Empowering young people to lead change
During August and September 2020, several members of Youth Just Us, the steering group driving the Staf/CYCJ Youth Justice Voices project, became Youth Justice Visionaries. The young people worked with Staf and CYCJ participation workers to develop online activities and a topic guide for workers – commissioned on behalf of the Scottish Government to carry […]
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A rose by any other name…
A name may be just a name but words matter. What we call ourselves reflects how we think about ourselves, how we communicate to others, where we focus energy and how we are held to account. It’s my pleasure to announce that CYCJ’s name is changing and we are becoming the Children and Young People’s […]
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January feels like another world…
Claire Lightowler, CYCJ’s Director and author of ‘Rights Respecting? Scotland’s approach to children in conflict with the law’, reflects on the challenges of maintaining a long-term vision during the immediate challenges of the coronavirus pandemic – and why she’s more determined than ever to keep children’s rights at the forefront of the youth justice agenda… […]
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A space to be heard
What happens when a global pandemic gets in the way of youth participation work? Kevin Lafferty, participation consultant at Staf, talks us through the work he has been involved in with Staf and CYCJ’s Youth Justice Voices project during lockdown. Just as our Artivism project was about to end and our steering group Youth Just […]
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Inside The Nest
SPOILER ALERT – the following contains plot reveals for BBC drama The Nest. What’s it like to be a plot consultant on one of the most controversial and popular shows to hit our screens in 2020? CYCJ’s Ross Gibson was asked to give input on The Nest from a social work perspective – here he […]
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Reflections on Diversion
With the newly revised Diversion from Prosecution Standards soon to be launched, our guest blogger Kenny looks back at the intervention that ultimately helped him chart a path away from crime. At 13 I started getting involved in some behaviour in my community that people said was “anti-social”. I was just hanging around with my […]
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Deprivation of liberty in Northern Ireland
What can we learn from other countries about how we approach deprivation of liberty? Debbie Nolan shares learning from her recent exchange visit with secure care colleagues in Northern Ireland. Since taking over the secure care practice development advisor post last year, I have been in touch with people across various countries to discuss deprivation […]
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Tackling Child Criminal Exploitation together
In November 2019, delegates and speakers from across a wide range of agencies came together for a conference that looked at child criminal exploitation and serious and organsied crime in Scotland. Donna McEwan shares the key messages and calls to action that emerged from this day. There was a theme running through every workshop and […]
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The same…but different? Reflections on ‘stepping back’
What does the workplace look like when you return to it after time away? As she resumes her role as CYCJ’s director, Claire Lightowler reflects back on her year of thinking, reading and writing about youth justice, her motivations for doing so – and what it’s taught her about the way we work. It’s been […]
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