Empowering urban youth

Isn’t it funny when you find yourself either on the kiddy run or running round doing the daily grind how many young people you see in society, just hanging around the street corners and there attitude towards work, and how we see young people in society glorifying violence and abuse towards general people in society this only puts more fire in mine and the staff at STREETS to educate and motivate young people to maker a positive contribution to our society.

After 3 years hard graft and I mean hard graft our Moral education pack is to be launched which is designed to help young people understand the consequences of risk taking behaviour and the value of education and being a valid member of society.
The pack has been designed to help young people understand that regardless of their background, ethnicity, or gender that we all have a social obligation to be responsible members of society and that by working together as a community we can achieve so many positive things together.

Last month I had the pleasure of piloting a new programme at Blackburn College aimed at students who could be potential candidates for the new University in Blackburn the programme using a lot of http://www.NLPinthenorthwest.co.uk techniques and is designed to help the students look at their perception toward further education, building rapport, communication techniques to name but a few.
The students where blown away by some of the NLP techniques and when they came in the next day could not wait to share what they has noticed from the previous days workshop and how effective it is for communication and building relationship we are looking to continue to support the students and their learners.

The Consequence kit game that we use as an icebreaker game is going to be something on a national presence we have just had talks with a international distributor and they love the concept, we are in talks with a local business to discuss costing and prototype mock ups and obviously it has to go into every school in Blackburn with Darwen first be a local lad home gets it first ☺
Gearing up to the new academic year the support from the head teachers in BwD has been overwhelming and we are looking to support all the secondary schools and a large proposion of primary schools with our intervention programme called the wise monkey progeramme

Year 11 girls from Darwen vale took part in the invest in the best programme over the Easter period to help them with their exams coming up in the nest 6 weeks, the commitment and effort from the girls was 100% and they are a credit to themselves and the school and we cannot wait to see them achieve their predicted grades, some of which are A star’s.

Well 6 weeks to go and the education pack will be finally done and we cant wait to hear all the students results after their exams well done to you all who have put in the time and effort, it will be you that reaps the positive consequences mc=?

Moral education

Well talk about declimatising from one minute being in Goa India one minute sunning my bits at 30 degrees to next back to the good all Lancashire weather -4 brass monkey’s freezing of my bits, in a crazy kind of way got proper excited with the kids when on the news they was on about the snow coming and like most parents you think right lets get the sledges going and have some fun, and then the harsh reality kicks in how you cant get any where and everything turns to gridlock, I mean I was shopping at Asda and found it hilarious how people where scrapping for food like it was the end of the world or sumat, what all that about??

In a sad sort of way I could not wait to get back on the road and do some public speaking and help young people from various schools to take part in the STREETS programmes myself and Dunny are absolutely buzzing with the response we are getting back from schools and just to put the icing on the cake we got phone call from AQA saying they are so impressed with the programme they have said they would like to set us up as an educational body in BwD well you could of knocked me over with a feather, this is massive for the young people of BwD and will only add value to their educational path.

We was in St Bedes High School organizing some follow up sessions for pupils who was on the programme and the new extended school co-coordinator Andrea is proper switched on we where just coming up with loads of top ideas for their pupils and it was great for Head teacher Des Callaghan to offer his support to us as we are aiming to put as many schools from BwD through the STREETS programme for the new academic year this September myself and David have been working endlessly to find funding to help support our local school with the severe cuts we want to help as many school as possible and it is all moving in the right direction.

My NLP Masters has been going extremely well at NLP in the North West it is so good to work with like minded people who like myself are seeking to improve their personal development to help develop themselves to help develop others, Chris and Glenda and all the team are amazing and how they resent their material is on another level, myself and a lot of teaching staff I work with have found a lot of what we have learnt is having a massive impact in our day to day profession and personal life and I am indebted to NLP in the North West.

It was an honor for myself and Dunny to be invited to speak and support a local lad who has set up a charity call Inbetweenears.com to help raise awareness for people with life threatening brain tumors the lad we met Jay who may I add is only 28^th and had to face the horrible news of maybe loosing his life set up this charity and is a credit to the town of Blackburn it was an honor to speak at the event at Blackburn Rovers and we are supporting him going g forward with his project, “keep up the good work Jay”

Please visit http://www.inbetweenears.co.uk

Next month we are looking forward to supporting third year students from Blackburn College with our new programme we have just designed called “Time 4 Change” the programme is designed for young people age 16-24 to help them understand the importance of:

 

• SMART goals
• Attendance
• Respect
• Attitude
• Progress
• Attainment

These are just some of the outcomes the students will learn about thanks again to NLP in the North West for allowing us to implement what we have learnt from them to help support the students at Blackburn College.

Well its time for this hunk of Love to do what I do best get a brew on and make me dinner until next month campers inabit J MC=?

 

Another year another Chapter

I have been reading a book by a lady called Gill Edwards, Living magically before she sadly past away she wrote a lot of books on Metaphysics check me out coming out with big words like metaphysics ☺ and what is so beautiful about how Gill writes is that Metaphysics basically says that we create all the good and all the bad and it comes from our thought, WOW and I like you who are reading my blog will most certainly agree that we create all the good and all the bad, I teach all my students this that I work with on our STREETS programmes, you see I don’t want to go all religious on you, Buddha once said that all we are is our thought and you know what I can really get that you see from your thoughts come your choices, from your choices you take action, and from your action there are always consequences so many of the people I work with are really getting hold of this notion and the feedback I am getting is overwhelming, my question is to you what is your attention on most day because my friends allow me to share this with you energy flows where attention goes mc=?

Talking about thinking just over two years ago I was thinking of doing some joint work with the legend that is Adam Catteral, Radio 1, Foxy Bingo, ITV2 voice over to name but a few and Adam just like myself is proper proud of being Blackburn born and bread we work together a couple of times in Longridge school in Preston helping young people make the right choices and to my surprise I was in the office last month and got a tweet of him saying bang on Key 103 FM so me being me did just that and he was giving mister Consequence and STREETS UK a big shout out, I was splitting my kecks, to my surprise his Director of Key 103 overheard and wanted to set up a meeting to discuss helping young people in Greater Manchester looking at working in Partnership with Manchester city, how crazy can this ride continue to get well we had a great minute and although I am flattered by the idea and offer I explained my number 1 focus is for my home town sunny Blackburn and after I have spoken with the main man Dunny it would like we will open talks after Easter to pilot the programme.

The Wise Monkey programme was amazing this month we invited two groups from Walter Streets primary school in Brierfield to come on the programme at Blackburn Rovers the year 6’s were brilliant they absolutely loved the programme the success to the programme this month was down to BRFC, Training 2000, Blackburn University, BRFCtrust and http://www.earwigmedia.com/ the main aim of the programme is for the children to learn vital social skills whilst having fun in a learning environment we help them understand the consequences of risk taking behaviour and the value of education and top make the right choices what was amazing about the programes we ran is that I have been training a number of working partnership staff with a view to deliver the programmes and Sam Dix from BRFC has took to the programme like a fish to water the power of know lesson plan on not buckling to peer pressure was top drawer and I cant wait to present the mini documentary to the school and the parents

Great meeting with global clothing brand Russell Athletic met up with the national sales Director to open up talks for them to become the official working partnership to support our local charity with hoodies and goodies for young people who are classed as being venerable or at risk and I could not believe what they have offered us they said when we launch the charity website they wan to come up to Blackburn Rovers and place us on there global website what’s going on ☺ am loving it, loving it.

Another cracking talk to the year 8’ at Saint Wilfrids went down a storm the year 8’ s were brilliant and myself and Mr. Fuller are looking for the year 8’s to take on a project that I have been playing about with I registered a name called http://www.helpmanking.c.o.uk to encourage young people to come up with idea’s for the global community and we are looking at me mentoring the year 8’ with annual project next year to put Blackburn even more globally recognized and what has been overwhelming is getting my head round having to sign autographs me and Dunny have been having a right good laugh at this one after the last time we were in town and some young people came running up for an autograph and Dunny turned round and said yeh no problem and the young kids said, no sorry pal not you we want Mister Consequences Ha Ha I nearly wet my pants and so did Dunny ☺

Darwen Vale all the way well what a honor I was invited to speak twice at Darwen Vale for the annual achievement awards and what a gig Head teacher Fiona Jack and Deputy head Dave Hallam have won my heart over I work in a lot of schools and to see how they have this school buzzing is mega and to be given the opportunity to be the guest speaker was ace, it was so good to see a lot of old faces that I have grown up with and to be such a positive role model for there kids there are some big things happening for these kids at this school and I am grateful to have a part to play in helping them achieve there goals.

Next year is going to be the official launch of the STREETS moral education pack and we have had some great news that our glorious football club Blackburn rovers want to look at strengthen our working partnership to help support as many young people in BwD and East Lancashire the programme is nationally accredited and to know that we are a part in the future well being of the young people of BwD leaves speechless which is a first for me as we speak I am writing this Blog and then I am of to India to donate The Wise Monkey Programme to an Orphanage to young kids who should we say are not as fortunate as a lot of kids in BwD so as I started the blog about we create all the good and the bad (Metaphysics) don’t let anybody tell you that you cant be what ever it is what you want to be, keep your focus on your positive intentions and you will create what ever it is you want to achieve, as we say at STREETS when we believe, we can achieve, you keep believing and you most definitely achieve mc=?

The Wise Monkey Programme

Well it is good to be back on the old Alicia keys (the keyboard of my Macbook) been a right few months since my last blog, thought it would be good to touch base with the masses.

A lot has gone on since my last blog what a September spoke to over 2000 students most were the new intake from Blackburn college and every year now the crowd seem to get better and betterment a lovely girl from India who was ace and was clearly took back from the many life experiences I have had I love the fact when students come out and start spilling their guts on some of the many challenges they face whether it is drugs and alcohol or stuff going on at home so many different challenges, still challenges and it is great to hear their stories of what has been their way out of the negative stuff that is having a negative impact on their life.

Its been all go on the education pack side hence the consequences of no blogs as I have been working my little socks of most evenings its getting pretty desperate this commitment to the workload cant even find the time to have a relationship with a foxy lady, oh well I am committed to the cause I made my pledge with the big fella a number of years ago and I excepted my purpose and so the job at hand has to be fulfilled first. My business mentor and I am proud to say consultant Carl Allan has been a rock on the business side of things, as I just love to get out their and inspire the masses and right lesson plans like you would not believe to motivate and give the young people some thought provoking material Carl has been great and a big respect brother I am getting to grip with putting the systems in place that will definitely get STREETS UK national if not international I have every faith in your optimism Carlos.

Blackburn College students on the Invest in the best programme with MC=?

Motor Vehicle level 1

Hospitality level 1 and 2 they were a fantastic bunch

 

Learners from Training 2000 they was a great bunch.

Invest in the best has gone from strength to strength we piloted with year 10 and 11’s and now with the students at Blackburn College and Training 2000 and the feedback has been unbelievable so much so the staff from Blackburn Rovers Community Trust are well and truly ready to take this material and coach and train the learners the test this year was to be able to prove that other coaches as well as myself can deliver the material and it has worked big-time.

The Chapters programme has been like a run away train we had the privilege to get some funding of the community first panel to help support student from St Bedes High school so we too a small group of year 8 and 9 down to the bric to help them understand the consequences of risk taking behaviour and the importance self belief and education WOW this was a mega programme it was amazing to hear some of the feedback of how they see the world I and the staff were so happy with their contribution.

Year 8&9 from St Bedes on the Chapters programme working in partnership with Blackburn Rover community trust.

And then came the big one I was invited to go and spend 3 days in Scotland to meet people nationally and internationally who are making a change in the world it was so mind blowing met so many people who all wore their hearts on there sleeves I am eternally grateful to Sir Fred, John Moorhouse, Steve our facilitator and my group who were amazing and most of all my Anna Lisa my Canadian sister what a breath of fresh air you keep up the good work and keep on having the crack, just for you baby.

Took this whilst out walking with Anna Lisa from Vancover

Its also been all go on the personal development front my mentor Chris Grimsley from http://www.nlpinthenorthwest.co.uk/ (plug) has been on top form delivering his NLP practioner course and I have been assisting him and modeling a lot of the good stuff he does and also started my Master Practioner which is ace and cant wait to see everybody this weekend it has been challenging working most weekends, however it will all be worth it in the end its so addictive getting to understand yourself in turn to help others I love it.

And then the big one which is coming up is the new material for the Wise monkey programme OMG I have created a monster just over 18 months ago I was asked by the community safety team to come up with a programme as an intervention strategy to help primary school kids understand the consequences of risk taking behaviour I had never done any primary school work so I went and worked at my former primary school which was an amaiazin experience was so funny when I got talking to the head teacher she told me I was the first person she had ever smacked in her career and I explained that when I smashed every slate tile on the roof I was thinking of her (only joking) I did smash every tile but I wasn’t thinking of her, she was brilliant and 18 months later we have a programme which is helping a lot of youngster and we are delighted to invite Walter Street primary school to Blackburn Rovers throughout November.

Artwork from Banksy brother from another mother Cozy Gaz, thanks to Gary the kids well engage in the artwork material thanks for eeverything over the last 3 years Gary.

 

And the best news we have had in all of the good news is I have got a Pupil referral unit, a primary school and a secondary school who have allowed me to work with their teacher next year to coach them with a view to deliver the STREETS moral education pack and when we have achieved that by the end of term next year then watch this space because John boy and Dunny will be of to Westminster with our coalition to get thing throughout Blackburn with Darwen and then the big one in as many town and city’s helping young people tap into their untapped potential

When we believe, we can achieve mc=?

PS anybody who knows me knows my spelling and grammar is pants, consequences of not focusing on my education I am getting a bit better.

Be the change.

BE THE CHANGE THAT YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD

Dinga danga donga people well its still all flat out at this end the month started of with the first of many Chapters programmes working in partnership with the foundation for learning learners from training 2000 the work Alex O’Connor and all her staff do at T2K is amazing we are working closely to help the learners understand their true potential and help them gain a placement with a view to getting an apprenticeship and for me being given the opportunity for my AQA accredited risk taking programme to embedded into there curriculum is mind blowing the feedback from the learners was overwhelming and two of them are now in line for getting placement just to know that myself and all the staff have a part to play in their future success is tops.

 

This month was also a belter as MC=? And the staff were back on the road to Pleckgate high school to do our booby trap follow up sessions to see how the students have been applying what they learnt from the STREETS programme same again I feel like pinching myself the teachers said there had been a massive shift with some of the students I am not by any means making myself out to be whiter than white a few of the students have had there moment, however overall very positive feed back and we cant wait to go back in 8 weeks to award them with their AQA accredited STREETS awards for the consequences of risk taking behaviour and the value of education well done lads looking forward to working with you all again and remember monkey see, monkey do!

 

And it is still going strong at Our Lady’s primary school with the year 6’s Mr. Lane and Mrs. Downham have been so supportive of the wise monkey intervention programme we designed to help the youngster understand so many of the risks they encounter on a daily basis and to be consciously aware to make the right choices, me and Mr. lane have been working together since last October more or less every Friday morning and it has been a pleasure to work with some one who is so passionate of the future development of the year 6’s the children showed such intelligence with what they experience in a learning environment and also some of what they pick up living on the Higher Croft estate and to be in a position to share some of mine and other friends life experiences to help with there future is an honor and a pleasure thanks to all the teaching staff and managent at the school for allowing me to develop the wise monkey programme and when it is in every town and city helping kids remember were it all began you got it up on Sunny Croft J

 

Was a somber moment for everyone at the Consequence educational pack launch at the Dunkenhalgh with the Rogers family who tragically lost their son after a night of drunken violence which left their son murdered in Blackburn the overall strength of this family I cannot put into words and it has been an honor to work closelky with the family over the last couple of years I first met Adam Rogers Dad Dave and his uncle Jed when I spoke for Blackburn College two and half years ago and when I heard there story it balled me over I have lost a lot of friends over the year and being a Father of two myself was rocked to the core to hear there story and all I could think is what can I do to support this family and since that day we have become very close and I am honored to help them continue to educate the youth on the risks associated with drink and drugs and help them understand the consequences can have for everyone involved in senseless violence.

All go with the new STREETS invest in the best programme with the year 10 girls from Darwen Vale Miss Jack and Mr. Hallam and all the staff have been so supportive to help there year 10 girls achieve the most out of their education the girls were specially selected to come on the programme to help them push for A’s and A*’s and it is with great pleasure to work with such a right bright bunch and I will be buzzing when they get there grades and most of all when they get there A’s and A*’s the girls were taken away by how all the negative influences  that can hold them back and it was ace to see them sharing with each other how they can apply the programme to their lives to achieve success I am really looking forward to going back to the booby trap session to hear some of the success stories and most of all handing out their AQA awards well done girls keep up the good work when we believe, we can achieve on a personal note beware of the mask You Know!!!! J

And just to ramp it up a notch I have the pleasure of announcing that I did my second staff training programme with a view to deliver the STREETS programmes the staff at Blackburn Rovers were great and I could not believe how excited they were to start delivering the programmes I was like steady on kids im still taking this all in at the moment. It is mine and Dunny’s vision to have the programmes in every town and city’s community helping young people get into sport and understanding the consequences of risk taking behaviour and the value of education a big thank you to Gill and Duncan for all there ongoing support to make streets become an national programme and more to the point the beginning of the programme starting in sunny Blackburn with Darwen well campers that’s me until another fun packed June watch this space for the wise monkey documentary and the children’s books I have a meeting about and remember if you are not happy with what you are seeing in the world a good place to start is with yourself because be the change you want to see in the world

Peace MC=?

 

Invest in the best

INVEST IN THE BEST

 

Well what can I say apart from I am buzzing like a bee on a fresh summers morning J the programmes for STREETS UK and the Mister Consequence talks are helping so many young people in every area of their lives, on a personal note thanks to Community and Business partners and our strong working partnerships with the likes of Blackburn College, DACA, and Training 2000 myself and Dunny are eternally grateful over the last 6 months or so we have work with the likes of OLSJ, Pleckgate High, and Witton High and the overall feedback has been amazing first up was OLSJ and the work the school carries out is tops the group got so much from the programme and were blown away with the monkey see, monkey do material which is all around the consequences of copying negative behaviour was so happy to present them with their certificates should I say AQA certificates being a former member of the school and sadly myself not focusing on my education was quite an emotional moment for MC=?

 

Then on to Pleckgate High AKA the Pleckgate Massive I can honestly say the 3 groups that have attended the programme were so well mannered all the staff and elders at the energy zone were so impressed and they have been a credit to Mr. Campbell and all the staff at Pleckgate High School the all buzzed of the mask, monkey see and the consequence stuff so much and the overall feedback from the school has been overwhelming what is really powerful about what we do with the programme it to give the students the opportunity to go back to school and apply what they have learnt and when they come back the week after you cant shut them up (wicked man)

 

Then we had a mixed group from Witton high well callum and the boys and girls what can I say about your acting skills your role play was so powerful and demonstrated some of the challenges young people face on a daily basis with peer pressure and understanding the consequences of making the right choices visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Dso4qof04

 

And I was delighted to be invited to speak in Manchester by Darwen Aldridge community academy with Max Lacombe about the importance of believing in your ability to be an entrepreneur the events was top met so many people from up and down the country met a lady called Emma Walker who inspired me so much could not wait to tell my kiddies about this ladies ambition in business and how she had set up a successful company teaching young how to set up there own businesses.

 

And after the best part of 12 months I achieved my life coaching qualification in NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming it was very emotional for everybody on the course and I have never met so many lovely people who are so passionate about helping people this is a personal goal of mine in my life time to be recognized as one of the top Psychotherapist in the north west and thing get better and better, the chap that run the programme Chris Grimsley and his Wife Glenda who are absolutely beautiful have took me on and have become my mentor and we are in the process of developing a traing programme for staff and teachers visit NLPinthenorthwest.co.uk for more info.

 

Going forward into next month and the month after that Training 2000 have integrated my consequence programme into their curriculum and we are going to be training up their learners from next week and the same goes for Blackburn College just in the final stages to do something very similar with their students.

And last but not least on the charity side of things myself and David have had some great feedback from Counselor Maureen Bateson and Blackburn Rovers Community Trust the Charity which is (Streets of Blackburn) are looking to put things in place to create a STREETS MUGA league to help support young people who may be classed as venerable or at risk watch this space may I take this opportunity to wish you all the bets in everything you do and onto let anybody never tell you stop chasing your dreams, because as we say at STREETS UK When we believe, We can achieve.

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO!

Monkey see, monkey do!

It’s a funny old life.  I was sat with my children the other day helping them with their home learning and thinking about how much of a buzz I get seeing them work hard and get results. A far cry from my school days!

It’s become customary in our household to ask the children what they have learnt at school and what they have done in the day. As we all know kids come out with the funniest stuff. My son Lucas was explaining that a boy at his school always gets in trouble for swearing and a couple of the boys had been copying the bad language.  I asked my son what were the consequences of their action and my son explained they were removed from class and their parents had been informed. You could see the light bulb go on as the conversion continued. It was priceless.

I explained to the children that I’d been working in the junior school attended as a child, with year 6’s from OLPS on a programme called the ‘wise monkey’ you should of seen their little faces as I explained about influential behaviour. I told them the story about monkey see monkey do and how some children tend to copy bad behaviour and bad language. I also pointed out that there is a positive side to monkey see monkey do in that we can copy good behaviour and have respect for the teachers. I gave the children a couple of missions to do at school and to notice the children that do negative monkey see monkey do!

The programme is proving to be a success and next year Blackburn Rovers community trust and myself are looking to train their staff to deliver it to as much junior school as possible. Dunny and myself are extremely grateful to Gill and Duncan Kinlock for their ongoing support to help as many young people on the educational path with their personal progression.  Only just last week me and Dunny got the best news ever – our STREETS programme which help teenagers understand the consequences of risk taking behaviour, was accredited thanks to the trust so now for the young people not only will they gain vital social skills but also receive and AQA accreditation for there hard work.

It has been a roller coaster of a month and all the programmes are going like a run away train.  Chapters&STREETS are on fine song, as is the Wise Monkey programme but just to put the icing on the cake I designed a game called the Consequence Kit. It’s a fantastic piece of kit to help young people have fun at the beginning and end of lessons and I have been using it in schools, colleges, and training providers and throughout the community. The young people get a right buzz out of it, I could not believe my surprise when the Rovers Trust said they would like me to show their coaching staff to deliver the kit in there training session.  So we are putting things in place to help their staff deliver the kit and other programme as we say at STREETS when we believe, we can achieve!

Just before Christmas was also a dream come true as I was invited back to my old secondary school Our lady and St john to work with a lot of their students. All of the staff are so dedicated to the personal development of the students education and the feedback from my work has been overwhelming.  The school has asked me to be the main speaker at the achievement awards how good is that! I would personally like to thanks Miss Smith for her ongoing support and all the good work her and all the staff does with the students Respect.

I have officially gone national, as I have been working at Brighton Aldridge community academy. I am going to be looking forward to meeting Mr. Aldridge himself when the time is right, the whole ethos of how these academy operate is on another level and it is a huge honor and a pleasure to be part of the personal progression of the students I work with at the academies.  The Brighton students are the first to be going to receive the AQA from completing the programme and they were a pleasure to work with. It was a blast to the ego as most of the students were cuing up for my autograph seems to be happening a lot lately, oh well if it make them happy I’m cool with that, not bad for a lad from a council estate (Cream of the Croft, Higher Croft that is!)

I would personally like to thank and wish my good friend Radio 1’s Adam Catterall, the future legend of radio, all the best and thank him for his ongoing support. Its been so funny both of sharing our personal journeys as two Blackburn boys from council estates and living the dream, Adam’s early morning show has been priceless I am up most morning at 5am and to wake up and hear his banter on the airwaves has been mega, if you didn’t hear the one he did about his granddad at his 80^th or the one when he was on the racing track I strongly advise you check it out on the iplayer.  It was pure class in a glass just goes to show you it does not matter what type of background you are from or how you have been brought up, if you believe in your dreams and put the graft in what have you got to loose?  More to the point what if you were to monitor your own behaviour and start to ‘monkey see monkey do’ people who are doing something right in life and copy how they do things?  As the saying goes, if what you are doing is not getting you the results you want in life  - stop it and do something different.

Remember check yourself before you wreck yourself.