ForandringsFabrikken ENGLISH

CommonSenseFostering

Marit — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:54:58 +0000

Young people who have been in foster care have come to us over the years with many ideas on how to improve the child protection service. Foster parents also have experience and ideas they wish to share. In this project we want to give foster parents and children the opportunity to say how they would like the child protection service to approach them. They are working on “rules” for how the child protection service can practise “common sense fostering.”

ChangeFactory organises workshops for young people in three cities in Norway in 2008. Participants from the various workshops meet together to form an editorial panel. Common sense rules for fostering will then be presented to the media and professionals in the field. By drawing inspiration from the participants and what they have to say, we believe that the child protection service will be able to do a more targeted and effective job. Children and their foster parents will take part in introducing these plans to national authorities and the media. ChangeFactory is working on this together with the Norwegian Foster Care Association and the National Association for Children in Care.

GoodEnough

Marit — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:30:17 +0000

Many young people we meet today tell us that they are under great pressure. Everything is all about appearance – clothes, skin, hair, and how thin you are. There are websites all about how to look good. But there is also a lot of pressure on young people today to be clever, and cool – and not to stand out from the others. Many young people tell us, “Parents and other adults often contribute to the pressure by the way they talk to us, and not least by the way they themselves behave.”

In the project “Good enough”, young people from all over the country participate in working groups led by ChangeFactory. Here they can express how they experience this pressure and they can come up with ideas and concrete suggestions on what can be done to change this. They work on activities that can be used in the classroom – so that more young people can feel that they are good enough. This will then form the basis of a website focusing on the experiences of young people and their thoughts on being good enough. There is also a description of the methods they can use in the classroom – a version for 10-13 year olds and another for 14-16 year olds. The website will be launched in the spring of 2009.

ConfidentialFromBoys

Marit — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:37:43 +0000

Abuse of young boys is a topic that remains a major taboo in Norway. In this project we aim to shed light on this subject. At the same time we wish to convey the message that such humiliating experiences can also result in a strengthening of the individual. In spite of such painful experiences it is still possible to build a secure male identity. We have invited men and boys from various parts of the country to be our experts. They will meet in working groups led by ChangeFactory. Their contributions and experience will be taken very seriously. They will discuss ideas and offer advice to support agencies, politicians and ministries. The results will also be sent to support centres, staff in psychiatric health care and other institutions and organisations that work in this field. The project will be run by ChangeFactory, in cooperation with Save the Children.

BreathlessAndHeartfelt

hildegunn — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:06:41 +0000

Many young people with a chronic illness deal with it very well but others have a more difficult time. Young people with heart problems and asthma have a lot of valuable experience from which we can learn a great deal. They also know a lot about how they would like to be treated in everyday life, at school and in their spare time.

The project “Breathless and Heartfelt” will be turned into a film, which can be shown in secondary schools. The film will show what it is like to be born with a serious illness – and yet want to be treated as completely normal person. The film comes with a work kit. Young people who live with asthma and heart problems have contributed to the work. In group-sessions they talk about how it feels to suffer from a chronic illness. They give advice to pupils and teachers on how to adopt a positive approach to young people in school who suffer from a chronic illness. They participate in various phases of the project – and will of course be at the launch of the film in February of 2009. “Breathless and Heartfelt” is a coproduction of ChangeFactory and LHL (Norwegian Heart and Lung Patient Organisation).

[Show as slideshow]

ElderlyOnTheGo

Marit — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:44:43 +0000

Many older people in Norway live very isolated lives and feel that there is little contact between the generations. This project aims to create dialogue and new arenas for contact between young people and the elderly. Young people and resourceful older people from the Sagene district of Oslo are going to be key contacts for lonely elderly people thus create a better network for those who need more contact. Together, the young people and their older colleagues are giving substance and method to the project “Elderly on the go”.

In different meetings and gatherings, young and old have got to know each other, decided on activities and carried out various arrangements. Bringing dinners to the elderly in their homes, conversations on what it is like to be young or old and Bollywood parties are just some of the things that have been arranged. The project aims to create new methods of working and alternative action plans in respect of policies and services targeting the elderly. The results will provide methods that can be used in other districts and municipalities. The project is a collaboration between ChangeFactory and the organisation Mental Health.