Big Society's Big Mouth Powered by v

In theory as well as practice is the belief of a Big Society helpful, or not, to young people?

Is the NCS likely to be effective?

Are young people being labelled?

Are young people more likely to participate or rebel?

Is the NCS likely to prove attractive, if so to who and why?

How much ownership do young people have?

Is young people’s ‘deviant’ or criminal behaviour likely to be reduced?

Will young people develop new skills or attitudes?

Is the idea of a Big Society more about saving money, control and surveillance or investment, citizenship and empowerment?

Is the government’s ‘flagship’ youth policy therefore a ‘good’ thing for young people or not?

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Hi All

Just a quick one, would like to introduce you all to Raj Gill, a dedicated, wonderful volunteer at KIC FM.

Hope you are all well.

Update
- we're still putting up a strong case for volunteering.
- we have had a lot of media coverage. Express and Star, Wolverhampton Chronicle.

Birmingham Mail / Birmingham Post
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2011/02/14/staff-at-wolverhampton-radio-station-kic-fm-hits-out-at-big-society-97319-28164428/

Beacon Radio
http://www.beaconradio.co.uk/news/headlines/bigsociety/

- huge support from our local MP Emma Reynolds, who plans to ask a question directly to David Cameron regarding KIC FM, Prime Mnisters questions very soon regarding Wolvrhampton and our volunteering culture.

- Full 15 minute documentary about the success of KIC is near completion and I will post it here. I plan to organise and host a special screening, of the first showing of the documentary, inviting guests, MPs, volunteers amongst many others which you are all welcome to come if you're interested.

Here is the trailer if you haven't seen already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_07syjcqAHM

Thanks

Please say hello to Raj and watch her video blog :)

Kenny Mach
KIC FM Station Manager

www.twitter.com/kenny_mach
www.twitter.com/kicfm
http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_156115364434140&ap=1 Read less

Got a question for David Cameron? Well, here's your chance to ask it.

YouTube's World View programme, in partnership with Al Jazeera, is inviting people to submit questions to Mr Cameron about domestic AND foreign policy.

So whatever you're concerned about - the economy, education, health, or the big society - just go to www.youtube.com/worldview to submit your question in either video or text.

You can also tweet in your question - just use #askthePM hashtag in your tweet, and it will automatically be added to the World View queue.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister will sit down for a special interview and answer a range of the most popular questions submitted by you. The interview will be available on YouTube on Friday, February 25.

Get your skates on - the deadline to submit your question is midnight GMT on Tuesday 22nd February.
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By making the Big Society his personal ‘mission’ David Cameron appears to be staking his reputation as Prime Minister on a project that many believe is doomed to fail.

This is a project which Cameron was under no obligation to assume such individual responsibility for and one which – given time and the right amount of spin – could have been made to fade into the background long before it became too big an issue to forget. The Big Society was introduced to the public at a very early stage of Cameron’s premiership and with such a long time before the next general election it could have potentially been hidden behind future policies, ideas or slogans had an early diagnosis deemed it too flawed to succeed.

But the more it is talked up the harder that becomes and given that he has effectively had to re-launch it already, not even a year later, there is surely no scope for another re-launch at any point in the future. Either the project succeeds as it is or it fails and, though it remains to be seen, the latter scenario may well inflict irreparable damage upon Cameron’s reputation.

With this in mind I have a few questions:

Does such a public display of commitment to such a widely criticised project indicate that he truly believes it can, or perhaps even will, be a success?

Or does he think that, despite its obvious flaws, abandoning such a flagship idea at this stage would damage his reputation so much that the only course of action available is to commit more resources to it - the best form of defence is to attack, so to speak?

And finally, does Cameron’s personal involvement in such a high-profile, slogan-driven campaign not simply illustrate that creating a memorable legacy is his number one priority as Prime Minister? Read less

it may be just me, but I feel David Cameron has come up with this idea to try and distract us from some of the outrageous decisions he's already made that relate to the younger section of society, in my opinion he's saying he'll listen to our opinions and what we think of new laws and legislations, but what are the odds that the government will actually listen? to me this big society is probably the equivalent of Cameron coming out of downing street saying "yes I know you have opinions, please put them in this box, nicely labelled "Bin" Read less

So, who's been following this week's argument between Dame Elisabeth Hoodless and the big man himself, David Cameron?

Dame Elisabeth (also dubbed 'The Mother of Volunteering') is the retiring CEO of Community Service Volunteers, and she's come out fighting! She reckons the government's Big Society ideas is being undermined by savage spending cuts, which have not been properly planned. What's the point of asking people to volunteer in their local library, if it's closed down before they get there?

Looks like Dave is starting to feel the heat. During Prime Minister's questions this week, he denied that Dame Elisabeth's claims had any merit. 'I don't agree with what she says' said Cameron, and went on to outline the programme of planned government investments in the voluntary sector, totalling £570m.

However, as Stephen Bubb, CEO of ACEVO points out, the overall impact of the cuts to the voluntary sector is estimated to be close to £1bn - so it's hard to see how £570m will help to plug the gap.

Got a message for Dave? Or any ideas to help him salvage his dream for a Big Society? Post it here:

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