The same…but different? Reflections on ‘stepping back’
What does the workplace look like when you return to it after time away? As she resumes her role as CYCJ’s director, Claire Lightowler reflects back on her year of thinking, reading and writing about youth justice, her motivations for doing so – and what it’s taught her about the way we work. It’s been […]
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Celebrating a year of Youth Justice Voices
Ruth Kerracher looks back on the first year of Youth Justice Voices, and the incredible progress that’s been made by young people in taking this forward. It’s been a brilliant first year for Youth Justice Voices. I have really enjoyed working collaboratively with Staf and the Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice (CYCJ) to get […]
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Looking back at 2019
CYCJ’s Interim Director Fiona Dyer reflects back on 2019, and whether she kept to the resolutions she made back in January… At the start of 2019 I made some resolutions, based on the key messages that we published in February and my own goals as Interim Director for CYCJ this year. I like to think […]
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Evaluation – how was it for you?
With CYCJ’s evaluation exercise nearing completion, three team members share their feelings and experiences of the process, what they’ve learnt and what they’ll be taking away from it. Charlotte When we were told that CYCJ was going to be taking on an independent evaluator to help us assess our impact, I’ll admit I had mixed […]
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How to do good evaluation
As CYCJ’s evaluation exercise approaches its conclusion, evaluator Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin shares her thoughts on what she’s learnt about CYCJ, the youth justice sector and the process of evaluation itself. Good evaluation requires humility For me, evaluation is first and foremost about learning. I have a tested set of methods that I use, but every time […]
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The IVY Project: Learning About Violence from Young People
As the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth (IVY) project moves to Kibble Education and Care Centre after six years at CYCJ, Lead Clinician Dr Lorraine Johnstone reflects on the important lessons she’s learnt (and is still learning) from her time with IVY. After more than two decades working with forensic populations, I have now come to […]
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The Right to Relationships
In this blog to mark Care Experienced Week 2019, Bernie and Charlie write about the rights that all care experienced individuals should enjoy. They are members of the Why Not? Trust, which seeks to enhance personal relationships amongst those who have lived experience of the care system. As well as individual connections, the Why Not? […]
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Reflecting on CARE
In their joint guest blog, Andi Brierley and Luke Burgess reflect on the ‘CARE’ group in Leeds, drawing on their own experience of the care and justice systems. Andi: My role at Leeds YJS is to work with children in care that come into contact with youth justice and support them to desist from offending, […]
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Innovation in evaluation: CYCJ’s learning journey
CYCJ is currently undergoing a six month evaluation to assess its impact on youth justice in Scotland. In the first of her blog series, evaluator Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin talks us through the thinking behind this innovative approach, what’s/who’s involved – and why it’s already making a difference. Asking the tough question: What difference do we make? […]
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