A National Voice

Welcome

More Volume: Amplify 2008 - Crank it up!

This summer A National Voice will be hosting the most significant consultation event for young people in 2008.

We'd like you to come along!

The AMPLIFY event will last for two days (August 5th/6th) and allow young people aged from 14 to 17 from across England to come together, make friends, learn new skills and share their views with us on how they feel about the Care System and the impact of "Care Matters".

For more info including booking info and form downloads go to the AMPLIFY Page

Did You Miss Us?

Our news pages have been neglected for a while as we just haven't had the time. We've got loads to report but with the changes of some months back and the workload increase we haven't had even a moment to update the website. There are quite a few things to be done here at anationalvoice.org, a general tidy-up is in order.

So we've moved the news stuff to the archive and posted some updates on some of our projects here with a couple of news stories.

We'll be back on the website thing soon.

ANV and Samantha Morton Make A World of Difference

Oscar nominated actress Samantha Morton dedicated a day recently to pay a visit to ANV’s office in London to volunteer and meet some of the young people.

Samantha, who also launched (with ANV) Vodafone's 'World of Difference campaign', is a care-experienced actor who starred most recently in the film ‘Control’ and has been Oscar nominated twice for her roles in previous films. She approached A National Voice two years ago and decided she would like to get involved and meet some of the young members.

Backing Vocalists Wanted (Must be able to harmonize. No ego's. Must have soul. Team players only)

You don't have to be young to be a part of A National Voice. You also don't need to have spent any time in Care. You can join our group by becoming a supporter of ANV.

Just go to our supporters page for the info and to download the form, fill it in and send it to us. There's a small fee for companies/organisations and local authorities but individual and user group membership is free.

You can also make a donation using the same form or by going to our Just Giving page  and doing it online. There you can make a single or regular monthly donation of however much you want.

The Just Giving site also gives you the opportunity to do some fundraising for ANV. You could, for instance, have a sponsored chocolate eating marathon (or something?) make a page on our Just Giving site and tell everyone you can to go to that page and start sponsoring you. After that the page is all automagically updated with total donations, progress meter, list of sponsors etc. and all the money raised is automatically transferred into ANV's bank account ready to be put to good use.

Give it a go, it's easy. Join our big band, become part of the chorus, support our voice.

Go to the Support ANV page

Go to the Just Giving page 

View our Supporters List

Update: SuperSonicalization

SuperSonic is progressing well, we are continuing to research and compile neccessary data for SuperSonic Profiles. It's another big job and the list of potential candidates is growing all the time.

Our plan is to get as much info on to the SuperSonic website as we can before it goes live and from then on profiles can be added by individuals themselves or on behalf of others through the website itself.

In the meantime we have made a video for you to watch about the concepts behind the campaign. This short documentary looks at the ideas behind SuperSonic. Football player and TV presenter Mark Bright, poet Lemn Sissay and other mortals discuss their experiences and thoughts about Care and life after it. The film asks questions about the barriers that being in Care can bring, how can they be broken, what success really means and whether a man can really fly.

You can see it at our video page or you can watch it at google video

Update: Re:RE:verbverb

We have been having problems with the system that powers RE:verb and have been getting it changed to something more reliable and usable.

RE:verb is a huge online project that requires a rugged and stable system that can cope with a potentially heavy usage, both on the publishing side and at the public/visitor side. To that end we have been researching and implimenting an appropriate software solution. We have also been updating the user interface and overall look and feel of the websites.

So we can only apologise to those that have been frustrated by this work and to ask for a little more patience while we endeavour to get the best tools for what is a worthy and valuable project.

Update: ULTRALILAC

We are continuing to test, pilot and streamline the LILAC evaluation process. We are still seeking more funding as, again, it is another large project that we need to develop to a mature state.

We believe this an important project for our young people and the people that take care of them and we are working hard to get it right.

In case you are unaware of LILAC and what it is we'll let the Guardian explain:

This is the Lilac (Lifelong Improvement for Looked-After Children) project, a groundbreaking initiative in which young people who spent a large part of their own lives in care are training to become inspectors of local authorities' care services. Pioneered by the care-leavers [sic] group A National Voice (ANV), Lilac inspections will concentrate on how well local authorities involve looked-after children in their own care, in the planning and evaluation of care services generally, and on how effectively authorities handle complaints.(The Guardian, Wednesday February 28 2007)

You can read the whole article here

and here is another article from the Guardian (Society Guardian, Wednesday June 6 2007)

Other Stuff

We are still committed to representing our young people with regard to Care Matters and we are letting the government know what we think is right and wrong with their plans for the young people in their care. We really want to get the best from this opportunity to influence the changes that are going to take place in the Care system. We are using every means at our disposal.

Our CEO, Maxine, was recently awarded an honorary masters degree by Salford University. We won't say too much about it in case we embarrass her...

Clare, one of our Regional Development Workers, took a trip to Dallas, Texas in the US of A in April as part of a Rotary International Program.

You can download and read Clare's 'Letter from America' ( pdf)

Feeling Supersonic?

Marilyn – Supersonic – BOOM!

What do Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon and Malcolm X have in common? Well, yes they're famous people but that's not the interesting thing. The answer is that they are people who experienced some type of Care, as were many comic book superheroes like Superman and Spiderman. This elite list also contains the names of fictional characters such as Tracy Beaker and Harry Potter as well as some mythological/religious figures. It would seem that these are individuals who are able to break through any barriers that may come with that Care experience and pursue goals and achieve success. This has become the inspiration for ANV's Supersonic campaign.

Care Matters White Paper: Time for Change

Time for change–Young person Callum talks with Alan Johnson

ANV have been involved in several stages of the new White Paper and were invited to the official launch event with the Secretary Of State Alan Johnson and Childrens Minister Beverly Hughes.

ANV's vice chair Jonny Hoyle spoke to Alan Johnson about children and young people's ideas about the government proposals to improve the care system. ANV submitted the views of 200 children and young people to government.

LILAC Event at House of Commons

The LILAC team

The 10 young people who were recruited to become the LILAC team members a year ago have now set some pilot standards to measure standards of ‘participation’ within service providers.

Recently 2 pilot LILAC inspections were carried out by these young care–experienced people in local authorities across England.