In this workshop, participants will learn about the latest drugs that are being misused in the UK and how to spot the signs and support and educate young people who have possible drug issues. This is an interactive workshop that aims to increase the knowledge and confidence in workers and will cover what works and best practice with young people. 

With over 20 years of professional experience in the field of substance misuse and mental health, Stacey Miller has worked with hundreds of local authorities, secondary schools, charities, prisons and the Police, as well as corporate clients such as Microsoft and Sunseeker.  Past job roles include youth project coordinator for Eastleigh Borough Council and drugs recovery worker for the charity Society of St James.  Her passion is preventing problems before the point of crisis and to empower people to fulfil their potential in society.

In this workshop you will hear how a youth centre has worked with the local school to provide an extended provision specifically catering for young people who are EBSA (Emotional Based School Avoiders). It will be an interactive session with opportunities for Q&A.

The young people referred to the centre had between 0 & 4% attendance in school in the previous year. They had a diverse range of issues from neurodiversity, mental health issues, ACES, disadvantaged backgrounds and learning difficulties. Hear how the project has developed and succeeded.

Now a Programme Manager in a youth centre, Larisa has previously run a special needs unit within a school, working with young people with extreme needs (including high-level vulnerability and violent tendencies) and therefore unable to access mainstream education. This social, emotional, and mental health setting helped her realise her vocation was in youth work. She is dedicated to supporting diverse young people who don’t fit easily into the system, championing partnerships with schools to provide the best service possible for young people. Interesting facts – she has a keen interest in trainers (the foot type) and loves the music of Whitney Houston.

Whether you are at the start of raising funds for a new project or have been doing it for years, Ben will walk you through the needed strategies and processes to ensure your project is sustainable and that the administrative burden doesn’t stop your organisation from growing and delivering the brilliant youth work that’s needed more than ever.

Ben has nearly 20 years of experience working in various fundraising, leadership and consultancy roles for small, medium and national organisations, including Oxfam, The British Heart Foundation, Royal Trinity Hospice and the East End Community Foundation. Ben is the managing director of Leap Fundraising & Wooton George Consulting.

Mark Gervais has extensive knowledge and experience in diversity, inclusive leadership, conflict resolution and relationship management. He was Diversity Advisor for professional standards in the Metropolitan Police Service and most recently has been the diversity, Equity and Inclusion Manager for Vodafone Group. Mark is passionate about influencing hearts and minds, and enabling leaders to optimise opportunities through embracing diversity and inclusion.

He is valued for his deep expertise and for getting to the heart of an issue through his engaging, challenging style.

This workshop is an opportunity to discuss unconscious bias and diversity. What don’t we know that we don’t know, what does it mean to embrace diversity even when it feels like we are not a diverse group. In a discussion format this is a chance to look at a current subject and challenge your thoughts and ideas.

Many young people trust and rely on their youth workers to help them navigate the pressures of school, culture, and often relationships and sex. Many young people are growing up in a culture where sex is everywhere, yet nobody is really talking with them about it. Too many young people are growing up with schools that are falling short in meeting their needs and homes where they don't feel able to ask their questions. Some issues around relationships and sex are timeless, yet young people today may be asking questions about things we never faced growing up. This workshop is designed to help you start responding to these in practical and dynamic ways.

Gareth Cheesman was first trained in Christian youth work and 15 years ago got introduced to the topic of relationships and sex education. He was grabbed by the topic and since then has worked to provide relevant Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) to young people and train others to do the same. Gareth works across youth groups, faith groups and schools. Given half a chance he will take any opportunity to spend an afternoon discussing the latest relationships and sexual health research over coffee and cake.

This workshop aims to raise awareness of young carers, from the definition of a young carer, to what their caring role might look like, post-Covid in Hampshire. There will be an interactive discussion about how the stigma of being a young carer can be reduced, how we can identify hidden young carers, and how we best support them in our youth clubs and schools. If you have any questions about young carers bring them with you.

Mandy May-Martin has been the Programme Manager for Young Carers at the King’s Arms Youth Project for the last 10 years, having worked with young people for 25 years. 3 things you might find interesting about her – Mandy has been the back end of many a Panto horse, she owns a camper van called Elvis and she loves getting crafty.

Chris Hall is the manager of Romsey Young Carers having worked with Young Carers for 12 years. 3 things you might find interesting about Chris – he’s a Big Fan of 80's and 90's Retro Video Games, Toys and Cartoons, Plays Football and Basketball and has a Mild Fear of Bananas.

Remember back to 2020 when the world stopped. Whatever your experience of the pandemic, we all had to find new ways to care for ourselves and those around us. There was repeated talk of building a 'new normal' and not going back to the old ways of doing and being. Did we learn our lessons? Did we make the changes needed?

In this workshop, we will look at Self Care as both an act of personal responsibility and that of organisational culture shift. With burnout so high amongst those working with young people, this will be a time to both reflect on our processes of dealing with stress and explore practical ideas to look after ourselves.

Dylan Barker has been working with young people for almost 20 years. He has experience in running church projects, statutory youth projects and detached work. Currently, he lives and works on an estate in Weston-Super-Mare and is part of a community that focuses on youth work in the area. In addition, he works for Frontier Youth Trust, where he delivers resources and training for youth work in marginal spaces.

How do you create a radically welcoming space for young people to thrive? Mikey will share his experience of LYP which has been running a 5-day-a-week after school drop-in for the past 18 years. He will look at the vital ingredients that produces the needed environment and culture for young people, whether they are year 7’s or 11’s, boys or girls, neuro diverse or LGBT+, to feel safe, supported and empowered. As part of this he will look at topics such as; creating a welcoming space, managing behaviour, setting culture and how to co-design effective projects and activities.

Mikey Dicken has been the Senior Youth Worker at Leatherhead Youth Project since moving to Leatherhead in 2015. He has worked as a Learning Support assistant in secondary schools and a sixth form college specialising in supporting students with autism and asperger’s. Mikey has completed his Level 3 qualification in Counselling and now heads up our Key Work project amongst others, building upon the experience he has gathered.

Fun Fact: Mikey lived and worked as a youth worker in Japan for 3 months.