Learning from History, the Big Society, and Youth and Community Work

Learning from History

The Child Care History Network’s 2011 Annual Conference is being organised jointly with SIRCC (now called the New Centre) and it will be held in Scotland this year to underline the fact that CCHN is a UK-wide organisation. The venue is Jury’s Hotel, which is sited in central Glasgow, not far from the Central Station.

The seminar theme reflects CCHN’s twin aims – to study the past and to apply what we learn to practice – and its title is Learning from History.

The programme really is packed, with a total of sixteen speakers in the course of one day, Monday 7 November. This has been achieved by having parallel sessions of limited duration, in the hope that the speakers can pack a punch by concentrating on their key points. If they have fuller information they wish to share, it will be made available electronically.

As far as we know, this is the first international conference on child care history, and there are speakers from the United States, Australia, Belgium, Norway, Northern Ireland and England, as well as really good representation from the host country. It will be interesting to learn how services have developed in other countries – whether there are contrasts or parallels.

In addition to the day seminar there will be visits the following day, Tuesday 8 November, to two of Scotland’s main child care agencies – the Kibble and Quarrier’s – where it is hoped to learn how their services have developed, to see some of their archives, and to find out about their current services too.

For an application form, click here.

Children, Churches and the Big Society Forum

The day Forum, organised by a partnership of fifteen Christian organisations with an interest in child care, will be held on Wednesday 2 November at the Regent Hall in Oxford Street.

The Forum was triggered by the Christian Child Care Forum, who raised the question: what churches and individual Christians be doing for children and young people in the 21st century? Other questions followed. What roles should children and young people be playing on the community today? What is the Big Society? Is it more than a cover for cuts, and if not, does it offer positive opportunities?

The day will have three key plenary speakers and a dozen workshops on all sorts of work with children. To make sure that the Forum is for the Big Society, and not just for top brass, it has been priced at £30.

This subject is bigger than a one-day event. Regardless of political fashion and the current pressures on the economy, the question of the ways in which the Church (and churches in their own localities) should be serving the needs of children and young people in the wider community in the twenty-first century needs to be addressed. People need to be thinking about this now, and continuing to think – and to act – well after the day Forum.

For an application form, click here.

Youth and Community Work

Those in the know will be aware that staff from Durham University have organised this conference biennially for some time, and it has built up a strong reputation. This year the conference had to be deferred, as Ushaw College (where it was usually held) was closed suddenly.

It will now be held at the Northern College, Wentworth Castle, near Barnsley, from 14 – 16 October 2011. This conference usually has a full programme and last time there were about thirty workshops. It is a mixture of history and current practice, mainly (but not entirely) centred on youth and community work. For more details ring Tracey Hodgson or Tony Jeffs on 0191 378 1424, or email [email protected].

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