Archive for the ‘Young Enterprise’ Category

Officers to Give Teens the Inside Track on Sexting

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

I’m delighted to have been involved recently with an inspiring group of former and serving police and probation officers from Yorkshire who have developed a programme that aims to raise awareness about offences such as “sexting” among teens and to warn them about how sex offenders operate.

Offender Rehabilitation Awareness (ORA) was launched this week and saw me and some of the team speak on national and local radio about the dangers facing our young people in an online society.

From cyber bullying to grooming, the ORA elearning programmes have already attracted massive interest from organisations working with young people and there is a great deal within them that will benefit parents, teachers and youth workers.

Recent research has shown that more than a third of 11 to 17- year-olds have been sent sexually explicit or distressing texts or emails and ORA has created specific learning materials to educate young people and those working in education about the law surrounding these activities.

The aim of the initiative is to create an information and training service that not only supports those working with offenders but also gives young people an insight into the types of predatory behaviour they could be at risk from.

Many young people have no idea how their own behaviour in certain everyday situations could be putting them at risk. The recent arrest of a 14 year old boy for posting an explicit video of him and his girlfriend on Facebook is a prime example of how little many teenagers understand about the law in this area.

A lack of understanding of what constitutes illegal behaviour puts them at risk of arrest themselves and also makes it easier for them to become victims of sex offenders.

The Safety.net elearning programmes for young people include an online grooming awareness course that offers young people an insight into how online offenders may try and influence them.

The people behind the initiative felt there was an urgent need for more information about the typical behaviour patterns of offenders and I have enjoyed working with them to provide my own input on some of the stresses and anxieties facing teenagers and how best to communicate with them.

Knowledge is power and improving awareness of the type of behaviour to watch out for can reduce the risk these individuals might pose to anyone coming into contact with them.

The programmes link theory to real life behaviour and are designed to develop an understanding of why offenders do the things they do, and how young people and those working with offenders can manage the risks they pose.

The whole team behind this project has extensive front line experience in supervising and managing the risks posed by some of the most dangerous offenders in the Criminal Justice System and our training programmes have been developed to help those unfamiliar with this type of offender behaviour to recognise warning signs and look out for potential escalations in risk.

To find out more about ORA visit www.ora-elearning.co.uk 

Posted in Angela Whitlock, Blog, Bullying, Change, Young Enterprise | No Comments »

What Is Your Destination?

Friday, November 12th, 2010

Take a few moments and imagine it’s April 2011 and the local newspaper has just written an article about your Business, what does it say?

• What would you want it to say?
• What would make you say ‘Wow’ we did that!
• By April 2011, What have you achieved?

If you know exactly what that press article looks like, great, get it down on paper and share it with your team or your friends. If you don’t then by the week let your mind develop a clearer vision because it will both help and amaze your team when they achieve it.

In my experience of decades successfully working in the corporate industry and as a speaker helping leaders improve their emotional intelligence, I know we often spend far too much time thinking about the day to day tasks we need to do before we know what our end goal is, and something magical happens when we know the destination,  the people around us have a route to follow, they know what to focus their attention and efforts on.

Imagine if you were to get into a taxi today; the first answer the taxi driver would want to know is ‘Where are you going mate’ . At which point you would tell them and the trip would begin.

Re-wind that tape and think about it if you will, getting into that same taxi and telling the driver to just drive, I’m sure he would be happy to oblige but it would be expensive in many ways:

• It would waste your valuable time,
• It would definitely waste your money and
• And it would be wasteful to the quality of your life or business, after all who wants to stay in a car all the time.

I wrote my own press release in November 2009 and my family thought it was hilarious and that was for January 2010 and the launch of my first book.

My teenagers saw this news article on the notice board and were confused. “Mum you haven’t even written a book let alone got it in the paper, are you seeing imaginary ducks as well?”. I reassured them that I was going to start the following week and they thought it was really funny but strangely curious in case I was serious.

The following week I did start writing and within 6 weeks it was complete, 4 weeks after that it was edited and in print and my book ‘Walk On The Grass’ was a reality. The press release exceeded even my expectations when it appeared in 45 papers both in the UK and Europe

The family still laughed but this time it was more in shock.

It’s very important to know what your business will look like in the future, it will help you focus on what you want to achieve and will help your team to support you in the process. Your mission statement is important but the old saying a picture paints a thousand words, is still very true today.

If I were to ask each of your team what their picture of the business looks like, it would be different for each person; some may focus on making money, others on achievement and the remaining people perhaps the kudos, just being part of it.

It will only help you if your team know where they are going with it, it helps with scheduling time, setting deadlines and recognising achievements on the way and do you know you can also do the same for yourself personally with your career goals.

I know you are inundated with school work as well as the Young Enterprise programme and that’s why I’ll make it easy, you can download a simple newspaper template from my website at  http://bit.ly/YourDestination

Even better like most Managers– DELEGATE –  get someone to create it for you and give them the content.

Once you have a picture of your business and the words that say what you have achieved in April 2011 then the rest of the jigsaw will start to fall into place.

Because as you grow your business you know what it looks like, and that vision may develop further as you go on.

Let me leave you with one final thought and that is to start the process, what is Your Company’s Best Press Release for April 2011?

Tags: angela whitlock, change, creative, focus, goal setting, new business, success, young enterprise
Posted in Angela Whitlock, Business Coaching & Mentoring, Coaching, Walk On The Grass, Young Enterprise | No Comments »