TRI SERVICE YOUTH FORUM LONDON 2012

(Supported by The Royal British Legion)

INTERIM REPORT Compiled by Asst Chief Community Development Officer (Army Welfare Service)

INDEX

Item Page

Introduction 2

Aim and Objectives 2

Funding 3

Methodology 3

Delegates Programme 4

Staff Programme 4

Delegates Presentation 4 - 5

Delegates Evaluation 6 - 7

Staff Evaluation 7

What Next 7

ANNEXES (Session Records)

The Germany Experience – Annex A 8

Ice Breakers – Annex B 9

Issues & Concerns – Annex C 10

Presentation Skills – Annex D 11

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Introduction

1. The inaugural gathering of the Tri Service Youth Forum (TSYF) funded by The Royal British Legion was held in Baden Powel House London during the weekend of 23 – 25 January 2012. The organisation and delivery of this event was coordinated by a working group comprising:

RAF – Damian Pinel (Chief Community Development Advisor)

Army – Peter Pritchett (Assistant Chief Community Development Officer)

RN – Dam Richmond (Area Community Officer)

4 Children – Jenni Davis (National Programmes Manager)

RAF – Rebecca Wakefield (Community Development Advisor -North) 2. Other individuals from each of the armed forces Community Support (CS) departments and the 4Children organisation also contributed significantly to the planning, development and delivery. 3. The delegates were young people aged between 13 – 19 years. Each of the delegates had one (or more) parents currently serving or a parent that had previously served in the armed forces. Delegates came from all parts of the UK and Germany. Although not involved this year (mainly due to the cost associated with travel) young people from the Cyprus command have indicated that they would like to contribute to any future events of this kind. Staff drawn from the Army, Navy and RAF CS services (who routinely work with service children, families and young people), accompanied the delegates. The delegate and staff places were allocated on a pro rata basis: Service Delegates Staff

Army 30 15 Royal Air Force 20 10 Royal Navy 10 4

4. This event also provided an opportunity for staff to receive input on the work of the British Youth Council and The Royal British Legion. This input will stimulate more localised initiatives and connect service providers that have complimentary objectives. (see 12)

Aim:

5. To provide an opportunity for young people to discuss how service life affects then and to consolidate their views before provide collective feedback to military stakeholders.

Objectives

6. The primary objectives were:

For young people to work together and discuss their values

To identify and priorities the key issues affecting service children and young people

To present their views to stakeholders and decision makers

Develop skills that would help then to influence decision makers

Consider how they might get involved in both local and national debate and decision making

Consider how the Tri-Service Youth Forum should develop

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7. Delegates were provided with an opportunity to accredit their TSYF work through the

ASDAN Citizenship and British Youth Council, Youth Voice awards.

Funding

8. Individual services funded the planning and preparation work. This encompassed the activities of the working group and separate initiatives to stimulate interest and generate delegates. Access to the award programmes was also funded by individual services. 9. A generous external grant from The Royal British Legion funded the event itself. The Legions contribution covered the cost of:

Travel to and from London

Accommodation

Conference Facilities

Resources

Down Time Activities (a chance for delegates to build relationships with their peers)

(A breakdown of how the grant was spent will be available in due course) Methodology

10. The delegates participated in a variety of sessions facilitated by experienced participation workers from the Army, Navy, RAF CS services and 4Children. Sessions incorporated activity undertaken as a whole and within small groups. The one exception was a piece of work delivered by delegates from Germany who shared their experience of being part of a well established youth forum (Speakout).

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Delegates Programme

11. Below is a broad outline of the programme. Some examples of how sessions were organised and delivered can be found at the identified ANNEX.

Date & Time Session Title Aim ANNEX

Fri 23 Nov 1900 - 1945

The Germany Experience

Provide an insight into what can be achieved through active participation in youth forum work.

ANNEX A

2000 - 2100

Ice Breakers

Encourage delegates to interact and begin the process of developing relationships with their peers.

ANNEX B

Sat 24 Nov 0900 – 1030

Shared Values

Identify the values the delegates shared as young members of the service community.

1100 - 1230

Issues & Concerns

Identify and prioritise the issues and concerns that young people from the service community feel are important to them.

ANNEX C

1400 - 1530

Negotiating & Influencing

To develop and enhance the skills required to successfully negotiate with and ultimately influence stakeholders and decision makers.

1600 - 1730

Presentation Skills

Explore and develop the skills required to develop and deliver a presentation.

ANNEX D

1900 - 2300

Evening Programme

An opportunity for the delegates to develop their own programme. Included negotiating, prioritising and managing a budget.

Sun 25 Nov 0900 - 1000

Presentation Workshops

Consolidate material on one of the 5 key issues for service children and young people and produce a 5 min presentation.

1030 - 1130

Presentations to Forum and Invited Guests

To provide an opportunity for young people to convey their views on the issues that affect then as members of the service community.

1130 - 1200

Evaluation & What Next

Provide feedback on their Tri Service Youth Forum experience and provide guidance on how young people see this work developing.

Staff Programme

12. In addition to facilitating some of the work undertaken by the delegates, staff received input from 2 guest speakers.

Date & Time Speaker Organisation Aim

Sat 24 Nov 1400 – 1530

David Clarke – Head of Programmes & Policy

British Youth Council Inform about the work of the BYC and guidance on how the voice of our young people can be heard at local, regional and national level.

1600 - 1730

Paul Osborne – Armed Forces Liaison Officer (South)

The Royal British Legion

Provide an overview of the work of the TRBL with emphasis on the commitment to welfare

Delegates Presentation

13. As this was the first event of its kind the working group took the liberty of inviting a number of representatives and stakeholders to hear the views of the delegates. The guest list encompassed both single and tri service representation as follows:

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Name Role/Function Unit/Organisation

Colonel Clive Knightly Acting Director MoD Directorate for Children & Young People

Catherin Spencer Chief Executive Army Families Federation

Andrew Simpson CCDO Army Welfare Service

Magdalena de Lima Santos Grant Giving Officer The Royal British Legion

Colonel Duncan Dewar DA COS Royal Navy Welfare Support

Wg Comd Jo Daniels SO1 Community Support Royal Air Force

Jenny Ward Evidence Manager RAF Families Federation

Jenny Scott Evidence Assistant RAF Families Federation

Ann-Marie Freebairn Head of Communication RAF Benevolent Fund

Fiona Ferguson Press Office RAF Benevolent Fund

14. This link http://www.screencast.com/t/ARXTyrWrPdYW will take you to a short (edited) video of the 5 presentations the delegates made. (Note: Not viewable form a computer connected to an MoD network)

15. Once the presentations had been delivered, several of the invited guests offered some immediate feedback to the delegates. Subsequently, the following comments have been received.

Colonel Clive Knightly, Acting Director – MoD Directorate for Children and Young People

“It was a genuinely uplifting morning, and I was really pleased that a number of children sought me out afterwards to highlight particular concerns” (all of which I’m dealing with).

Catherine Spencer, Chief Executive – Army Families Federation

“It was very useful to hear the views of how service life affects young people their views on education, redundancy and mobility chimed with AFF's and we will look at ways to ensure that their opinions are fed into the work we do. The forum provided a constructive method to raise issues - I was hugely impressed by the clarity and strength of their presentations.”

Andrew Simpson, Chief Community Development Officer – Army Welfare Service

“I had the privilege to be invited to the first Tri Service Youth Forum event; it was outstanding and an exemplary example of Service children and young people’s ability to engage meaningfully with issues that impact their day to day lives and to articulate a clear and unambiguous message to us as service providers. I was left with a real sense of the importance of the need for continued support to nurture this Tri Service Youth Forum; this was an inspired initiative supported and funded by the RBL.”

Damian Pinel, Chief Community Advisor – Royal Air Force

“The excellent presentations on Sunday morning were the result of a great deal of thought and hard work by the delegates. The young people involved in the Tri-Service Youth Forum clearly demonstrated that it is essential that decision makers take on board their views and ideas when planning the services that affect them”

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Colonel Duncan Dewar, DACOS Welfare & Support - Royal Navy

“Being able to listen to and discuss the views of young people from the Service community on a whole range of topics has been a really productive exercise. The Forum provided exactly the right environment for them to present their perspective which, in turn, has allowed us a better understanding of their concerns and needs. Hopefully, with this increased clarity, there will be opportunities to improve services and ensure they are correctly focused. Building on the success of the Forum, maintaining and improving the two-way dialogue between Young People and the Services remains an important task for the future.”

Delegates Evaluation

15. Each of the delegates was ask to provide initial feedback on the event. The working group will consider this feedback prior to making recommendations on the way forward.

Demographics

a Gender of delegates Mal Female

35% 65%

b Age of delegates 13 yrs 14 yrs 15 yrs 16 yrs 17 yrs 18 yrs

10% 22% 22% 22% 14% 8%

c Armed service connection RN RAF Army Civ

20% 32% 44% 4%

How was the stay?

d Accommodation Poor Alright Good Very Good Like to live here

14% 29% 29% 22% 6%

e Food Awful Wouldn’t have seconds Edible Yummy

48% 14% 30% 8%

f How did you sleep? Terrible Bed to lumpy OK Like a log

59% 20% 8% 12%

Event organisation

g Pre event information Could have done with more detail Had everything I needed

48% 52%

h Event management Bit disorganised OK Ran smooth

18% 49% 33%

i Social and work balance Too little social Too much social Balance about right

47% 6% 47%

The programme

j A view on the sessions Boring Had my attention Very interesting

46% 40% 14%

k Would you come again? Yes No

88% 12%

16. Some of the delegates volunteered to keep a diary record of their experience. A few of their thoughts are recorded below.

Hannah Byrne - “I am immensely proud of myself and all the others I went with. We were part of something new, and in my eyes, it went perfectly, and I feel like we did really well. There is little I would have changed - apart from maybe the food!”

Jacob Penk - “I felt nervous when we had to do our presentation. Our subject was redundancy and how it affected the military family. Our group had come up with some good points and felt that the talk we had beforehand on improving our public speaking skills made a real difference. We were told that our presentation came out really well and we got our point across to the audience.”

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Bradley Perry - “So today was the big day, an opportunity to let some of the most effective and important people know of our service life experiences in the hunt to bringing a positive change and difference to the life that we as service young people face on a regular basis.”

Staff Evaluation

16. The staff have been afforded a few weeks to reflect on the event. Their views will be consolidated and discussed at the final working group meeting.

What Next?

17. The working group will meet for the final time on Tuesday 15 January. They will consider;

Feedback from delegates, staff and invited guest.

Feedback from the venue

The budget

18. This along with their own thoughts will formulate the recommendations they make regarding the development of participation work within their respective services and the future of joint working. 19. Preliminary discussion held during the event has indicated that this work has the potential to contribute to the development and delivery of services for military children, young people and families. Additional resourcing will be required to facilitate Tri Service work and the development of structures and activities that will allow young people to contribute more fully to the formulation of any subsequent TSYF agenda.

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ANNEX A

The Germany Experience Facilitators: Jade Sexton, Justine Avis, Nathan Rowley, Scott Carson - Members of the British Forces Germany Youth Forum (Speakout)

Aim:

Provide an insight into what can be achieved through active participation in youth forum work.

Methodology:

Each of the facilitators describes the BFG Youth Forum work they have been involved with. They focused on the following headings and invited questions from the TSYF delegates and staff.

Achievements

This was presented as individual garrisons to begin with and then as a BFG collective, included within the achievements were, the establishments of a health clinic within Gloucester School (Hohne), a drop in centre was opened in JHQ, doctors appointments have been made available for young people after school hours (Paderborn) and Gutersloh had a wider variety of activities put on by their Youth Centres. As a collective all of the youth forums take part in fund raising to help fund trips and socials they organise. Each of the garrison forums has sole responsibility for the distribution of a pot of money called the Youth Opportunities Fund. They are able to give grants of up to €600 per registered youth group in their Garrison.

Positive Outcomes

This section was about whom the young people have had contact with to help them resolve issues. Examples include heads of accommodation and health services. They also identified positive outcomes for themselves and others youth forums members. They considered that having a voice and being listened to, learning how to form unbiased opinions and working independently without adults were just some of the positive outcomes form then as forum members.

Obstacles

This section was about making people aware of how long and drawn out the process can be as well as obstacles they have to overcome locally, for example, not everyone lives in the same area so meetings can be difficult. Making sure that people are organised and carrying out tasks were also identified as obstacles by the young people.

Our Champions

In this segment the young people identified from whom they had received support and encouragement. At a local level Youth Workers, Head Teachers and Deputy Garrison Commanders and other young people had advocated on behalf of the youth forum. The Deputy Chief of Staff and heads of services/departments were the decision makers that had provided support at a Command level. The venue used to accommodate the 2 meetings per year of the Speakout forum had also provided support and encouragement.

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ANNEX B

Icebreakers

Facilitators: Dan Richmond, Sally Crawford, Alex Hocking, Julie Whittingham, Andy Makin, Flick Smith

Aim:

To enable young people to start forming relationships and build confidence around new people to further facilitate presentation skills

Methodology:

Session split into four parts (as below) to allow the groups to build on specific skills needed for the weekend.

Activity 1 - Tallest to Smallest in Without Talking & Counted delegates out to 6 groups

All delegates were asked to line up with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front. The group were asked to get into height order without talking. This meant a certain amount of awkwardness for the first part as they had to move around people they didn’t know in a confined space. It also meant using other non-verbal communication forms / styles. The groups handled this well and stuck to the activity rules. It was important to mix young people into new peer groupings.

Once this was completed the delegates were counted into six separate groups for the coming activities.

Activity 2 - Badge Making Prefab badges coloured and made in small groups. This activity began conversations about why people want to be called certain things and why certain individuals had nick names. The groups were also asked to introduce themselves to each other and explain about their journey. This was good to begin the very early stages of presenting to other people who they didn’t know. It also acted well as a baseline to see what level their presentation skills were.

Activity 3 - Human Bingo

Bingo cards created and delegates had to move around the whole room talking to all other delegates to fill in the spaces on the card without using the same person twice. This again served to build relationships and knock down barriers. It also allowed the delegates to find out more information about their peers for the weekend and also discover commonalities.

Activity 4 - Landing on the moon game

Delegates return to their original groups. Each group was given a set of instructions and a set of equipment cards. Delegates had to prioritise from most important to least. Group members had to involve themselves and communicate their ideas forward constructively and appropriately. This developed delegation and negation skills, it also meant some storming in some of the groups to come to a consensus.

General Comments The session ended well with delegates buzzing. It was clear that barriers had been broken down as new mixed groupings had formed as they left for dinner. Good communication developed between delegates and they made a real effort to engage with the activities and everyone had a go.

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ANNEX C

Issues & Concerns

Facilitators: Steve Webber and Kirsty Gibb (Army Welfare Service)

Aim:

To identify and prioritise the issues and concerns that young people from the service community feel are important to them.

Methodology:

Issue Identification

The delegates were split into 10 groups. Each group were asked to initially focus on one of the following headings and write their thoughts on a flipchart:

• Transport • Health • Mental health • Leisure & Recreation • Employment • Community • Military Family • Education • Personal Safety • Others

After 5 minutes the flipcharts were moved onto the next group. This process continued until each of the groups had added their contribution to each of the headings. This generated a comprehensive list of issues and concerns relevant to each heading.

Prioritising

These lists were circulated again and the delegates asked to prioritise the top 3 issues within each heading. These findings were scored to generate an importance list which covered all ten headings. The areas which were identifies as most important are listed below.

• Transport – Better and cheaper transport – military discount • Health – Ability to make confidential appointments • Mental health – Help with stress • Leisure & Recreation – Discrimination against young people • Employment – Not enough jobs for 14 – 19 year olds • Community – Isolation due to continuous relocation • Military Family – Many schools and disruption to education • Education – No continuous education • Personal Safety – Not knowing who to report incidents to – not being listened to • Others - Redundancy

The Vote

To generate a top 5 issues list that would be used as the subject matter for presentations to the forum and invited guests, each delegate was asked to vote for the area they viewed as being most important. The votes cast were.

Issue (top 5) Votes Issue Votes Isolation in civilian world and on base 9 Help with stress 4 Disruption to education and friends 7 Not knowing who to report incidents to 4 No continuous education 7 Better and cheaper transport 3 Redundancy 6 Ability to make confidential appointments 2 Discrimination against young people 5 Not enough jobs for 14 -19 year olds 2

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ANNEX D

Presentation Skills

Facilitator: Peter Rogers (4 Children)

Aim: Explore and develop the skills required to develop and deliver a presentation.

Methodology: A combination of plenary and activity sessions were utilised throughout. Presenting Yourself

The session opened with some plenary exercises and discussion on

Voice

Dress

Presence (being effective)

Image – relating to your audience

One Minute Presentations

In their six groups they then all did one minute presentations by selecting a topic at random from a bag which they had 3 minutes to prepare. The subjects were all My Favourite (something – for example film, book, holiday etc) Structuring Presentations

In plenary we went through a number of

exercises to demonstrate what makes

presentation effective on:

How people learn

Association of ideas – mnemonics etc

Quality/Quantity

Interest and impact

Introductions and summaries - Tell

them, tell them, tell them

Plans/Preparation – 5 P’s

Group Presentations

The group then had a further10 minutes to prepare a 3 minute presentation on a relevant subject which they were given, for example, the advantages and disadvantages of rural living, which they made to the whole group with learning drawn out on how to form an argument. The session was then summarized and a short time spent starting the preparation for their presentations to the other delegates and invited guest the following morning.

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The working group would like to thank

The Royal British Legion Community Support Staff

4Children

for making this event possible