Workshops, guest speakers at returning youth conference
THE Youth Work Conference returned to Guernsey on Saturday with workshops and resources for volunteers and staff of organisations associated with the Youth Commission of Guernsey and Alderney membership scheme.
Charlie Cox, chief executive of the commission, said the event was an opportunity to provide training and education to volunteers and staff working with youth in the community.
‘We bring knowledge in from the UK, we celebrate the great work that does happen in our community, and it’s an opportunity to bring everyone together to help us build community networks,’ she said.
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, president of Education, Sport & Culture, made the opening remarks at the conference.
‘Education is central to making sure youth grow and become valuable members of the community and workforce,’ she said.
‘We want to ensure youth feel a sense of belonging, whether that be at school, at home, with their friends, sports clubs or elsewhere.
‘This conference aims to give the people working with youth the skills to help them become the successful adults we want them to be.’
The Youth Commission brought multiple speakers from the UK to Guernsey, including Paul Hanmore, from the The Diana Award Anti-Bullying Programme.
‘Our workshop is about exploring bullying behaviours and actually defining what that is,’ he said.
‘We want to make clear what the behaviour is and go through the social actions adults and leaders can take. I’ll be talking to people about what we can do as adults, and about ways we can empower youth to combat bullying themselves.’
Darren Bird, from ACT2gether, led a workshop to help equip adults with ideas and activities for promoting shared decision-making with young people.
He said his goal was to help foster relationships between adults and youth to permit them to work together as a competent partnership for the improvement of communities.
