One day, One time, One place 54321! What now?

This Saturday marked the beginnings of the 2008 What Now extravaganza, based at the Plungington Youth and Community Centre in Preston. The day itself was a two parter:

First of all there was the hard part, with workshops that were organised for us to help create What Now services for young people in Lancashire. Activities we participated in were: Web Design, Photography, Graphic Design and Creative Writing, each with the purpose of improving the What Now information service.

Then came the fun part!! With the choice of DJing, Graffiti art, Music Writing and a Dance workshop, you were absolutely spoilt for choice, you’d done the hard work now was the time for the hard play. For all the work we had done, What Now had arranged for these to come in for us as a reward.

The best bits of the day were without a doubt:
Dinnertime – With good food and a great desert this was definitely one of the high points of the day
Photography – Learning how to take a good photo is much harder then it sounds but with a great mentor it was made easy to make a shot composition.

Blog Design – The main focus of this workshop was to design the What Now Blog, with a little help from Daz we redesigned the site you are reading this on.All in all these reporters thought that the day rated about 9 out of 10, it’s only downfall being that it wasn’t longer.

Nina Spot
Throughout the day, Nina was busy rushing about trying to keep the day in order, but nobody could find her! She would appear and disappear, as if by magic. Next year, we should make another workshop called “Where’s Nina?” (A variation on hide and seek).

Though I think we all owe her and the rest of the staff a big round of applause for the hard work that went into this years Consultation day!

Article written by: Kyle Murphy and Luke Greenwood.
Photographs taken by all the young people who came along on the day

Have your say – Give us a quote…

Drugs, Relationships, Sex, Education, Health, Religion, Work, Money, Benefits, Housing, The Law, Leisure, Travel, The Environment, Politics, and Equal Opportunities.

All things that matter and have a big impact on your life – and things that most people have an opinion on.

Now’s your chance to think about what some of these things mean to you – and have your thoughts used as a quote to introduce the chapters in the What Now? book, CD and Website.  

It’s often said that we live in a sound bite culture – and now we would like to get a real sound bite on the issues that we cover in the What Now? book, CD  and Website– BUT from the people that count – you!

We want to introduce each chapter using a short quote on what that chapter means to you.
The chapters are: Drugs, Relationships, Sex, Education, Health, Religion, Work, Money, Benefits, Housing, The Law, Leisure, Travel, The Environment, Politics, and Equal Opportunities

We are open to anything – well virtually anything – that really sums up what the above subjects means to you for example – “I really got into healthy eating after I got picked for the school football team” – would be a great quote for the health chapter.

Or – “I never thought about religion until my Gran died – then I really wanted there to be something else so that I could have a chance to see her again – somewhere – anywhere” would paint a picture about what religion might mean to some people.

 So – over to you – but there are a few rules:

• No names –  we don’t want to be able to identify anyone!
• Nothing racist, prejudiced or offensive.
• We can’t name you in your quote – but you will know it was you and it will be great to see something you have written in print – in the book, on the CD and on the website.
• By submitting your quote you are giving us permission to edit and use it in our publications.

 So – get thinking and send us your thoughts!

Calling all current and perspective youth advisors..

• Do you have opinions on any of What Now’s services?
• Ideas for new services?
• Do you use our services?
• Do want to have a real say in the development of our services?
• Are you between 13 – 19 years old?
 Then read on as we are planning two events in the coming year…

A good night for young people.

“A really good night” – that was the view of the 100 people or so who attended the official launch yesterday of the 2007 What Now? Handbook and CD Rom.

The event was held at Burnley FC’s Turf Moor and guests were welcomed by Youth Advisor Arron Taylor and later by Katherine Ashworth, assistant head of the youth service in Lancashire, who spoke about the development of the service and the important role played by information and advice services such as What Now?

Guests attending the launch could choose to attend workshops run by Doncaster Youth Service and Lancashire’s What Now? service to learn about how young people have been instrumental in developing the different elements of the What Now? Service – including the book, CD Rom and range of interactive services.

The highlight of the evening was a special What Now? Themed performance by Gibber (see below), one of the UK’s leading theatre groups for young people, who entertained with their take on Big Brother and The Weakest Link, spiced up with some impromptu audience participation!

The launch was a Lancashire Beacon event and was an excellent example of the positive youth engagement work that has contributed to Lancashire County Council gaining the prestigious Beacon status.