I thought that I should use all time on trains this week to do something creative, so I am going to attempt to write ‘a week in the life of me’ blog! I came back to work on Monday after 2 weeks holiday. It’s always a bit of a mind adjustment switching back into work gear after time off but it also felt good to be back in the mix. Monday morning was taken up checking and replying to the inevitable mountain of emails that had built up during my time off, lots of good pieces of youth participation work coming up in the next few months! I work 18.5 hours so it’s been a bit of a juggle to fit everything in this week.

After popping into the NWG office quickly on Tuesday morning to organise some practicalities for the week, I was on my first train trip of the week to London for the first of 3 focus groups to develop a new resource with Photo voice. The Having Our Say 2 (HOS2) project is a partnership of Photo voice and the NWG Network, over the past year they have been working directly with young people at risk of sexual exploitation supporting them to explore their experiences using photography as a tool for discussion, exploration and representation.

Five photography courses have taken place across the UK, with young people creating a range of images and digital stories, which will be used to create a resource pack that can be used in the support of young people in specialised as well as mainstream support services throughout the UK.  It was exciting to start thinking about the activities that could go alongside the images that the young people have created. Throughout the development process young people will be consulted as to how the resource should look, how it could be used and what should be in it. We are hoping to be ready to pilot this resource in the summer of 2013.

After picking up our nifty Nissan Micra hire car, Cheryl and I embarked on Wednesday’s adventure to the South Yorkshire CSE conference in Bradford organised by MESMAC’s Blast project. We were presenting a workshop on the work of the NWG Network and Youth Participation, alongside a host of other great workshop provider. It was great to see some faces known and some new. It was also great to be some of the first people to see the new boys and young men resource that Blast have developed. All in all it was a brilliant day out in the north!

Thursday saw me on my 3rd day travelling in a row, this time I was heading back to London for the Be Healthy celebration event! The AYPH Be Healthy project has been working with 10 young people from across England over the past 2 years to train them as health advocates – researching & identifying barriers young people affected by sexual exploitation may face when accessing health services. The advocates have created a booklet that shares their views, knowledge and experiences as well as making a DVD with animated stories by themselves about health and wellbeing. Having visited the groups a couple of times in the past few months during their creative phase it was really exciting to see the young people’s work being acknowledged, rewarded and celebrated!

I have travelled 788 miles in total this week, that must mean its time for the weekend!