benbell

help!

Can anyone out there help me?
Our evening service this week is appropriately themed around the Make Poverty History Campaign and in order to have some good visuals I called up the campaign office to see if they could send me a copy of the brilliant short films they have on their website - they didn't think they could.
We then called up Christian Aid to see if they could sort us out some stuff - 10 days later (today) I get a video through the post advertising Christian Aid week - not exactly what i was after.

What I could really do with at this stage is someone to tell me how i can download the films from the MPH site. I can't seem to work out how to do it - but then again i really don't have a clue when it comes to this sort of stuff.

HELP ME PLEASE!!

2 Gigs

Have been to two fantastic gigs in the last week. Saw James Blunt at the Apple store on regent street on last Wednesday.iTunes have started doing a ‘Live in London’ programme where they get an artist in to do a live gig which they then record and flog on iTunes.

Then went to Crystal Palace on Monday night to see Coldplay who were superb.

Both Amazing, one very intimate and one massive.

Music really does enrich.

Lift Stories

Director Mo Blackwood allows residents in a council estate to take a moment to dream. Lift Stories asks if this elevator door could open anywhere, where would you want to go?

This is a brilliant piece of work which engages with the imaginations of the viewers as much as the participants. It provides a great platform (all be it a moving one) for story telling.

I’m sure I could use this idea in my work with young people.
Lift Stories is on channel 4 at 7.55pm for three minutes every night this week.

Getting Better

Getting better now after a rough week of not doing much.
Am able to sit on a piece of foam at my desk for limited periods of time so should be able to post a bit more regularly now.
Thanks for all the prayers.

Out of the Picture

I will be out of the picture for a while as I am off to Hospital in the morning to have another operation on my arse. My current condition, arising out of a somewhat uncomfortable start to the year (see post from January) has not been at all pleasant and I am hoping that this op will sort things out.

Will be back when able to sit! Prayers appreciated.

Reflective Practice and Empowering Young People

It is vital that reflection is a significant part of youth work, I’m sure no one would argue with me, however it is surprising how little reflection takes place in reality. I find it useful to reflect by myself and then discuss my conclusions with other practitioners so that my conclusions can be challenged. I have realised that this Blog is a fantastic forum for this ‘thinking out loud’ process. So I will try and make more of this opportunity.

Some reflection from the other day….

It is all too easy for youth workers to slip into the classic role of ‘Adult know it all’ there are obvious extremes that this can be taken to however there are more subtle ways this can affect our Youth Work.

Big Brother and Teenage Sex

I am hesitant to jump on the ‘lets despair at Big Brother’ band wagon as I am an avid people watcher – I sit in pubs, café’s, on street benches, busses and trains and watch people. If I have my i pod on then suddenly these people produce the most amazing music videos and my tunes are transformed into ‘the soundtrack’ for walking, sitting, looking. And Yes my people watching does often extend to turning on the tv and watching Big Brother. I have already had numerous conversations of great significance with young people as a result of Big Bro being discussed.

Having said all this, the Observer on Sunday had a very interesting article  entitled TV sex is bad for teenagers - so look away now

Jan Barlow, chief executive of the Brook Advisory Centre, warns parents that

teenage pregnancies cannot be tackled without looking at 'the broader social climate', including media influence.

'Everyone watching [these programmes] is saying, are these people going to have sex on TV or aren't they?' she told The Observer. '[It's as if] it's OK to be like that but it's not OK to talk to young people about what they need to do to protect themselves. You end up with generations of young people for whom this is the norm. I don't think we can ignore that.'

Related to this ………

The majority of young people I know here in London have a very unsatisfactory experience of sex education. It mainly consists of them being taught about the physical aspects of sex (what goes where) with little or no reference to relationships, issues of self image and peer pressure.