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Nicole Inspires

nicoleburke When Nicole Burke addressed the Blackpool business community at the Pleasure Beach at the end of the Knowsley and Blackpool ambassadors event, her audience was gripped. Nicole talked about what myplace meant for the young people of Blackpool, and people immediately wanted to get involved. Nicole made it sound like fun. People started to think of offering help in ways they hadn't thought of before. Good communication sparks creativity in all of us.

If you need a dose of inspiration, there's nothing like going to an event to witness one of the young people speaking about their myplace project. They tell it like it is, in their own voice, and from the heart.

And then it's back to the office to deal with reality. All those things that need to be sorted. Keeping all the stakeholders in the (ever-widening) loop. Composing invitations to the event that you're organising. Doing the programme for a workshop about how to get PR for your project. Offering advice about how to develop a sustainable business plan.

Being in the myplace team can feel like a thrilling yet daunting mission. We have given young people permission to have big dreams. We owe it to them to keep talking about it - and writing about it - in a big dream way.

We also need to give ourselves permission. Permission to put something of ourselves into every piece of myplace correspondence. Permission to speak - or write - in our own voice. Permission to have fun and to celebrate the irreverent, world-class spirit of this amazing project!

Everyday correspondence can be a chore. Yet why not make your myplace emails a joy to write - and to open?

Why not allow your fingers to do a soft shoe shuffle over the keyboard every time you get in touch about myplace, as you bust the boundaries with words?

Words that bounce around a little, words that make people smile, words that make people want to get involved.......

So here are a few tips for when you put pen to paper. Or hands on keyboard.

Informal is fine.
Relaxed is fine and dandy.
Write as if you're speaking to a friend.
Smile while you're writing.
Stand up if you're talking on the phone. You will breathe more easily and you will put more energy into your voice. The other person will feel energised too. Do a world-class jig while you're speaking (optional). Or world-class stretching exercises.
Think about your most inspiring myplace moment before you start writing.
As an experiment, write in the way you would have written when you were a 13-19-year-old.
Find a photo of yourself when you were 13-19 years old. Stick it above your desk.
Remember the worst youth club you ever went to. Then make sure your email is world-class.
Have fun. Growing up and getting jobs in offices made us all serious. myplace is a project that celebrates youth, hope, aspirations, potential, fulfilment, dreams. Have more fun. It's an order!
If you ever think of writing something and then think 'Oh no, that's too flippant, ridiculous, that will make someone think I'm not serious or having a laugh' - do it. Take off your formal correspondence jacket and slip into something a little more frivolous. Even PowerPoint doesn't have to be po-faced.
Be bold! Write something daring. If you think 'I can't go there', then go there! That's where the energy is. Your reader will thank you for it. And they'll feel inspired and light and young again and in turn they'll think 'What the hell, I'm just going to say it like I want to say it', and then they'll pass it on.

And finally:

Listen

At so many of the myplace events and at the individual centres where people are working to secure funding; honing their business plan, or making a presentation to the local business people, there will be lots of interesting stories from individuals. It could be the story of how someone became a youth worker. It could be the story of a young person who found their own voice when they were consulted about the myplace project, something that gave them the confidence to join the steering the committee and go on to present their plans and ideas to an audience of three hundred at the Bristol Fire Station. Keep your antennae quivering to pick up individual, quirky and moving stories - they literally are everywhere.

Tell your own story

If you've heard one of our ambassadors, Sir Steve Redgrave, talking about myplace, he starts by telling his own story - how his mum used to run the local youth club. This immediately engages his audience as he goes on to explain that by the time he was old enough to use the youth club properly, he had found his own place: rowing and the river.

Whether it's a memory about the worst youth club you ever went to, or that it's your secret dream to perform at Wembley, telling someone about it is probably the best way to inspire others to share their own dreams and tell their own story.

'Stories can change lives.'

Ali Smith, novelist

Nicole Inspires Inspirational (209.55 kB 2010-07-22 15:17:31)

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Case Studies

Southpoint- Blackpool
Using social enterprise to make a project sustainable

Background

Blackpool is in the throes of regeneration. Major physical changes are taking place throughout the town. An example of these changes is the headlands development on the seafront, recently highlighted as the celebration point for the homecoming of the successful football team. Thousands of people gathered to celebrate the promotion to the premiership. The combination of the people and the backdrop made for such a memorable event.

Wallasey Youth Hub - Wirral
Locating a youth hub in a fire station

Wirral Hub

When the young people of Wirral heard they were going to get a new and exciting youth hub they could hardly have guessed just how innovative it would be. Wirral certainly has a contender for most unusual place to build a youth hub - it was launched in a fire station!

Councillor Sheila Clarke, Wirral's Cabinet Member for Children's Services and Lifelong Learning said: "This really is a breakthrough for all residents in the area. No more bored teenagers hanging around corners with nothing to do. The hubs have been designed with a high degree of input from young people themselves who have worked with enthusiasm and passion to help establish these new facilities."

Toxteth Youth and Sports Centre - Liverpool
Engaging young people from different backgrounds

Toxteth Youth

In the aftermath of the 1981 race riots in Liverpool, Toxteth Centre was built as part of an effort to increase services for the city's racial minority residents. In this it was successful, but the centre now wants to develop and expand to become predominantly a youth facility and bring people of all races together at a refurbished and expanded facility. They envision a centre where young people of all backgrounds and from all over the city have fun and get support together. In March 2009 it was awarded ?2.3 million of myplace funding to achieve this goal. With the funding, Toxteth Youth and Sports Centre has embarked on an ambitious plan to expand and improve its facilities, activities and outreach to bring together young people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds.

Culture Fusion - Bradford
Partnership and co-locations of service

Culture Fusion

One of the challenges many communities face is overcoming deeply entrenched territorial and racial divides. At the aptly named Culture Fusion, in Bradford, young people are leading the charge in overcoming this challenge in their community. Jenny Bass, Bradford Council Youth Participation Worker, points out that there are lots of young people that are proud of the area's diversity and who want to celebrate it rather than perpetuate the tensions and divides that exist. So what does it take to create a myplace centre that provides a place for these young people to tackle these challenges, get the services they need, and of course, have fun? Read more...

United Teens Equality Centre (UTEC) - Lowell, Massachusetts
Innovative funding ideas

These days, teenagers often feel their potential is ignored by judgemental communities, but across the Atlantic, the residents of Lowell, in Massachusetts, have been celebrating the achievements of its young people and their involvement in the United Teen Equality Centre.

UTEC website

UTEC has an active youth membership of about 1000, nine full-time paid staff, and runs 18 different classes and programmes every week, and will soon be expanding their facilities and making them fully accessible and energy efficient.

Director of Development Jessica Wilson said: "It's the place you go if you want to talk to teens."

myplace Chesterfield - Derbyshire
Involving young people with a disability

Myplace Chesterfield

Involving young people in the planning of myplace centres can mean a lot of different things, but at myplace Chesterfield, it means making sure young people who are often left out of the process are included.Making Chesterfield myplace somewhere that young people with disabilities can hang out and get support alongside other young people has been a key part of their design plans.It seems obvious in theory, but when it comes to practical considerations, what makes a youth centre friendly to a mix of disabled and non-disabled young people?

Westfield Folk House - Mansfield, Notts
Partnership and co-locations of service

Objectives

A scheme to transform Westfield Folk House Young People's Centre in Mansfield has won a £5 million myplace grant. This case study shows how the project developed from a logical and well structured plan to boost youth provision following years of under-investment. Successfully involving young people in planning and decision making has played a major role in this.

Bolton Lads & Girls Club -Lancashire

A renowned youth social club it was set up in 1889 to provide a safe place for young lads, particularly those working in the mills, to enjoy leisure activities. boltonbuilding

Over the next century the club grew and grew and began letting girls in from 1991. After further development it was decided that the original 19^th century building could be stretched no more and needed updating.

Hornsey Road Baths - Islington
Creating a compelling case for change

Hornsey Road Baths This case study highlights the work done by Islington Council in securing local buy-in and agreement to a forward strategy for youth facilities. This allowed them to engage over 3500 stakeholders and create a compelling case for change that resulted in an overarching strategy for young people aged 11-19.

Boclair Academy - BearsdenGlasgow
Involving young people through film

Boclair Academy is a secondary school in Bearsden; a small commuting town three miles north of Glasgow. In 2005 the school got funding from the Scottish Arts Council through a bid by the local authority (East Dunbartonshire Council) to develop a purpose-built digital film studio on the school campus.

Inspirationals

myplace Chesterfield

Heather Fawbert didn't have to go far to find the perfect spot for myplace Chesterfield. She discovered the site - an expanse of open space: tennis courts and overgrown, disused allotments that hadn't been dug for over fifteen years - on her way to work.

myplace Mansfield

On his first visit to Westfield Folk House, the Grade II listed building which is currently being transformed into a myplace for Mansfield, architect Rudi Marecki spotted some graffiti.

vine_lane_newcastle_1

myplace Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The thing about myplace, and all new buildings in fact, is that the really good ones tend not to spring up overnight. World-class buildings need time. You just have to be patient.

myplace_havering_1

myplace Havering

"It's like that music venue in Australia," says Charlotte, as she pours over a book on architecture, with page after page of beautifully photographed buildings. It turns out that she's referring to the Sydney Opera House.

nicoleburke When Nicole Burke addressed the Blackpool business community at the Pleasure Beach at the end of the Knowsley and Blackpool ambassadors event, her audience was gripped. Nicole talked about what myplace meant for the young people of Blackpool, and people immediately wanted to get involved. Nicole made it sound like fun. People started to think of offering help in ways they hadn't thought of before. Good communication sparks creativity in all of us.

jenna_ambassadors

myplace Knowsley
"Bring a buddy for a bacon butty"

It's not your run-of-the-mill recruitment ad, is it? But then, working with the Ourplace Forum in Knowsley isn't your run-of-the-mill kind of job.

myplace Leicester
Miracles do still happen

There's a newspaper cutting stuck on the wall outside one of the dressing rooms in the Leicester Haymarket Theatre. Written by Sheridan Morley in August 2004, and published in the Daily Express, it talks about the Haymarket's performance starring Ronni Ancona. "Singin' In The Rain that reigns supreme," is how the glowing review begins. It was just one of many glowing reviews for the myriad musicals staged in this theatre.

carlisle_youth_zone1 As part of my role as a young consultant I visit myplace projects to see how they are involving young people. There have been a number that have stood out and impressed me for a variety of different reasons, however one in particular that I found stood out was the myplace project in Carlisle. This project has involved young people from the beginning, sending them to leading youth centres in and around London to find out what they want in their centre and involving them in the design process.

myplace Hartlepool
Hartlepool's Got Talent

Hartlepool's got talent. Loads of it. So much talent in fact, that the town recently held not one talent contest, but two: Hartlepool's Got Talent and Hartlepool Has Talent.

Beth Marshall, a key young person in the myplace team, who has a big talent for guitar playing, singing, and doing cover versions of Jack Johnson and The Beatles, lights up when she talks about the excitement behind the scenes at Hartlepool Has Talent.

myplace Bristol
No Height Restrictions

"Do you have to be a certain age?" The question comes from the audience, from a six-year-old boy called Adam. We're in a dramatically lit, makeshift auditorium in Bristol's former Bridewell Fire Station, in the heart of the city. It's not a question that anyone else has thought of. But Adam has a point. It's a good question to ask. Because at the moment, he's too young for myplace. When he gets his answer, "13-19", he realises that he will have to wait a few years - seven, to be precise.