Life's 2 Short Project
Life’s 2 Short was a collaborative project between the National Care Advisory Service and Connexions West Yorkshire. It ran from February 2007 until July 2008 and focused specifically on how to increase the numbers of young people from care in education, training and employment.
The project involved close working with each of the West Yorkshire local authorities (Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees and Calderdale) as well as drawing from good practice from further a field. Young people from care were at the heart of the project, trying to demonstrate that making a difference will be most effective when done through the empowerment of young people click here to view the end of project report.
Good practice evaluation
During the course of the summer 2007, young people carried out various bits of good practice evaluation in five areas:
- improving corporate parenting;
- supporting education;
- raising education aspirations,
- improving work experience and preparation for work,
- employing young people from care.
Young people looked at work in eight local authorities. Each time they asked questions: What makes this successful? What are the strengths and weaknesses? How was this practice set up and how would it be done elsewhere? What might have a bigger impact?
All this work was published in a good practice evaluation report, click here to view the report.
Young People’s Blogs
As part of the Life’s 2 Short project, young people kept diaries of the visits and meetings they attended for the project. The blog was set up by a young person and was then updated after each piece of work completed or meeting attended. With around 50 pages of entries it is well worth a look. www.lifes2shortwy.blogspot.com
