Cadence have just spent 2 days at Substance's 'Beyond Engagement' conference and it was time well spent. The participation of people like Olympic Gold Medal winner Darren Campbell on role models and drugs or the Chair of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen project Mike Trace on what makes a good project meant the whole event had, well substance.
Cadence's Crack Den to Dragon's Den enterprise presentation fitted quite well with the message that Substance's Tim Crabbe made about the need for projects like Positive Futures to attract more female participants. The Youth debate, sparkily Chaired by Neil Watson, Substance's great new transfer from the Home Office, also picked up a number of themes that run through our work and also showed that the current Goverment's attention to youth engagement is long overdue.
Cadence also enjoyed having the opportunity to ask questions (and get good answers) about:
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role models and drugs (to Darren Campbell)
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the inability of Government press offices to understand that football does not cut crime and hospital waiting lists (Tim Crabbe)
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the huge challenges in the extended school agenda (Tim again)
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the danger of the exclusion of inspiring staff by the obsession with qualifications and necessary but checks (Mike Trace)
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the relationship between increased car use and fear about intervening to stop low level anti-social behaviour (Youth panel)
Cadence is looking forward to next year's conference with the only organisation we know who appear to have made monitoring and evaluation popular with practitioners ... though we suspect they were being quite polite.
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Reply #1 on : Fri September 28, 2007, 12:56:50
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