Today was a great day. There are many things that happend today.
One was a craft fair/coffee shop type thing at church to raise money for the trip to Africa. If you missed it, you certainly missed out (the local radio even popped along). The young people did amazingly. They worked unbelievably hard, and made some money! We are still counting the miles though! (I'm on 270 by the way, only 10 miles behind target)
The other thing was Acceptance. A Girls Only conference run as a town wide event. A very big success. It's very hard to get an event like this up, so hopefully it won't be the last. I was asked to speak and it was such a privilege. Very exciting things going on in Luton once again.
Lots happening tomorrow too, but I'll blog about that later!
Showing posts with label girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label girls. Show all posts
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, May 16, 2008
Where Have All The Good Girls Gone?
20.1% of crime in England and Wales is committed by girls aged 10-17. That's 59,000 crimes during 2006-07.
An interesting set of figures, but as always there are lots of factors that the Youth Justice Board have to take into account when measuring these stats against the previous year/s.
The biggest question is, are girls becoming more violent? Or is crime just reported in such a way the girls are coming out worse off? Or have Child Protection Laws gone so AWOL that we (youth workers, PCSO's, teachers and the like) are no longer allowed to discipline without being arrested themselves? Has gender equality caused girls to think that being violent is an easy solution?
Are there also issues of mis-diagnosed ADD and ADHD? I strongly believe that we too quickly place a label on our children, and do not help the parents to cope.
Apparently the Youth Justice Board are on it, targeting 'high-risk girls'. But what about supporting single parents, or early intervention at school? I don't think that targeting is key, I think that we too often target individuals, when group and gang mentality is clearly a lot stronger in this country.
We also called 999 for no apparent reason, are scared of gangs of kids hanging out together, with no rational reason.
20.1% is too much... prevention programmes aren't reaching enough, but they are doing a brilliant job with those who they are reaching. There are lots of factors pertaining to the rise in crime in girls, but it is rising...
An interesting set of figures, but as always there are lots of factors that the Youth Justice Board have to take into account when measuring these stats against the previous year/s.
The biggest question is, are girls becoming more violent? Or is crime just reported in such a way the girls are coming out worse off? Or have Child Protection Laws gone so AWOL that we (youth workers, PCSO's, teachers and the like) are no longer allowed to discipline without being arrested themselves? Has gender equality caused girls to think that being violent is an easy solution?
Are there also issues of mis-diagnosed ADD and ADHD? I strongly believe that we too quickly place a label on our children, and do not help the parents to cope.
Apparently the Youth Justice Board are on it, targeting 'high-risk girls'. But what about supporting single parents, or early intervention at school? I don't think that targeting is key, I think that we too often target individuals, when group and gang mentality is clearly a lot stronger in this country.
We also called 999 for no apparent reason, are scared of gangs of kids hanging out together, with no rational reason.
20.1% is too much... prevention programmes aren't reaching enough, but they are doing a brilliant job with those who they are reaching. There are lots of factors pertaining to the rise in crime in girls, but it is rising...
Friday, April 25, 2008
Weekend Away
I'm about to go away for the weekend with St Mary's. Another family weekend and I'm very very excited about it. It's really lovely to be asked to go.
I'm leading the youthwork and getting to hang out with some good friends, what more could you want from a weekend away! The amazing thing is I'm all prepared and ready to go, I just have to go to School first.
This week has been an interesting one, quite busy. I went to Brownies for the first time ever on Wednesday - only to be asked if I had a husband (girls are so nosy!). Thursday night was chatting to some older girlies about boys. It's been a bit of a week for some home truths.
Hopefully there will be a new bed for me when I get back, but God only knows when I'll have the time to slightly rearrange my room so the bed fits.
I'll post pictures when I get back.
I'm leading the youthwork and getting to hang out with some good friends, what more could you want from a weekend away! The amazing thing is I'm all prepared and ready to go, I just have to go to School first.
This week has been an interesting one, quite busy. I went to Brownies for the first time ever on Wednesday - only to be asked if I had a husband (girls are so nosy!). Thursday night was chatting to some older girlies about boys. It's been a bit of a week for some home truths.
Hopefully there will be a new bed for me when I get back, but God only knows when I'll have the time to slightly rearrange my room so the bed fits.
I'll post pictures when I get back.
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