditional and more recognised forms of involvement. The CKC gives them the opportunity to voice their opinion and pass on what they have to say about the development of children’s services in Medway or some of their experiences or recommendations.

CKC is hopeful it will receive the funding to continue and expand under the management of Kent Children's Fund Network, a Kent-wide charity whose focus is participation, play and capacity building.

Their meeting days – 6 per year currently – are very full, with fixed agendas to make sure that they discuss regular features including:

agreeing the notes of their previous meeting
a teambuilding session
consultations or workshops with at least one new task each time
training, to help them improve their skills and experience

The group also tell us about the information they have passed to children in their projects and their responses. Knowing what children need and want will enable children’s services in Medway to be improved.

(1.2MB)

The children have developed a number of key documents so far:

Terms of Reference(439KB)
Schedule and timing of meetings
Agenda
Reward policy – CKC Gold Star System
Feedback structure and tools
Glossary of terms
Participation workplan

Achievements:

Effective and inclusive peer consultation on numerous issues and strategies (see below)
Effected change in practice by partner agencies in the involvement of children in all stages of the 'safeguarding' competition
Individual capacity increased following training and involvement in specific issues
Designed and delivered workshop on 'respect'
Two CKC members were successfully appointed to the CFM participation sub group - one as Chair
Representation on Medway Youth Parliament
Planned representation on the Connexions youth focus group which will inform future sub committees and delivery of Connexions service post 2008
Recruitment Training - members also went on to participate in interviewing a new outreach youth worker and another session is planned with Geoff Waters in the near future
Representation of one member on the Young Evaluators Team (now part of Medway Youth Services) peer research resource for Medway, who are planning to be involved in quality assurance evaluation of children’s projects and services in Medway
Mentor training (jointly with the VSU) - another session planned later this year
Communication and Listening Skills training

Projects the group have worked on so far:

Vision on Participation - to be included in the Medway Participation Strategy/Toolkit
Title & Foreword for the Participation Strategy/Toolkit (having informed the content)
Consultation/peer research on annual review/update of Medway's local travel plan (159KB)
Consultation/peer research on Feeling Safe for Medway, Children and Young People's Plan
Consultation and feedback on Medway's anti-bullying strategy(32KB)
Open spaces and evaluations of Medway events
The Voice - website launch and design and feedback
Medway Safeguarding Children Board - designed the 'safeguarding' logo competition being held in schools, including editorial panel for flyer design, initial sift for judging and final judging
Kent Wildlife Trust - consultation(60KB) on content/make up for new Medway based young people's conservation project
Consultation on CFM newsletter title
CKC elections including drafting of job descriptions and person specifications

from people who commissioned work from CKCor observed the Club in action (13KB)

Future work will include:

Peer research training to commence August 2007
Taster session for members at Medway Youth Parliament in September 2007
Review in February 2008 with transport division, following introduction of subsidised travel for school children in September

We are extremely grateful for the additional help of Millennium Volunteers (Martine and Claire) and Medway Youth Parliament members (Rosie and Sam) who are supporting the days through peer mentoring, assisting with the design of the programme and developing some of the structure with the children, assisting them with arriving at decisions.

Evaluation

A key element to the Cool Kids Club is the constructive evaluation that goes on throughout the day. This helps us make sure that every programme is designed, developed and delivered at a level and in the way that the children have identified as being one that suits them and that they are able to respond to. In addition they have been involved in the evaluation of the facilities provided by the venues used for their meetings and they carry out a review of their working practices and objectives each year in the summer holidays. Each session is attended by observers from agencies delivering children's services in Medway.

An impact evaluation of the CKC was undertaken in Summer 2007.

Job Descriptions for roles within CKC:

Mentor(96KB)

Trainee Mentor(99KB)

Evaluator(93KB)

Medway Youth Parliament Representative(105KB)

Participation Sub Group Representative(115KB)

Minutes of recent meetings:

February 2008 (newsletter)

December 2007 (newsletter)

October 2007 (newsletter)(4.8MB)

August 2007 (newsletter)(3.4MB)