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spired.com <spireddotcom>


I'm Jeremy, and I look after a website for young people in Oxfordshire, in the UK. Over the years it's been funded by lots of different organisations, like the County Democratic Services, the Youth Service, the Youth Support Services, and Connexions. This meant my focus changed a lot over the years, too -- from hosting online chats with Local Councillors to promoting the services of young-people specific counsellors, from hosting consultations about local sexual health services to publishing art and photos by local young people. Now I find the site so big and unwieldy, I'm not sure what to do net! I know loads of stuff needs sorting out, but it's hard to know where to start. So I'm starting this up, as a diary to help me figure out where we're going, what needs to be done next. I'm not sure if it's going to work, but for sure: if I'm going to be able to come at this refreshed and enthusiastic, I need badly to get (groan) inspired.

spired.com says:
"More time! More space!" (1 week ago) me too!

helping young people to
find training opportunities, get information about housing, read about relationship issues, find out about employment rights, learn about personal safety
wants to be sent
questions, ideas, graphics, design thoughts, articles, opinion, feedback, rants, rambles
about town in
Banbury, Didcot, Wantage, Abingdon, Wallingford, Chipping Norton, carterton, Bicester, Oxford, Grove, Headington, Thame, Henley-on-Thames, Berinsfield
promoting
positive activities, acquiring lifeskills, opportunities, personal development, mentoring, projects, participation, arts, music, decision making, community involvement, getting your voice heard, aquiring new skills, getting qualifications
encouraging
responsibility, parties, self-respect, gigs, fun, events, qualifications, festivals, creativity, clubs
info about
youth clubs, youth festivals, opportunities for young people, volunteering
Gender  
Female
Last ActiveProfile Views
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Hometown
Oxford, in Oxfordshire
spired.com's URL
http://www.bebo.com/spireddotcom
Member Since
June 2007

 

Blogs

getting excited about science
Every time I look at my pay check, I deeply regret that I decided to quit studying science. But it's not just about the pay.

I have friends who are developing medicines, searching for fundamental particles, designing telescopes and experimenting with the chemistry of paper, and they all have an exciting time of it. So why didn't I go forward with sciences?

A lot of it was down to people not encouraging me enough to link science with the real world. It was presented as something academic and esoteric, and (especially by a particular physics teacher) something for the elite.

I know this is nonsense now. My friends who are scientists have among the most practical, hands-on and directly relevant jobs of all the people I know. And it was idiotic of me to be put off by a bad teacher. you can work round bad teachers.

As for getting excited about science, there's a big push coming up on that later this year. You can catch some of the buzz early on the (still in the test phase) Futuremorph website -- http://futuremorph.scenta.co.uk -- and you can go there to find out how relevant the sciences are to the world and the future.
0 Comment 8 day ago
UKYP stuff up on the website
There's a lot of noise around the UK Youth Parliament at the moment, so I've updated the Youth Parliament pages ( http://www.spired.com/forum/ukyp/ind... ) with a bit of news and some links to where you can watch the MYPs debating issues in the Houses of Parliament.

If you missed the elections and still want to get involved in local decision-making, there's plenty of ways to make your voice heard and get your opinions across. You can find a load of them in the Forum section of Spired, including a survey looking for opinions about about young people, respect and antisocial behaviour. If you want to fill it in, you can -- it's linked from here:

http://www.spired.com/forum/index.htm
0 Comment 25 day ago
youth opportunity fund and positive activities
Been doing some redesign work on the Youth Opportunity Fund pages for Spired. The meeting was a busy one, so we ended up doing things a little quicker than was hoped.

Everyone's so busy nowadays! I remember from when I was a kid, all these books and programmes about "something to do when you're bored", you know, "why don't you switch off your television set and go and do something less boring instead" all that. Now I wonder that anyone has any free time ever -- and think about how things end up competing.

The Youth Opportunity Fund awards money to projects which provide Positive Activities for young people. Positive activities is anything fun, interesting and positive -- from playing pool to helping organise a music festival, from joining a keep-fit group to painting a mural. All that stuff. The things that make life more fun, more interesting, more exciting. Young people are involved in planning the projects and decide how the money is spent. It's exciting stuff, and what was asked for ( when the goverment went to young people and asked, What do you want? They said, More things, and more interesting things to do).

Now I have to get the YOF funding website closer to what was asked for, and get the new Positive Activities Website (Activities Oxfordshire) linked in properly. I can't do everything all at once, but a couple of key links here might help!

Youth Opportunity Fund - http://www.spired.com/funding/
Activities Oxfordshire - http://www.oxfordshireactivities.info/
0 Comment 94 day ago
 

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being doing the archives
Just one tiny bit is all tidy now! I will rule at some point in the future.
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Comments

Blackbird Leys Youth Centre
here the love back x
3 week ago
Actionsportsalliance
Merry Christmas!!!
27 week ago
 
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