Music matters
“Music can give young people a way to open up”. With the recent ‘Ban Drill’ debate linking drill music to violence and crime, Amy blogs about the importance of this music to young people – and why we should listen (both to what the music and the young person is telling us). Drill music often […]
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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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Keeping The Promise
In February 2020, Scotland’s Independent Care Review shared its findings. At its heart was The Promise, a commitment towards building the care system on a foundation of stable, nurturing and loving relationships. In the first of a four part blog series, CYCJ’s Ross Gibson considers what must happen next to ensure The Promise becomes a […]
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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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Celebrating a year of Youth Justice Voices
Ruth Kerracher looks back on the first year of Youth Justice Voices, and the incredible progress that’s been made by young people in taking this forward. It’s been a brilliant first year for Youth Justice Voices. I have really enjoyed working collaboratively with Staf and the Centre for Youth & Criminal Justice (CYCJ) to get […]
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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 […]
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How to do good evaluation
As CYCJ’s evaluation exercise approaches its conclusion, evaluator Catherine-Rose Stocks-Rankin shares her thoughts on what she’s learnt about CYCJ, the youth justice sector and the process of evaluation itself. Good evaluation requires humility For me, evaluation is first and foremost about learning. I have a tested set of methods that I use, but every time […]
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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 […]
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