Submitter:

Name:Owen Ambur

Email:Owen.Ambur@verizon.net

Organization:

Name:Practical Participation

Acronym:PP

Description:
Practical Participation is run by Tim Davies and Bill Badham. Practical Participation isn't a big organisation. We don't have glossy publicity materials or fancy offices to invite you to. But we do have a track record in delivery high quality work.

Stakeholder(s):

• Tim Davies: Tim Davies has been exploring the intersection of youth engagement, social justice and social technologies for the last 10 years. Between 2003 and 2006 Tim was a part time trainer and consultant with The NYA, and in 2005 established Practical Participation as an independent limited company supporting youth participation through the effective use of technology. Tim graduated from Oxford University in 2006 with a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and, after a short time in which he was juggling work with The NYA, Practical Participation and as the marketing manager of a Fairtrade shop, Tim developed Practical Participation into a full time enterprise. Since then, Tim has been the lead researcher on the Youth Work & Social Networking Project, leading to the development of internationally recognised work on youth engagement and social media; and has been actively exploring a wide range of innovative participation and technology projects .


• Bill Badham: Bill was involved in direct practice in probation, social care and community social work including national policy influence on groupwork with young offenders, preventative intervention and the role of the voluntary sector, leading the Nottingham Social Work voluntary sector specialism and co-writing the Open Learning Foundation modules on children and families. Since 1999 Bill has been a national influence on young people's participation including running a national programme across over 30 projects, being co-author of Hear by Right participation standards and author of Act by Right, skills for young people to help make change happen. Bill led The NYA's participation programme till September 2009, before becoming Co-Director of Practical Participation. He has extensive experience of undertaking a wide range training, consultancy and presentations across the statutory and voluntary sector with local and national partners


• Alex Farrow: Associate -- Alex Farrow has over six years experience working on youth participation and skills for young people. He spent 5 years working for the National Youth Agency working on, evaluating and developing plans for the participation of children and young people in decision making using Hear by Right. Until recently, Alex was Co-Director of the UK Youth Climate Coalition and over saw it's development from a small, unfunded voluntary organisation to a organisation with over 50 volunteers and project funding.


• Substance Coop: Substance Coop - research and development for the Plings positive activity information project; blogging; developing online networks.


• YouthBank UK: YouthBank UK - developing a national Management Information System and tools for local youth led grantmaking groups; interim management.


• NESTA: NESTA - supporting the development of youth engagement strategies for NESTA's youth programme.


• Oxfam GB: Oxfam GB - developing and fascilitating an online course in video campaigning for Oxfam activists.


• The Open University: The Open University - writing on Youth Participation for the Foundation Degree in Youth Work.


• The National Youth Agency: The National Youth Agency - more projects than we can mention - from national youth consultation, to supporting local skill building in the voluntary sector.


• Participation Works: Participation Works - writing resources on youth engagement and interim management of the Participation Works website.


• The Association for Young People's Health: The Association for Young People's Health - facilitating youth participation planning with young people and board members.


• The Innovation Exchange: The Innovation Exchange - grant making for the Next Practice programme


• The Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council: The Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council - developing a new online presence, and supporting the use of digital media in young commonwealth work across the globe.