Leave this site now »

VAV Meets with Deputy First Minister

Posted on 21 March 2012 by Declan Comments Off on VAV Meets with Deputy First Minister

One of the most vital yet successful coversations that VAV has had in the last year was during our meeting with Deputy Minister Nicola Sturgeon on October 5th 2011. Here, we shared an important dialogue with the Deputy Minister on the results of our ground-breaking survey, outlining what the young people of Scotland believe needs to change to improve the lives of those suffering from domestic abuse.

In particular, we discussed the areas of help and support, justice, schools and future participation with young people, including further VAV work. Ms. Sturgeon took our recommendations on board for the Spending Review and collectively we felt we made a real impact. After the meeting, we were told that Ms. Sturgeon felt that VAV-chair Chloe was the best chair she had ever met!

Put Your Questions to our Big Bang Panel!

Posted on 11 November 2011 by Declan Comments Off on Put Your Questions to our Big Bang Panel!

VAV members have produced some “Top Tips”, fun preparation activities and other materials for the Big Bang Question Time Event! These are to help Workers support young people to come up with questions they want to ask our fatastic panel on the day. We hope you will find them useful – read the Session Plan, download the resources and put them into practice with the young people you work with!

Our panel will be: Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Cllr Harry McGuigan from CoSLA and Tam Baillie who is Scotland’s Commisioner for Children & Young People. They are all very powerful people and they would like to hear young people’s views about what should change in Scotland to help children affected by domestic abuse. This is our chance to help shape the future!

Please remember to email us any questions beforehand, if possible by 21st November! Just send them to brenda.saetta@ed.ac.uk.

Session Plan – Young People’s Questions for the Big Bang Event

Power Cards – Harry McGuigan

Power Cards – Nicola Sturgeon

Power Cards – Tam Baillie

Things that help Worksheet

VAV Top Tips for Talking to the Panel

The VAV Big Bang Event

Posted on 10 November 2011 by Declan Comments Off on The VAV Big Bang Event

VAV is pleased to announce our Big Bang event on Tuesday 29th November. This is where the premiere of the VAV movie, “One Voice at a Time”, will be held, along with a Question Time Panel with the people in power!

We invite you to come for the day and have YOUR say about domestic abuse in Scotland! Starting at 11AM, members of VAV will be around to greet you at our receptiong (food provided), after which we’ll premiere our film and then begin the panel. The panel will feature Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Deputy First Minister for Scotland; Councillor Harry McGuigan, Scottish Local Authorities’ (CoSLA) Spokesperson for Community Wellbeing and Safety; and Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People. These are the people who need to hear your voices!

If you plan on attending, please respond to Brenda at brenda.saetta@ed.ac.uk by the 21st of November so that we can work out numbers. Please see the attached leaflet for more details, and feel free to pass it out to young people who might be interested.

Voice Against Violence – Big Bang Invite – 29 Nov

Big Lottery Meeting

Posted on 14 March 2011 by Declan Comments Off on Big Lottery Meeting

Hey everyone! VAV has been busy with lots of events and visits recently, but I wanted to let you know about our recent meeting with the Big Lottery Fund. We’re quite excited about their dedicated fund of £3 million – called “Becoming a Survivor” – set aside to tackle domestic abuse in Scotland. Morphman and I met with the Lottery  in Glasgow to share VAV’s views on achieving the following outcomes of Becoming a Survivor:

  • More people who have experienced domestic abuse are in homes of their choice and are more emotionally supported
  • Survivors of domestic abuse have a greater sense of self-worth and emotional well-being

We’re pleased to say that the meeting was a great success! We discussed important issues such as good multi-agency practice (with organisations like CEDAR), effective use of resources and, of course, how to promote participation! After the meeting, we received positive feedback about our time with staff from the Fund. We look forward to hearing about any future plans from the Big Lottery. 🙂