England

The Stop it Now! England campaign recruits a new manager!
Just before Christmas 2009, the new Stop it Now! National Manager for England, Liz Maslen, came into post. With a background in social marketing, childcare, and volunteer development, Liz has brought a useful mix of experience and skills to the Stop! team. Since her arrival, Liz has been busy planning a programme of national awareness-raising activities and has thus far spent time developing links in the North-East and in Yorkshire. She has been targeting a range of organisations from across the statutory and voluntary sector, with the aim of developing Stop it Now! activities within each government region – be that in the shape of conferences & seminars for professionals, workshops for parents, or sponsored fun-days. Thus far the Stop it Now! key messages have been well received and Liz will be moving on to the North-West over the coming months. To find out when Liz will be in your area OR to invite her to an event in your area – you can contact her on 01527 406915 or via email at lmaslen@stopitnow.org.uk.

England Conferences prove a big success!
During March, the England campaign orchestrated the delivery of no less than FOUR conferences – held in Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Worcestershire and Somerset. These were organised in partnership with local police forces and LSCB’s, and aimed at a multi-agency audience of practitioners from those areas. Workshops included input on internet safety, female abusers, and working with children & young people with harmful sexual behaviour. Evaluations indicated that delegates had found the conferences informative and thought-provoking and, because of exceptional local demand, we will be delivering a second conference in Hampshire on 5th July  – please see our Events page for further details on this.

New project development gets a boost
In the wake of our recent conferences, over 60 delegates have expressed an interest in working with us to develop Stop! projects in their locality so, with this in mind, the England manager will be meeting with these delegates over the coming months, to explore what types of work might be developed – look out for an update in our next newsletter.

London Project reaches out to Children’s Centres
Following on from its launch, our project in London is now developing links with Children’s Centres across London, to enable the delivery of its “Let’s Start Talking” workshops to parent groups – see our London page for further details and contact information.

Birmingham & Black Country – “Educate 2 Protect” Event – 17th June
Having now completed the Educate to Protect pilot across Birmingham and the Black Country, our project team are now organising a “Key Findings” event to report back on the activities they have delivered – see our Black Country page for contact details and liaise with the team if you are interested in attending this event.