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 […]
Read more
Evaluation – how was it for you?
With CYCJ’s evaluation exercise nearing completion, three team members share their feelings and experiences of the process, what they’ve learnt and what they’ll be taking away from it. Charlotte When we were told that CYCJ was going to be taking on an independent evaluator to help us assess our impact, I’ll admit I had mixed […]
Read more
The IVY Project: Learning About Violence from Young People
As the Interventions for Vulnerable Youth (IVY) project moves to Kibble Education and Care Centre after six years at CYCJ, Lead Clinician Dr Lorraine Johnstone reflects on the important lessons she’s learnt (and is still learning) from her time with IVY. After more than two decades working with forensic populations, I have now come to […]
Read more
Innovation in evaluation: CYCJ’s learning journey
CYCJ is currently undergoing a six month evaluation to assess its impact on youth justice in Scotland. In the first of her blog series, evaluator Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin talks us through the thinking behind this innovative approach, what’s/who’s involved – and why it’s already making a difference. Asking the tough question: What difference do we make? […]
Read more
We’re listening – key messages from Youth Just Us
Youth Just Us, the steering group behind the CYCJ/Staf Youth Justice Voices project, have already made a substantial impact, with interest from policy makers and politicians. Ruth Kerracher shares the key messages emerging as a result of the dedicated efforts of these dynamic young people. Youth Just Us have had a busy time of it […]
Read more
The shape of IAP
Fern Gillon is Improvement Coordinator for Inclusion as Prevention (IAP), funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and delivered by CYCJ, Action for Children, South Lanarkshire Council and the Dartington Design Lab. Here she talks about the project’s approach, aims and potential impact. “Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated” Confucius This […]
Read more
At what age are we responsible enough to make decisions?
On the day that Stage 3 of the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Bill is being debated by the Scottish Parliament, our blogger David Grimm tells us why we should go higher than 12, based on his own experiences. I was born in Edinburgh, raised between there and Glasgow and had social work involvement […]
Read more
What’s next for Next Steps?
As we celebrated the final stage of the Responding to Offending in Residential Childcare -‘Next Steps’ project, Debbie Nolan reflects back on what we’ve learnt and where we want go next with this important work. For the past two years, CYCJ and Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (Staf) have partnered on the Responding to Offending […]
Read more
Putting young people in the driving seat
The CYCJ and Staf Youth Justice Voices project is zooming ahead – Ruth Kerracher brings us up to speed on progress so far… The Staf/CYCJ Youth Justice Voices project got off to a good start with the first info session at Staf in Glasgow – putting young people in the driving seat in more than […]
Read more
