Latest Episodes
124 Christina Gabbitas ‘No more knives’
‘No more knives’ by Christina Gabbitas is a book and animation for 10 yr old + primary children educating them about how to avoid grooming,county lines and knife crime. A valuable addition to safeguarding resources.
Today I am happy to be back after the Winter break and Christina’s work is always worthwhile. She talks of the professional relationships she’s formed with several police forces and police and crime commissioners.
Christina Gabbitas http://www.christinagabbitas.com is an award-winning children’s author who has encouraged many children nationally with an annual poetry initiative, giving her a Dame Beryl Bainbridge award in 2015 for her work and Sue Ryder Education Award in 2016. Founder and Trustee of Children’s Literature Festivals http://www.childrensliteraturefestivals.com whose mission is to give children from all backgrounds, cultures and abilities an equal opportunity of having access to books to realise the power of reading not just educationally but socially and emotionally too.Christina received a Mayoral Award for Services to Children’s Literature and Child Protection, and was made an Honorary Member of the NSPCC Council for the work that she has undertaken in safeguarding children. Christina’s book Share Some Secrets was awarded a national book prize in 2019, and the publication is now encouraging children to speak out and being recognised globally. The animation resource and publication is being utilised in some PCC’s child exploitation toolkits.
In addition Christina’s more recent work has been visiting primary and secondary schools with Humberside Police, Funded by Humberside Police & Crime Commissioners Office and North Yorkshire Police, Funded by North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners Office, educating children and young people about the signs of grooming, the harnful effects of taking drugs, county lines and the consequences of carrying knives.
Christina wrote a story from an initial commission by Police & Crime Commissioners Office in Humberside where she produced a story to help educate children on the dangers of being groomed into County Lines and being involved with knife crime. http://www.nomoreknifecrime.com The partnership also included a writing initiative with children aged 10+
The story was converted into an animated format that she has been using within her sessions working with PCSO’s and Police Officers.
Schools Feedback. Check what’s been said.
https://www.benthamcpschool.org.uk/news/2022/no-more-knives-or-county-lineshttps://planetradio.co.uk/greatest-
author/https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/19662948.author-christina-gabbitas-backs-police-county-lines-scheme/
Children perspective https://www.nomoreknifecrime.co.uk/humberside-police/
Animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXNVQ4VcBts
The situation in Ukraine is beyond belief. The flood of vulnerable refugees that include so many lone children. Agencies such as Missing Children Europe are struggling to respond. They are doing great work with limited resources and our thoughts are with them.
Thanks ,as always, to https://www.albadigitalmedia.com for technical support.
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123 Missing Children Europe Part 2
Aagje Ieven is Secretary General at Missing Children Europe www.missingchildreneurope.eu , where she is responsible for the strategic development and day-to-day management of the organization.
In this second podcast we talk of a significant group of missing children in Europe—those who run away. We look at why, from the obvious to the preventable and talk of the gaps in response and education surrounding this chronic problem.
Aagje has a background in Health (Bachelor, Leuven 1998) and Political Philosophy (Master, Leuven, and Nijmegen, 2002). She has close to twenty years of experience in research and policy analysis on human rights in Europe and has worked for a number of EU civil society organisations advocating for the rights and wellbeing of children and their families. She coordinated a campaign for the rights of children in vulnerable situations and managed a European membership network supporting families affected by mental health issues. At Missing Children Europe she established a research and training programme on runaways, the largest category of missing children, and led the advocacy on the new EU Child Rights
Currently Secretary General at Missing Children Europe, Aagje heads the European umbrella organisation for ngo’s working on the issue of missing children. They strive to protect and empower children to prevent them from going missing, and they do this by supporting the professionals in our network with research, training, advocacy and awareness raising. They focus on runaways, children abducted by a parent, and unaccompanied migrant children. They coordinate the network of 116000 missing child hotlines which children and families can call when a child is (at risk of going) missing. They also run a network of cross border family mediators that international families which are separating can contact for support.
At missing children, Aagje is responsible for day-to-day management of the organization and setting out the strategic lines together with the Board.
Aagje joined Missing Children Europe almost three years ago, and have since then established their research and training programme on runaways, called RADAR, have established child participation in the organisation, have led our advocacy on the new EU Child Rights Strategy, and is currently working on their new four year strategy 2022-2025.
Research conducted as part of the INCLUDE project shows that overlooking children in international abduction cases leads to feelings of helplessness and anxiety.They work with professionals who assist missing children, children at risk of going missing and their families. MCE supports them to better protect and empower children through research, training, advocacy, and awareness, facilitating exchange and cross-border cooperation. They coordinate the network of 116000 missing children hotlines, and the Cross-Border Family Mediators network. In all of these ways it contributes to more effective, holistic and integrated child protection systems across Europe.
Missing Children Europe website where you will find all of our projects and annual reports: https://missingchildreneurope.eu/
International family conflict – families can find Cross Border Family Mediators here: https://crossbordermediator.eu/
Long term missing cases – NotFound application for all website owners: https://notfound.org/en
Children in Migration – Miniila application with info for unaccompanied minors: https://miniila.com/
Children in Migration – Lost in Migration conference for professionals in the field: http://lostinmigration.eu/#page-top
Children in Migration – Tiny and Apollo campaign to start a different conversation on migration: https://www.tinyandapollo.com/
Thanks as always to www.albadigitalmedia.com for technical assistance with the podcast.
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122 Social Work in China.
Professor Johnston Hong-Chung WONG talks of social work in mainland China and Hong Kong as well as an organisation he co-founded —Social Workers Across Borders.
Johnston Wong, Professor in Social Work and Social Administration, started his career as a youth worker in Hong Kong. His early academic interests focused on youth and family work, branching out to psychological stress, unemployment and industrial social work. In Hong Kong he participated in various district and central government committees related to youth policies, education, social care and hospital governance. Since 2005 he was involved in many post disasters social work interventions and become the non-executive director of the Social Workers Across Borders. www.swab.org.hk In 2006 he joined UIC as a Faculty member and helped to design the Service Learning Scheme and Emotional Intelligence Programs as parts of Whole Person Education. Later he was appointed as the Chief of Student Affairs. He taught many courses like Social Work and Chinese Laws, Disaster and Emergency Management, Healthcare Social Work, Social Group Work and Crisis Interventions.
Social Workers Without Borders is a post-disaster humanitarian care organization, currently working in Greater China, especially the Mainland, and is committed to providing spiritual reconstruction and development of social work projects for post-disaster residents. Regardless of politics, race, religion or nationality, we are mainly professional social workers, uphold the belief that love knows no borders, provide professional voluntary services, and provide emotional and mental health support and spiritual reconstruction services for families and individuals in disasters or difficulties.
Quote from Social Workers Across Borders www.swab.org.hk who specialise in disaster management in China.
“On December 26, 2004, there was a terrifying tsunami in South Asia. This natural disaster strongly shook the hearts of everyone on the planet. As a social worker, besides giving financial support, can I do one more step? We hope to provide professional social work services locally. Therefore, a group of aspiring social workers immediately formed “Social Workers Across Borders”. On January 6, 2005, five social workers and one teacher were dispatched to shoulder the mission of “Social Workers Across Borders”. Local victims in need provide professional services and convey our care. After a year of service and hard work, we became a registered tax-exempt charity on February 2, 2006.”
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