LAYC

Welcome to the LAYC Website. We hope this website will give you an idea of the services we provide for youth and children's work organisations in the Lothian area.

It’s back …………Child’s Play 4

LAYC’s highly successful training day with the offer of 3 courses in the morning and a further 3 in the afternoon is back! Child’s Play 4 is being held on Saturday 27th March 2010 at Nelson Hall just off The Pleasance with new courses all at the same great value.

Follow this Childs Play 4 link to book on courses electronically or alternatively phone 667 1828 on office hours.

Click here to download/view the Child's Play 4 flyer

Youth Scotland Survey Monkey

CLD Standards Council - Youth Work Volunteers Consultation

If you are an active youth work volunteer - i.e. someone who volunteers their time in a youth group, club, project etc, we would like to invite you to participate in the above consultation.

This will involve completing a short five minute online survey where you will be asked to contribute your views based on your experience as a youth work volunteer.

Please note: this consultation is aimed at volunteers only. If this doesn't apply to you, but you know someone else involved in volunteering in youth work, please pass this on!

What is the CLD Standards Council?

The CLD Standards Council is the new professional body for everyone active in Community Learning and Development in Scotland. Community Learning and Development includes youth work, adult learning and community capacity building.

The Standards Council supports training and development for everyone in this field of work, both those paid and unpaid.

The consultation...

Youth Scotland has now been asked by the CLD Standards Council to carry out a consultation to hear and learn directly from youth work volunteers about the skills and knowledge which they need to carry out their role, and how they can be supported and developed to do this.

Access the survey here.

We are also running a series of face to face focus groups across Scotland to support this consultation.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to complete this survey. We would be grateful if you could complete it by 15th March 2010.

CLD in EDINBURGH Re-design

The Children & Families Department have just released their intentions in re-designing Community Learning and Development Services following approval of the Edinburgh Council’s budget last Thursday.

The re-design paper covers the future role of community centre’s, priorities for youth and children’s work, adult learning, capacity building and voluntary sector support. Associated papers also outline the £345k saving to be made in 09/10 and how that will be achieved through centre closures, staff vacancies going and cuts to CLAN.

Over the next 8 weeks they will consult with stakeholders on the proposals for the future of CLD and briefing sessions will take place in each of the neighbourhood areas.

Following on from this period a report will be presented to the Education Children & Families Committee in May.

We would urge member groups to get along to a consultation meeting within their neighbourhood so you get a chance to hear firsthand what this will mean locally and how it will affect your organisation. For those that cannot there is a survey monkey where you can post your views.

The details of the stakeholder meetings are:

The link on the Council's website will allow partners and interested parties to provide their comments is https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KS5CSSF

The papers can be downloaded here:

E-bulletins surveys

LAYC is running two surveys for users of our e-bulletins to find out what you want from this service.

One survey is for advertisers and the other survey is for subscribers

You can download paper copies of the surveys here:

Advertisers Survey
Subscribers Survey

The closing date for both surveys is Friday 12th March 2010

URGENT - GROUPS HIT BY EDINBURGH BUDGET CUTS – LAYC BRIEFING PAPER #2

LAYC member groups have been named as some of the big losers in the Council papers leaked to the Edinburgh Evening news... and others are still totally in the dark. LAYC is looking to get a clear picture of how much damage these cuts will cause.

Click here for briefing #2 (PDF format)

Click here for our Cuts Impact Survey (hosted on SurveyMonkey)
(Please complete and return by Friday 19th February)

Not sure who your councillor is? Click here

Third Sector Funding Blog

For more information on the cuts generally go to: http://3rdsectorfundingedinburgh.wordpress.com

Au Revoir Zineb

Over the past month LAYC has acted as host to Zineb Seneina from the Academie Lyon.

Zineb was a real asset to LAYC and did a power of work for us from creating a room hire leaflet, redesigning a raft of policy papers, getting the library up to date and generally helping out. She fitted in very well and her admin skills and use of English were exceptional. Apart from the cold weather she had a great time and enjoyed her Scottish experience, including being at Murrayfield to see Scotland get beat by her home country.

The scheme provides opportunities for French students to experience working abroad as part of their final college year in administrative studies. It was LAYC’s first time and we will be keen to offer another placement this time next year. We got involved via the BIG Project, who have been part of the scheme for some years, who got in touch looking for other placements that would give students a positive experience.

The Academie Lyon are keen to extend the range of placements on offer so if you want to consider one and want more information please get in touch and we can signpost you on.

We know that Zineb will be checking out our website to see her leaflet so thanks again for all your hard work and remember the weather in Edinburgh is not always ‘dreich’!

LAYC Training Programme - Spring Term

LAYC’s training programme (Feb to May 10) is now on line and available for bookings. A range of trusted, revised and new courses are all on offer, including a new and more extensive emergency first aid to meet the new HSE requirements. To view all the courses and /or book or follow the Training and Events links

LAYC Annual Report 2008/09

LAYC Annual Report 2008/09 was formally approved at our recent AGM. Copies of the report will be sent to members with their Affiliation Pack 2009/10 as groups affiliate.

If you’re not a member and want a copy or as a member group additional copies, please contact the office. Copies of the full annual report and accounts are also available on request.

Alternatively you can download an electronic copy.

Youth Group Games

Youth Group Games is a website LAYC has just been made aware of… first impressions are that it seems a really useful source of games for youth workers.Games of all sorts – some you might recognise and some that might be new to you ( and some which have been given a wee twist ….for example there’s a section on different seasonal twists to games like the Mars bar game or the fancy dress relay and other New Games standards.It’s all clear and simple with explanations on how to run the games and nice to see the sectionon “Setting up a Youth Group” too! Give the site a visit, give the games a try …and give us a wee bit of feedback here at the LAYC office. What worked particularly well? Maybe you have you a different website you’d like to tell us about?

Spark in the Dark

Spark in the Dark is the provider of LAYC's ever popular "Games, Games, Games" training session. Founded by Jim Balloch who has considerable expertise and experience in a variety of play settings over a number of years . He is equally at home with face to face work with children of all ages and with tutoring those involved directly in the delivery of play services.

Contact Jim on Tel: 01506-811178 or email : jim@sparkinthedark.org

Website: www.sparkinthedark.org

Youth Group Contacts

Youth Group Contacts is a website for youth workers in the Edinburgh area looking for resources / specialist workers. Although produced a couple of years ago it can still be useful. Give it a go and let us know of contacts to be added or details needing changed.

www.youthgroupcontacts.co.uk