– Youth & Policy are hosting their bi-annual History of Youth Work conference from March 2-4, 2011 in the splendid, yet surreal Ushaw College, formerly a Roman Catholic seminary, which is set for closure. It is always a relaxed, involved and stimulating occasion.

As with the earlier gatherings it will include a mix of plenary sessions, workshops and ‘surprise’ events. Amongst the plenary speakers will be Gillian Darley, the historian and author of the standard biography of Octavia Hill and the recently re-published Villages of Vision, on historical attempts to foster community and the historian and adult educator Nigel Todd on the first 100 years of the Workers’ Education Association. To mark the 100^th Centenary of the National Association of Girls’ Clubs (now UK Youth) there will also be a symposium on the history of youth work with girls and young women.

For further information and a booking form, go here.

– Our allies at the National Coalition for Independent Action have just held an Assembly, read the notes for an update on what people are doing to stop local cuts, generate useful research and mobilise nationally. For NCIA it was a call to connect people with each other, get alternative views out there and keep on challenging harmful commissioning and the Big Society Show. In addition Bernard Davies gave a talk to community activists in the North-West, Big Society – a fig leaf for privatisation and cuts He begins,“My starting point for the Big Society unashamedly looks at its political and economic contexts. It’s impossible to take the notion of ‘a Big Society’ simply as a given, either as an idea or as call to action.”

– On Monday, November 15, over 170 students occupied the lecture theatre in the Fulton building at the University of Sussex in protest of the trebling of tuition fees and the attack on our education system.

In light of Wednesday’s demonstration, which saw 52,000 people come out in opposition to the government’s proposed cuts to education and raising of fees, we feel it is necessary for further action to consolidate the efforts made so far and push on in the opposition to these ideologically motivated cuts to both education specifically and public services as a whole.
We reject the notion that these cuts are necessary or for the benefit of society. There are viable alternatives which are not being explored. While the government has suggested that ‘we are all in this together’, we completely reject this and are insulted that these cuts are being pushed through alongside reductions in corporate tax. We feel these cuts are targeting those who are most vulnerable in our society.
Furthermore, not only are these cuts damaging our current education, but are changing the face of the education system as we know it. The hole in finances left by government cuts will inevitably be filled by private interest. This marketization of education will destroy the prospect of free and critical academic enquiry, on which universities should be based. The trebling of tuition fees will further exclude another swathe of society and make university accessible only to the rich.

Taken from their informative Blog

– Matt Scott, Director of the Community Sector Coalition is blogging and his latest post suggests, we don’t like community groups, do we?

He continues, how else was it possible for the then third sector to grow 200% in 10 years under New Labour and yet small and medium sized charities ended up getting smaller at the same time? This has to be a central concern for the Community Sector Coalition and all of its members – the continual failure to pass resources, voice and power down within the wider sector, let alone in society.