Owner: Talented Young People URL:http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 10:07:23 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: In the blog you will be able to read stories of inspirational people, stories from some of the projects the organisation is involved in as well as motivational words and discussion on how recent news has affected young people. Site statistics:Click here
Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack 2007-10-18 14:13:00 Over the last 10 years our TV screens have been bombarded by reality TV shows and TV Talent contests. The names of the programmes have changed and the situations the contestants on these shows have changed over the years but the formula has never changed.Times are changing though as now the guys behind the TV series ‘Big Brother
’ have come up with a new concept titled ‘Big Brother
: CelebrityHijack
’. The show is due to air in early 2008 instead of the usual yearly celebrity Big Brother series.This time round they are asking not for the most outrageous young people like they usually have in the regular Big Brother series but instead they are asking for young people with talents and young people with inspiring stories to come on the show.What the show will entail is still under wraps but this is one of the biggest opportunities given by a reality TV series for young people with talent to get some major prime time TV coverage. I take my hat off to the guys behind this programme as
YoMo National Youth Conference 2007-10-23 13:16:00 This week sees one of the biggest and most important youth conferences in the UK taking place in Chester. The brilliant youth organisation YoMo are putting on the Practical Ideas for Participation event spanning across two days from Trafford Hall.YoMo have brought together some of the biggest and most important youth organisations to talk, discuss, share and to run workshops. This conference is going to be the first time some of the invited youth organisations and youth workers have ever been in the same room together or talked with each other and I for one can’t wait.There is so much good work going on by many youth workers and youth organisations across the globe that goes under the radar. This conference is going to be a great chance to find out about the great work going on at the moment and the difference which is being made. The news headlines are unfortunately grabbed by some of the most depressing stories surrounding young people so this is going to be a great chance to re-ad Read more:National
Are young people at risk? 2007-10-31 18:50:00 Hey guysHope you all had an awesome week. I have a brilliant time down at the YoMo national youth conference. There was so much energy and passion for helping youngpeople
during the conference it was unbelievable. On my journey home from the conference I started thinking about this blog that I wanted to share with you.In this week’s blog I want to talk about a term which I find is banded about very wrongly and that is the term ‘at risk.’ It’s a term which is a buzz word when it comes to young people and working with young people. So today I want to tell you all about what I feel the true meaning of ‘at risk’ is.The one problem I have with many people is that they only see areas with huge crime levels and social problem as the areas to help. We need to start getting proactive. Youth work needs to be the prevention business not the cure. Just because you live in a nice area now doesn’t mean that it is going to be a nice area in a year’s time.You never know what is going
Talented Young People is one year old! 2007-11-07 16:16:00 This week marks the first birthday of Talented Young People. We started with a bang last year on fireworks night and haven’t looked back since. With no government, grant or corporate funding Talented Young people has grown like wildfire thanks to the support of you guys our viewers and our users.We started off only attracting one hundred people a week to the site but now thanks to support from organisations like the BBC we now receive 2,000 unique viewers a week and in one year have helped close to 50,000 young people get that step closer to their dream.In a world where the internet has been used for so many unlawful or just unpleasant acts like spreading viruses, spamming your inbox or committing identity fraud I think it is important that we get more websites online that want to help people. At the end of the day you aren’t going to stop people from using the Internet we are never going to win that battle but if we can create more websites that are there to help people we are goi
Funding and Grants for Charities and Not for Profit organisations 2007-11-14 17:15:00 I have been wanting to talk about funding and grants in my blog for many weeks as it is an area that I feel very strongly about and feel that my thoughts need to made public on. This is a long rant so bear with me as I think many of you will agree with what I have to say.Many Charities
and Not for Profit organisations rely on funding and grants from trusts, the lottery, the government and many more funding awarding bodies to carry out their daily activities. Through my years of being involved in charities and Not for Profit organisations I have never experienced a worse or harder time for these organisations to exist in.Now I come from a media background so every week I purchase a copy of the Guardian on Monday for their media section which is a very well respected section in media circles. In this section they have pages and pages of the latest media jobs. Well that use to be the case as now when I open it up there seems to be more job adverts for Fundraising Managers with salaries of Read more:Funding
NAGC Awards 2007-11-21 16:34:00 This Friday (23/11) I will be making my way to Ironmongers Hall in London to represent Talented Young People at the NAGC (National Association for Gifted Children) Awards
as part of their 40th Birthday Celebrations. We are so proud to be nominated to receive an award at this brilliant event.After just celebrating our first birthday it is very hard to fathom 40 years but it is a great achievement and milestone for the NAGC. I will be so glad when Talented Young People make it to that milestone. Just think about the difference you can make in 40 years and the difference the NAGC have made.In a world which is changing by the day for charities and organisations for a charity to exist and thrive over 40 years is an amazing feet. Not only have they seen radical changes in the charity world but radical changes in the educational world which they as an organisation have had to change with. These days a lot of charities and organisations are set up to help with problems or issues in areas where
Success and Failure 2007-11-28 16:48:00 What an incredible week it’s been. Last Friday I attended the NAGC (National Association for Gifted Children) Award on behalf of Talented Young People and was honoured to pick up the award for ‘Most Supportive Individual’ which was presented by the Duchess of Gloucester at the Ironmongers hall a venue in which they have filmed scenes for the popular Harry Potter film franchise. On the flipside it has been one of the worst weeks for our national game here in England that being football or soccer depending on where you come from.We here at Talented Young People aren’t doing what we are doing to win awards and it isn’t what drives our organisation but it is great to be recognised by such a brilliant well known organisation and to know that their staff, members, volunteers and children they help think we are doing a great job. As well as the awards the event provided a great chance to network with many professionals and volunteers within the NAGC and other organisations set up to Read more:Success
Pantomimes 2007-12-05 16:36:00 With less than three weeks to go to Christmas Panto season is upon us. Pantomimes are a Christmas tradition here in the UK the same as mince pies and late night shopping. Pantomimes are put on in nearly every theatre up and down the country with a raft of celebrities appearing in a range of roles and productions, anything from ‘Aladdin’ to ‘Peter Pan.’As well as being a good way of getting in the festive spirit Pantomimes are a great chance for families to all go and watch some live theatre together. Pantomimes are designed to be fun for all the family and this is the way the shows are produced and promoted. If a kid in the audience laughs, shouts, screams or cries it is seen as acceptable and part of the experience as pantomimes are all about interaction but with many theatre productions during the year this wouldn’t be acceptable so parents can’t always take the young ones with them.Now I bet your thinking why am I talking about pantomimes in my weekly blog, well the reas
Sports personality of the Year Award 2007-12-12 16:42:00 For sport fans across the UK the BBC's Sport Personality of the Year show is an institution. The show aired live last Sunday from the Birmingham NEC as part of a bumper weekend of UK sport with Ricky Hatton competing in Las Vegas for a world boxing title.The two hour show which as well as handing out awards recaps the year in sport did give us an overview of a year which has been an almost but not quite year for British sports. We had the England Rugby team losing in the final of the World Cup, England and Scotland's football teams just missing out on Euro 2008, Lewis Hamilton finishing as runner up in his first season in Formula 1 and finally Ricky Hatton losing to Floyd Mayweather Jnr on Saturday night in Las Vegas.Now the UK may only be a small isle but it is a proud nation who can boast of being the home of many sports and many famous sporting triumphs. The last few years however have been littered with underachievement and near misses. On Saturday thousands of British fans of Read more:Sports
, Award
X-Factor Final - The Final Verdict 2007-12-19 16:41:00 So who stayed in this Sunday to watch the X-Factor final? Millions of people across the UK tuned in to see who would win the forth series and the 1 million pound record deal that went with it. Being big supporters of young people with talent we here at Talented Young People were very glad to see four young people under the age of 25 vying to become the X-Factor winner.As you probably already know the Scottish crooner Leon beat off competition from Same Difference and Rhydian to win the contract but not before a cracking final and series before it. What I thought was so great about it was what each contestant brought to the competition.Many people watch X-Factor for a bit of escapism for every day life or the struggles they are going through. Regardless of whether they won the contest or not I though each contestant had one of the most awesome privileges there is which is to entertain the British public. Regardless of whether or not the people at home liked them or disliked them whether Read more:Final
, Verdict
Facebook Fatigue 2008-03-05 16:50:00 The last two years has seen an explosion of social networking activity on the Internet. With websites like MySpace, Bebo and Facebook
attracting millions of users who log on each day to check their profiles, upload photos and talk with their friends.Over recent weeks Facebook has reported in a downturn in activity on their website and it is lead to people claiming “Facebook Fatigue
.” With so much hype about Facebook and so much to do on their websites with millions of applications that you can download or get invited to take part in people are now starting to get bored of their product or are starting to use it in a less active way.I think social networking has its good points and its bad points. I think social networking websites are great for developing confidence and networking skil
Award Ceremonies 2008-02-27 17:13:00 February seems to be awards month with many awards evenings, events and presentations taking place. If you live in the UK you will have been aware of the Brit Award
s which recognises musical talent in the UK and if you live in the US you would have been aware of the Oscars event which recognises talent in the film industry.Now award shows are great especially when it is you that is getting an award. Watching awards is also fun if you follow the industry in which the awards are taking place as you always have your own personal favourites that you think should or should have won.The one problem I have with awards is that in many award shows you never know what actually happened for that person act or piece of media to get the award. They say things like judges or the board voted but you are
Welsh Tragedy 2008-02-20 17:10:00 If you live in the UK you will be aware of the current situation in Wales, which is grabbing the headlines where twenty-one young people have died of suspected suicide in the last year. The people of Britain and the police have been left scratching their heads to what the reason could be for so many young people taking their lives.One suicide a year is unacceptable so to lose twenty-one young lives is a tragedy. Now the Police may be doing their bit but to work out why these tragedies occurred but it is up to the people of the UK to do more to make sure their deaths were not in vain.Teenagers need more support than they are getting. During your teenage years you are asked to deal with emotions and experiences, which you aren’t ready to deal with, and it can be one of the most frightening Read more:Tragedy
The BAFTA's 2008-02-13 19:00:00 In what was tipped to be the biggest film awards night of the year before the Writers Guild of America called an end to their strike this week to safeguard the Oscars Ceremony the BAFTA
’s took place last weekend. Now for those of you who don’t know BAFTA stands for British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Now I am all for awarding and celebrating talent, brilliance and creativity but my problem with these awards is that there were only a few British nominations in the main categories and even fewer British winners.In today’s world we need to continue to improve cohesion and links between countries but that doesn’t mean we should promote those other countries talent before promoting our own talent. The American awards evening the Oscars promote American film talent before any ot
Experience over Qualifications? 2008-02-06 16:31:00 This week I am addressing a hot topic which over the last year I have found myself in many long conversations talking about and discussing this being what is more important to have in order to get a job experience or qualifications?With the rise in number of people attending university and completing Degrees it seems that some of the shine have been taken off them especially now that you can get a degree in any thing from Surfing to David Beckham. No longer is university just for the financial and social elite.Getting a job and doing well at a job interview is all about standing out from the crowd and being better than the other candidates so now with degrees being common place it seems a degree alone will not cut it in the workplace. Many job adverts are now asking for a minimum of three Read more:Qualifications
Successful People 2008-01-30 17:35:00 This week I wanted to use the blog to talk about successful people and the things I think are stopping successful people being as successful as they could be. Now one of the most successful businessmen of our generation is Bill Gates. Unlike a celebrity who’s film you may have seen or song you may have heard you are practically guaranteed to have used a bit of software which was made or designed by Bill Gates company Microsoft by the time you are 18. With this success though I bet you don’t talk about him as much as your favourite singer or actor even though he is richer and more successful than that singer or actor.Now I can’t claim to be an expert on Bill Gates and how he made his money but the one thing I always see in the news is him or his company being stopped from doing someth
American Idol 2008-01-23 17:54:00 Hot off the heels of UK talent series X-Factor, American
Idol has launched on to our screens in the UK this week. The series premiered a couple of days earlier in the states that it was aired in the UK where it is a weekly ratings winner on Fox and in a prime time slot. Here in the UK we have to tune in to ITV 2 to catch the first screenings at a decent hour or wait and hope that it is shown during the day on the main ITV channel.I think it is brilliant to be able to see talents shows from different countries as by watching them we can make general assessments about talent levels in comparison with our own nation and know if we are falling behind.I feel American Idol
has a very different feel to UK shows like X-Factor. On American idol when they show the audition stage its edited together
Downloading Music on the Internet 2008-01-16 16:44:00 This week British Record Label EMI have announced they are to cut 2,000 jobs worldwide to cut costs in the face of falling CD sales and the problems encountered with the new digital music era. In light of this news I am going to give you my take on the current state of the worldwide music scene and what I think needs to be and can be done to help young people in the music industry.I think that the music scene was always going to see casualties and a lot of money expended by companies in the transition between CD being the leading format to Digital Downloads taking the helm. This will only be a short term financial problem as when Digital Downloads, MP3’s and MP3 players are as common in the home as CD Players and CD’s have been over the last decade then the Record Labels will have the Read more:Downloading
, Music
, Internet
Big Brother Celebrity Hijack 2008-01-09 16:37:00 Last Thursday the latest series of Big Brother
kicked off but with a twist this time instead of the housemate being celebrities they are a group of talented young people who could go on to be celebrities. Some of the housemates include a MoBo nominated singer, the Chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament and one of the top young fashion designers in the world who have had their work showcased at New York Fashion week. You may remember we broke the news on this series many months ago on the blog when the production company were looking for housemates but now I am going to talk about how the series is going.The first we need to ask ourselves is would this series be going ahead in this format this year if it wasn’t for last year’s race row? And if it wasn’t for last years race row woul Read more:Celebrity
, Hijack
, Big Brother
New Year's Resolutions 2008-01-01 04:54:00 Happy New Year
everyone and welcome to 2008. Most of the world were out partying last night to bring in the New Year and with that has probably brought a lot of tired people this morning, as I write this blog it is 10am on the 1st of January and I have already been up for four hours.With much of the day wasted for many recovering from the night before it is important that we don’t let this become the norm or else before you know it we will be celebrating 2009 and you will again look back on another year which promised so much but delivered so little. The truth is life only delivers on what you have put in and you need to make sure that 2008 and every year after is one which delivers great things for you.Today will see many New Year’s Resolutions
made which will include everything from
Getting the right start – School selection 2008-03-12 17:48:00 Over the last couple of weeks the news that has been revolving around the educational world and some of then national headlines has been the selection
process of parents selecting a school for their child. According to news today one in five parents didn’t get their child in to their first choice school. Now I know every parent wants the best for their child but my parents never got the chance to select my school, I just went to my nearest school and got a quite adequate education.When did this first come in to place that parents could choose? I am all for parents taking an active role in their child’s development but the question I have is how can someone know where a child is going to learn and develop the best? Yes you can look at schools and see which have the best facilities and w Read more:School
Website back online 2008-03-15 06:45:00 Hi GuysJust to let you know after a brief period offline due to issues with our server we are now back online
and fully functional.The Talented Young People teamwww.talentedyoungpeople.com
Sports Funding 2008-03-19 18:28:00 It’s a big year for sport this year with the Olympics this summer as well as other big events like the football European Championships. Sports
are making big headlines at the moment with the Formula 1 season kicking off the last weekend and the upcoming climax of the premiership football season. This week there was some great news for young up and coming football players (or soccer players as otherwise known) in England as the FA announced plans to pump two hundred million pounds in to grassroots football. Many organisations and government parties have promised ideas like this for many years but now finally the FA are making a heavy financial investment.After much time spent working and playing in the football community I am all too aware of the problems that exist. Young people need saf Read more:Funding
Inspiration - Live Events 2008-03-26 17:58:00 Last weekend I was lucky enough to go and see Kelly Clarkson in concert at my local music venue. Now for those of you who don’t know who she is she was the winner of the first series of American Idol and has since gone on to produce three albums winning many awards in the process. Now Kelly Clarkson may not be your scene but the whole experience of going to live events go me thinking.Now we all have our favourite artists when it comes to music who we enjoy listening to or in my case singing along to, on top of this many of us are inspired by our favourite artists through their music and their personality. For me though there is nothing more inspiring than going to see someone perform live. Actually seeing someone with our own two eyes in the flesh and listening to them performing live cr Read more:Inspiration
I'd Do Anything! 2008-04-02 17:48:00 I’d Do Anything is a line normally used by people who want to get something or achieve something but I am not talking about that in this weeks blog. Of course I am referring to it as the line from Oliver and the title of the new BBC Saturday night talent search programme which if you live in the UK you will have probably heard something about or seen some of the shows.The series is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s third attempt to find a star of his latest musical production after two successful runs finding talent for The Sound of Music and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. This time he is looking for people to fill the two roles of Oliver and Nancy in Oliver The Musical. This series is different to previous years as they are looking to fill two roles instead of one but the big twis
Career Advice! 2008-04-09 16:07:00 The BBC news website reported two news stories on the subject of career advice and chosen careers which got me thinking:://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7318919.stmNow I can’t say I am shocked by these findings as I have thought this for some time and it’s quite funny how these stories which are so related came out in the same week. I believe that career advice has been inadequate for some time and big changes need to be made if we are going to get young people in to the right careers and get unemployment levels down.The education system seems to have a one size fits all approach with students forced to become jack of all trades and master of none in a race to look good in the school league tables. The only thing schools get graded on are exam grades and not what careers their students Read more:Career
Underdogs 2008-04-15 14:34:00 This week I wanted to talk about being an underdog. If you are a football fan you will be very aware of underdogs as this season it has been the year for the underdog with many lower league teams beating Premiership opposition to make the later stages of the FA Cup. In my opinion the greatest underdog achievement though came last weekend as my team Queen of the South from the Scottish First Division made history by reaching their first ever cup final by beating Aberdeen 4 – 3 in a thrilling semi.An underdog is someone or a team that people don’t think will win or succeed against their opposition. It’s not just in sport where you get underdogs but in everyday life. It’s like when some young people are written off from achieving anything because of their background or the area they l
What is Talent? 2008-04-23 17:12:00 In the UK millions of people are getting caught up in the second series of Britain’s Got Talent
. After a successful first series and after the concept being sold to TV networks across the globe the UK’s thirst for TV talent shows still remains. For those that don’t know anything about the show it’s a talent competition with the winner getting the chance to perform in front of royalty at The Royal Variety Show (wonder what winners in other countries win?)The series has got me thinking and has been a subject of many conversations I have been having recently. The show brings up the question of what is talent? The show has no limits and is just about people performing in front of the judges which has meant we have seen some weird and wacky people and talents on display from people brea
The Importance of After School clubs and activities 2008-04-30 17:09:00 This week in the news it has been reported that in the region of 500 schools are having their after school club budgets cut in Northern Ireland.Now due to the financial situation of the UK and the changes in society with higher numbers of single parent families the importance and demand of these clubs is much higher. Many families cannot afford the rising cost of childcare and cannot afford to clock off work early and lose hours of paid work.On top of this we have national rises in the level of youth related crime with many people and organisations crying out for better facilities for young people to keep them off the street. This is why I think it is a sad day when things like this happen and cutting their budgets is a very short sighted idea as the money saved by this could be lost in th Read more:School
, activities
Pushy Parents 2008-05-07 16:46:00 In this week’s blog I wanted to address a topic that I haven’t addressed yet but a topic I find myself discussing on a regular basis which is ‘Pushy Parents
.’ With the financial rewards for success getting even bigger and bigger and with more young people in the media spotlight is it creating more pushy parents?For many years pushy parents have been associated with child models and child actors but now it seems there are Pushy Parents who are pushing their children to success in all manner of activities. Not only now is there great financial reward for success but social kudos for parents for having successful children and in some cases stigma around parents whose children don’t succeed as we as a society become more interested in what everyone else is doing and keeping up with t
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