An
Overview of
the FICE Young People’s Conference
Irene
Stevens
Introduction
Conferences
like this allow us to get together, to share information, experiences
and more importantly, it gives us an excellent opportunity to
make friends. Throughout the last three days I’ve laughed,
danced, played sport and most importantly learnt so much about
different cultures and nationalities. Not all of us speak the
same language and yet we have managed to communicate and laugh
together.
(Extract from the speech made by a delegate at the FICE Young
Persons’ Conference at the end of the FICE International
Congress)
During
the FICE International Congress in Glasgow in September 2004,
a parallel event ran at the same time in Largs, Scotland. This
event was called Creating a Place
for Us and it was a three-day conference which
brought together a group of young people who were experiencing
out-of-home care. It is safe to say that this conference was a
life-affirming event for all who took part, including the adults.
This paper will attempt to give a flavour of those few precious
days and will hopefully emphasise the importance of hearing the
voice of the children and young people who should be at the core
of our work.
Planning
an International Conference for Young People
The
idea of having a Young Persons’ Conference was first suggested
in the early stages of planning the FICE International Congress.
The planning group was fortunate to have a representative from
Who Cares? Scotland in attendance. Who Cares? Scotland is the
national advocacy group for young people in residential care.
Young people are central to their work, both in spirit and in
fact. They are experts at running consultation events and residential
conferences involving young people in care. As such they were
happy to take the lead in turning the idea into reality.
A
separate planning group was convened, consisting of representatives
from Who Cares? Scotland, Save the Children, and staff from the
Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care based at the University
of Strathclyde and the Robert Gordon University. The planning
group was set up 18 months before the event and every moment of
this time was needed to organise the event. Meetings took place
once a month up until the last month, when meetings took place
on a weekly basis.
The
initial planning was around ideas for the content and themes.
Later planning was taken up with much more practical issues such
as materials for facilitators, arrangements to meet young people
and their supporting adults, and ensuring that supplies of emergency
toiletries were available. Anyone planning such an event should
never underestimate the amount of time needed to ensure its success.
Each young person had to have a supporting adult with them, who
acted as their personal support and also as their interpreter.
The
planning group also made sure that child protection issues remained
at the forefront of any activities and discussion. They drew up
a child protection briefing for all participants. This was given
out to participants and re-iterated with the whole conference
on the morning of the first day. Protocols were agreed with the
local social services department in the event of a child protection
issue.
The
planning group became the management group while attending the
actual conference. Four of this group became designated as child
protection staff, so that participants knew that they had someone
they could go to if a child protection issue came up. Finally,
the management group at the Conference worked a shift system,
where two of the group were on duty throughout the nights of the
conference, and patrolled the venue to ensure the safety of the
young people involved.
The
Programme
From
Heaven to Hell my thoughts prevail.
From the age of three everything went down the drain.
My parents hated each other
and I was brought to a children’s home.
There I was alone.
(Extract from rap song performed at the adult Congress by one
of the delegates to the Young Persons’ Conference)
From
the very early stages, the planning group had wanted the young
people to have a positive experience but also to produce something
that would be a tangible expression of their views and desires.
An additional challenge was presented due to the diversity of
cultures and languages of the young participants. Who Cares? Scotland
had a great deal of experience in finding novel ways for young
people to present their views. They suggested that the Conference
should have a series of activity-based workshops. The workshops
used drama, graffiti art, rap music, newsletter and video. Each
of the workshops would have, as its aim, to produce a piece of
work representing the views of young people, which would be presented
as part of the last session of the adult Congress. The workshops
would give the young people the opportunity to get to know each
other in smaller groups.
Although
the workshops provided the focus of the Conference, a range of
other activities were organized to ensure that young people had
an enjoyable experience. Each night, there were opportunities
to take part in leisure and sports activities, a trip to Loch
Lomond was arranged for everyone, and a disco was arranged for
the last night.
Subsequent
evaluations of the programme by the young people showed that they
enjoyed all of the activities, the venue and, most importantly,
the opportunity to get to know other young people from different
countries and to make friends. The workshops would not have been
so successful if the planning group had not identified such talented
and committed facilitators for the workshops. The facilitators
worked tirelessly with the young people, developing their ideas
and encouraging them to express themselves in every way.
Before
the Conference
The
best place for a child is a place of love and care….
Children always long to know their roots and where they come from…
The best place for children is a place where there is no abuse…
(Comments from the Voices of Youth website made by children and
young people in Nigeria)
Young
people are tired of just talking, we want to take action and we
can make our voice heard and determine a change.
(Comment from a young person from Romania on the Voices of Youth
website)
In a way, the Conference started before 8 September. This was
because UNICEF hosted a webchat for four weeks before the start
of the Conference. The webchat was held on the
Voices of Youth page on the UNICEF website, and
encouraged young people who would be unable to attend the Conference
to voice their opinions. These views were then put onto card and
posted around the Conference venue. Many of the views informed
the work of the young people who attended the Conference. So in
many ways, a wider community of young people took part in the
Conference and they were certainly there in spirit, if not in
body.
The
Conference
The
Conference was attended by representatives from all over the world:
Albania, Bosnia, Burundi, China, England, Eritrea, Finland, Germany,
Holland, Ireland, Israel, Macedonia, Romania, Scotland, Serbia,
Sierra Leone, United States of America and Wales…In total,
18 countries took part. Some only travelled for 45 minutes, while
others took hours, even days, to turn up and represent their country
(Extract from the introduction to the newsletter, written by delegates
to the Young Persons’ Conference)
Young
people started arriving on Monday 6 September, even though the
Conference did not officially begin until the morning of Wednesday
8 September. Most of the young people had arrived for the start
of the Conference, which began with an interactive drumming session.
This was chosen as an activity because it did not depend on language,
it did not involve any pressure on the young people and, most
importantly, it was fun! The weather was glorious (a rare event
in Scotland!) and as the conference progressed, more and more
of the work and the activities took place outside in the gardens
of the Sportscotland Centre, which hosted the event.
Young
people were allocated to workshops depending on their choices
and started to work in the first afternoon, drafting up the ideas
for their presentation and thinking about how they could help
the adults at the Congress to understand the experiences of young
people in care. Almost immediately, friendships started to develop,
in spite of language barriers. Young people started learning words
and phrases of other languages, and began to make their own suggestions
for some of the activities.
The
Drama Workshop
Boys,
boys, boys…you don’t have to fight to sort out your
differences…Now let’s see if we can do this in a better
way.
(Line spoken by one of the delegates who took part in the drama
performance)
The
young people who took part in the drama workshop were assisted
by a drama facilitator and an art facilitator. The drama facilitator
worked with the young people to formulate their ideas about what
they wanted to present, while the art facilitator helped them
to come up with ideas for the backdrop to the drama sketches.
Many
of the young people had never taken part in a drama workshop before,
so the facilitator spent much of the first day helping the young
people to relax and become aware of what they could do with their
voice and body. Seeing the whole group perform their exercises
in the gardens was a joy to all the observers, and helped the
young people to build their confidence. Some of the young people
felt confident enough to take centre stage in the drama sketches,
while others were content to interpret the ideas and paint the
backdrops for the performance.
In
the end, the group came up with a sketch based on the idea that
people can transcend their differences and do not have to fight
to resolve their problems. This idea was clearly influenced by
the horrific experiences of some young people who had been sent
away from their country because of war, and had arrived as unaccompanied
asylum-seeking children in a strange country. The backdrops were
stark images of dark buildings, but also a peace sign, which was
held up at the end of the performance. It was a truly inspiring
message of hope and optimism.
The
Video Workshop
That
was stunning…all of those ideas in a short piece of film…amazing!
(Comment from one of the planning group after viewing the video
film made by the delegates)
The
video workshop was facilitated by two very talented and committed
people who worked tirelessly with their group in trying to transfer
the complex experiences of the young people into a short video
film. Evidence of this came on the second day, when one of the
facilitators tried to work on in spite of having sustained an
injury received the previous evening. The injury turned out to
be a broken wrist !
The
young people had many difference experiences. In the end, the
video consisted of a number of short sketches, conveying striking
images of isolation followed by hope. One of the most unforgettable
images was of the young people with the same hats passing a ball
to each other. Other young people from different backgrounds,
signified by different hats, tried to join the game and were initially
excluded. Then eventually, they were allowed to join the game.
It is difficult to explain the impact of this simple sketch in
writing. It conveyed within 30 seconds something which would have
taken much longer to say , with nowhere near the eloquence of
the visual message.
One
of the most uplifting images was of a young woman from China,
who had suffered burns as a child. She was very shy at the beginning
of the conference, but once she was part of the video group, she
emerged from her shell and was pleased to appear in several of
the video sketches. Her tenacity was inspirational and the whole
conference took her to their hearts.
The
Graffiti Art Workshop
Don’t
forget. It’s our lives!
(The words which formed the centrepiece of the graffiti art tableau)
The
young people working in the graffiti art group spent the first
session discussing their ideas with a very talented and experienced
graffiti artist. They spent their next session completing the
preparatory work for the tableau, which was 32 feet long by 4
feet high. Due to the beautiful weather, the group were able to
work outside for the three days. The gradually developing tableau
became a focal point for meetings at break times, as young people
and adults alike came to watch its development. The stunning blues,
greens, purples and yellows were breathtaking in their vibrancy.
Around
the central message of Don’t forget. It’s our lives!
, the young people started to write words of meaning and significance
for them. Words like love, equality, individuality and safety
were added. The completed tableau was signed by the young people
and it formed the frontpiece to the stage when the young people
presented their work to the final session of the adult Congress.
The
Rap Workshop
Cheer
up!
And look behind you… there are beautiful people and things
around you.
The sun is shining, people are smiling.
All your life you thought you were alone.
Nobody cares, you’re right and they’re wrong!
But today my friend…I’m asking you to open your mind,
open your heart…
…and let the people get inside.
(Extract from rap song, written and performed by delegates at
the final session of the adult Congress)
The
young people in the rap workshop immediately struck up strong
friendships and were brimming over with ideas. The challenge for
the rap music facilitator was in trying to help the young people
to distil the ideas into a thematic rap performance.
An
additional challenge was presented because the young rappers wrote
and performed in their own languages, ranging from Hebrew to German.
The messages in the rap songs were powerful, dealing with loss
of home and parents, war and genocide, drug misuse and isolation.
However, among these messages were strong themes of optimism and
hope for the future, as illustrated by the short extract above.
It was important that these messages were not lost on the audience,
so it was decided that although the young rappers would perform
in their own language, translations would be shown on a screen
behind them so that everyone in the audience could understand.
The
Newsletter Workshop
Based
on our experiences we are in the best position to say what still
needs to be done for children and young people in out of home
care all around the world. We need people and governments to care,
to treat us equally and support us both economically and emotionally.
We have the right to be heard and to be listened to, we need our
opinions to be appreciated and have our privacy respected. There
is still much that has to be done regarding our education facilities
and health care. We also need to be provided with a home, love,
care and support, we need to be taught how to live independently,
thus preparing us to be adults in a world where we can cook for
ourselves, manage our finances and take care of ourselves so that
one day we can have a home of our own to look after and also make
a positive difference in the world.
(Extract from the FICE Young People’s Conference newsletter)
The
facilitator for the newsletter workshop had perhaps one of the
biggest challenges faced by any of the workshop facilitators.
This was because it was clear that not every young person would
get their first choice of workshop. As a result, the newsletter
group were mostly young people who had not been allocated to the
workshop in which they were most interested. However, thanks to
the experience of the facilitator and the commitment of the young
people in the group, it turned out that the newsletter was a great
success.
The
group worked hard gathering information about each other and compiling
their ideas for layout. They had to decide which were the most
important messages, as they had the additional challenge of producing
a four-page newsletter for distribution to the adult Congress
within three days. They had also set themselves the task of gathering
information for a follow-up insert to the newsletter, which would
be sent to participants after the Congress was over.
The
newsletter outlined the difficulties they had faced as young people
in out-of-home care, and their wishes for the future. They were
without a doubt one of the hardest working groups at the Conference
and left a lasting legacy which every participant, both adult
and young person, could take away with them as a reminder of the
event.
After
the Conference
Before,
during and immediately after the presentation to the adult Congress,
many of the young people had to leave to return to their homes
or countries of origin. This leaving was very painful for many
of the young people and the adults. New friendships had been made,
participants had had a wonderful experience and everyone was unsure
about whether they would see some of the participants again. Although
this was expected before the Conference started, the impact of
the feelings took everyone by surprise.
Subsequently,
the planning group met to discuss how the Conference had gone.
There were some key messages that future conference planners could
take into account.
