Story 1 – I remember a trip to Romania some years ago, we were staying with the Iancu family.

It was my sixth overland trip and every visit we always had problems at customs, getting into Romania, fortunately Radu Iancu (their son and a good friend) was a Romanian customs officer, he very often helped with things. When we were leaving he gave me an official looking letter and said next time if you have any problems give this to the senior duty customs officer. I thought this is great!

Anyway as we were leaving Romania we got to customs and were stopped, this was a first for us – we thought it unusual getting stopped getting out of the country…. The guard was aggressive and scary with his gun and uniform – other guards came and asked us about drug smuggling. We said we didn’t know anything about this and were promptly marched us out of the car. After some aggresive questioning we gave them Radu’s letter thinking this would help get us out of trouble. In fact it made thing worse. The guard said is this some sort of joke? It says you have 20 kilos of herion in your car? I was mystified? and very scared.

Eventually the guard started laughing at our distress and said he couldn’t take the joke any further – he introduced himself as Radu’s best friend and said this joke was from Radu for supporting such a bad football team!!!

The moral of the story is if you enjoy playing practical jokes – beware of how they might come back at you!

Even today I still get scared at customs !

Story 2 – Travelling on my own in South Korea – I didn’t speak the language and had no idea what I was doing half the time. Ordering food could be a quite… “interesting” experience.. On one occasion I was in a restaurant and just pointed to stuff on the menu, with no idea what it all was. I ended up with around 30 different dishes in front of me, and the whole restaurant laughing

Story 3 – Here is another great story about a great friend Slagana (from the Macedonian Cre8ive Film Crew).

We had been making a film for the Youth Sport Action programme, this was a project involving 150 young people from 10 countries and Slagana had stayed up late at the night club. The following day was a cultural visit to the beautiful city of Ohrid in Macedonia. We travelled on a bus and Slagana who is normally very loud fell asleep on the bus. Nobody thought to wake her up and two hours later she woke up on an empty bus at a bus depot many miles away from us very confused. She said three men were staring down at her asking her what she was doing?

Eventually she worked out what happened and we got a call from the bus depot to go and retrieve her! She was so embarrassed and recieved a special award for sleepiness. Needless to say she is very scared to sleep on any form on transport bus since this event.

Story 4 – You might not think this was funny , and its possibly a ” you had to be there ” story , but i think its hysterical.

I was sat in a wonderful restaurant on a balcony in Santa Monica , my friend went outside for a smoke, as i looked down i could see him directly below us , and in a childish moment i decided to throw our wine cork at his head. As i did the waitress came over and said ” would you like it if … OWCHHHH ” he had thrown the cork back and it had hit her directly on the head, and bounced off so she didn’t know what is was, at this point i burst into uncontrollable laughter…. we had to leave soon after as everyone stared at me, I laugh for several hours and gave myself a massive headache ……i know this is a story that could have happened anywhere and so not a great travel story but i still think its so funny.

Recent work updates

On a more localised level member Momentum team Paul has been working on some really engaging projects in the UK here are three of them :-

Project 1 – Sheffield Business & Enterprise Project – The Big Challenge

Paul has been working on the development of the Big Challenge 2010 launch. He has created the Launch film with support from Launch pad member James Stier. See the film below

Big Challenge 2010 version 2 from Paul Oxborough on Vimeo.

For more information about the Big Challenge visit : www.bigchallenge.biz

Project 2 – Rotherham Ready – Enterprise Training Programme

Paul has been working with the award winning Rotherham Ready team (an enterprise education training project) see www.rotherhamready.org.uk .

He has created a number of student led films with the team to show how examples of enterprise can be found in schools. These will be used in teacher training sessions throughout the year. One of the films can be seen below :

Project 3 – Creative Partnerships – Wombwell High School Barnsley

Paul has worked on a 6 month programme with a team of hard to engage students. Their brief was to develop a large interactive board game which used projector screens, fill a school hall and maximise student participation to explore the issues of peer pressure and bullying. The end result is a 60 minute lesson “in a box”. Teachers are given training on how to use the board game which takes place in a school hall and the lesson is facilitated by Commander Zohan (a character which the students invented and filmed). He gives out instructions on a 60 minute DVD. The teachers work with the students to follow the instructions. It is a mixture of small teacher led group sessions and teamwork.

On presenting the DVD to the school last term the Deputy Head said “this is the best thing I’ve seen from Wombwell High School in 27 years” Great endorsement for an innovative and unique product. The students attended all the sessions and did presentations in front of their peers and teachers. What a result!

This film was project managed by Andrew Hadley on behalf of the British Council. It involved over 10 countries and 150 young people.

This short film made shows some of what happened on a visit to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia (if you’ve never been there it is worth a visit).

Youth, Sport, Action – Ohrid Macedonia from Paul Oxborough on Vimeo.

Momentum supports the campaign against the new “vetting and barring” regulations recently introduced by the UK government, under which up to 11 million adults will have to register on a central database, and be approved by state-appointed bureaucrats, before they can volunteer to help local schools or youth groups. Even writers invited to read their work in schools would have to register.

We believe that these regulations will do nothing to protect children, will damage community spirit and scare people away from helping young people, and will waste public money that could be better used for youth development. The campaign calls for the vetting system to be scrapped and replaced with a more common-sense and effective approach. Online petitions against the scheme are at

petitions.number10.gov.uk/AntiVetting

and

www.petitiononline.com/vetting2/petition.html

For further information contact no2vb@yahoo.co.uk

Launch Team member and newsletter editor Nick Rogers (a retired English teacher who has worked on some previous programmes) has been thinking about what young people mean when they say ‘It changed my life’.

When I hear or read young people’s accounts of being involved with blue sky or similar international youth events there is one phrase which comes up again and again. “It changed my life”. Listen for example to Richard Codd talking on the video linked to this newsletter. Sometimes it’s just repeated casually as if it is so obvious it doesn’t need saying, other times it is said wonderingly as if the person is just realising how true it is as they say it but always it is said with absolute conviction. I want to explore what people might mean when they say this.

There’s a machine in a car park near me which tells me brightly that ‘change is possible’. True. It is also inevitable. If we decide to walk a different way to college we’ve to a small extent ‘changed our lives’, if we happen to get run over by a bus as a result, or abducted by armed bank robbers or bump into the person we’re going to spend the rest of our lives with, then that small change has led to a permanent change. But this isn’t what young people mean when they say ‘it changed my life’.

Imagine this. You are on a bus driving through an unfamiliar country, perhaps its night. You’re on your way to your first international camp. The people around you are familiar. You know most of them and are comfortable. However, in a few hours time you will be surrounded by people you don’t know who may speak a different language from you have different customs to you. You know there will be challenges to tackle and that you are going to have to work with these new people you don’t know. You feel apprehensive about meeting new people. They may not like you! You are feeling nervous that you may not be able to cope with the challenges. Part of you wishes you were back at home watching TV or talking to your mates. But another part of you is excited and looking forward to the adventure.

Now project forward in time a few days. You’re sitting on the same bus getting ready to leave. The bus is surrounded by young people some smiling, some laughing, one or two are crying. They’re all waving. You know you may never see some of these people again. Others will be friends for life. Whether you see them again or not for the length of the event you and these people will have made something remarkable happen. Something which will never happen again in quite the same way again. You will have created a living, breathing unique community. You will have tackled things you were sure you couldn’t do and found you could do them. You’ll have talked to and worked with people you’d have avoided like the plague at home and found that you actually like them.

You will have begun to ‘change your life’ because by moving beyond the place you feel comfortable, and putting yourself in a situation where you will be challenged, where you will meet new and different people and by the power of the magical community you have helped to create, you will hugely increased your own sense of what is possible. What it’s possible for you to do. What it’s possible for people to do working together. And that sense of what is now possible isn’t a temporary thing , like the event you’ve just left. That increased sense of what is possible will stay with you and inform the choices you make and the decisions you take in future. There’s no going back.

You’ve changed your life.

Our Managing Director Andrew Hadley recently visited a prison where he met some serious offenders. Here’s what he thought about it:

You never know what you are going to learn next in life, or who you may learn it from. If you keep an open mind, you will be surprised.

I never thought that I would meet a convicted murderer, let alone that I would feel positive about the experience. But that is exactly what I did feel last month after I had a unique opportunity to meet some prisoners who had committed extremely serious crimes.

I was invited to visit a centre where a small number of dangerous criminals were undergoing a three-year programme of psychiatric and psychological counselling. The prisoners, all men, had been selected for the programme because they were judged to have the potential to change and had volunteered to give it a try. These are people who would be considered “hard nuts” but the programme is hard work for them. Personal development for these prisoners means something quite unimaginable to the rest of us: a constant, 24 hour, 365 days a year confrontation of your inner self, your past, present and future. Although they have agreed to enter the programme, almost all the prisoners begin by being angry, resentful and completely uncooperative. But somehow they manage to persevere. That’s partly because of the dedication and professionalism of the staff who work with them; but also, I felt, through strength of character. These might be bad men, but they are strong men.

One of the people I met had already completed the programme and was sufficiently reformed to have been released from prison. Already in his mid-forties, he had taken up creative writing and had even had a play performed in public. Perhaps a new future is opening for this man, one that he was deprived of early in life because of his crimes. How different might his life have been, if he had been given a helping hand as a child, or an opportunity for personal development as a young person?

Why do we have to wait until people’s lives go so badly wrong that we then spend years (and huge sums of money) trying to put them right, while the harm they have done can never be undone? There is hope for anyone, no matter how “hopeless” they may seem, and there is positive potential in everyone. So why do we so easily “write off” young people and treat them as a problem, instead of believing in them and encouraging them?

Momentum is all about the development of young people, so lots of activity has been taking place behind the scenes to enable young people to be part of the core decision making. We have created a team of 20+ young people and professionals we have worked with and trust to be part of the Launch Pad.

This is managed through a micro-website on our SharePoint Server. For those that want more information about the power of SharePoint visit (sharepoint.microsoft.com)

The Launch Pad is a team (which will stay together for the first 12 months of Momentum’s operation) which will assist us in making decisions that will maximise the impact we have on 100’s of other young people. Ultimately the Directors will make the final decision but the Launch Pad will give us a much more informed perspective. This team allows us to check out relevant issues directly with young people. For more information on this contact paul@youthmomentum.org

The Launch Pad Loyalty Scheme

As a member of the Launch Pad team people are giving up their valuable time to help Momentum make the right decisions. At a recent Directors meeting it was agreed that there should be an acknowledgement of this, so we have consulted and introduced our own loyalty scheme.

For each task a Launch Team member signs up for and complete, points will be added to their profile, after 12 months we are hoping a number of the members with the highest points will be offered a place on a Momentum International trip as a staff member. They will then experience the true impact of international education. If you feel you have what it takes to join this team (no previous international experience necessary – just a passion to make a difference) contact paul@youthmomentum.org

So What Activities are people getting points for?

There are a number of ways the Launch Pad members gain loyalty points; here are a few jobs that people are working on :-

• Setting up and managing the Momentum profile on Facebook
• Managing the Momentum Twitter account
• Making a 10 x 10 short film
• Research
• Delivering presentations about impact to future clients
• Assisting in training events
• Overseas activities (linking Momentum into appropriate int. partners, sourcing venues etc.)
• Marketing and PR of Momentum
• Building our network of young people through social networking sites
• Reviewing our marketing strategy and branding
• Creating new names for our core programmes

There are many different ways loyalty points can be earned, the important issue is that your voluntary work is acknowledged and rewarded in an appropriate way. For more information on this contact paul@youthmomentum.org Why not join the team now?

Working with others

Through an organisation called Social Enterprise London we have started to work with a team of financial consultants called GK Partners. They specialise in helping groups like ourselves get in touch with funding bodies. They like what we are doing and are keen to help us. They’ve given us new ideas and ways forward. We feel very optimistic about this partnership.

Designing programmes

Including a starter programme aimed at NEET (not in education employment or training) young people and a special two day workshop for groups preparing for their first overseas trip.

And we’ve been developing the accreditation processes so that young people who take part in our programmes are rewarded with nationally recognised NCFE qualifications.

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork

The directors have been busy revising and finalising business and financial plans, writing an environmental policy and a social impact measurement policy. Absolutely essential ‘behind the scenes’ work which will ensure that we are taken seriously by funding bodies.
We still have yet to encounter anything but enthusiasm and encouragement from everyone we talk to about Momentum

South Yorkshire Projects

Up north our creative director Paul Oxborough has been involved in a number exciting projects involving young people and film. With Launch Pad member James Stier he created a launch film for The Big Challenge 2010, a business and enterprise project aimed at young people and as part of a similar project in Rotherham he has created a number of student led films to be used in teacher training sessions.
You can see the films at

Big Challenge 2010 version 2 from Paul Oxborough on Vimeo.

Paul has also been working with ‘hard to engage’ students at Wombwell High School, Barnsley on a project exploring issues of peer pressure and bullying which resulted in work the Deputy Head described as ‘the best thing I’ve seen from Wombwell High School in 27 years’!

Thanks for sending us your crazy film Ivana!!!

I first met Ivana Stojkovska in Macedonia in 2006 at the Blue Sky Summer School organised by our Director Andrew Hadley. She was relatively shy at this first event but was clearly keen to take on lots of responsibility and maximise every learning opportunity presented to her.

Over a subsequent number of other visits to South Eastern Europe I came across Ivana again and saw her taking on more and more responsibility within the Blue Sky Network, both in her home town of Veles and in the capital city Skopje. She is now on the Blue Sky Executive Board, responsible for personal development of young people.

Ivana is an amazing person who likes to have fun, learn new skills and infect those around her with energy. Recently Ivana agreed to join the Momentum Launch Pad (for more information click here). Our mission is to get her to the UK in the near future on a Momentum project.

This short film (see below) is a fun video clip of her sharing her thoughts of the three amigos – sorry Directors.

Thanks Ivana – I loved seeing the film, keep up the inspirational work with other young people. Paul

The Momentum Directors Are Guilty Of … from Paul Oxborough on Vimeo.