Voice Against Violence

The day was a huge success! Voice Against Violence welcomed around 200 people to the Vue cinema in Edinburgh on the 29th November 2011 for the VAV movie premiere and our version of Question Time. The audience was  a mix of ages and children and young people got to grill the people in power for answers on what was important to them.

The premiere of ‘One Voice at a Time’ was a massive success. Everyone seemed to enjoy the film and took different messages away from it. It was given a round of applause and a few cheers by our enthusiastic audience. We couldn’t have been prouder.

The VAV survey was also promoted and it’s findings were broken down and shared with the crowd.

Our panel was made up of Nicola Sturgeon MSP (the Deputy First Minister of Scotland) Cllr Harry McGuigan (CoSLA Spokesperson on Community Well-being and Safety) and Tam Baillie (Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People). Children and young people in the crowd as well as adults got the chance to put questions to our panel and hear their answers there and then! The biggest announcement came from Ms. Sturgeon who publicly announced the continuation of a fund for specialist domestic abuse children’s workers for a further 3 years!

But of course no movie premiere would be a success with out hotdogs, fizzy drinks, ice cream and popcorn. Everyone got a chance to mingle under the balloon arch and take home a copy of the DVD and Survey.

It was a great day and enjoyed by all who came. We just can’t believe we were also celebrating our 2 year anniversary as Voice Against Violence.

Time certainly flies when you are having fun and here is a photo of us dressed to impress!

A few of us from VAV were involved in creating the SafeHub Website

Safehub.org was created by young people for young people, it was designed to tell young people about Domestic Abuse , How they can get through it, and where they can find help and how you can help someone you know who is experiencing Abuse.

Look out for our EasterEgg (Baa) 🙂

2 members of VAV, Marc and John launched the site at Dynamic Earth on the 24th June 2011 with Angela Constance, Minister for Children and Young People.

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

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

We have been very busy focusing on our amazing new blockbuster hit, VAV’s Legacy Movie. We’ve came up with a fun solution to help carry on our work long after we’ve gone. Our legacy film is set to be an amazing resource for anyone wanting to know more about domestic abuse, how it affects children and participatory work. It will train adult professionals on how to deal with domestic abuse if a child approaches them and how to identify the signs. And if that’s not enough, it also tells young people where to get support and help, as well as educating youngsters on domestic abuse. You excited? You should be! Keep an eye out for upcoming posts about the launch of our movie and how to get yourself a copy of the DVD. Watch this space…

Wow, Wow, Wow Voice Against Violence last night scooped the award for Diversity and Citizenship :-). We all had a great night as well as rubbing shoulders with the likes of Olly Murs, Shayne Ward,  Alesha Dixon and many more we enjoyed the whole ceremony. Scotland is blessed to have as many young people that are so talented.  🙂 x

The moment we were announced as winners!

Holding up the award

Hey all! Lots of people have been asking us for this, so here’s the campaign ad that VAV helped develop.

The YouTube link is Domestic Abuse – Young People – 30 sec ad 🙂

Hello everyone! Well our new and exciting news is that VAV has been nominated for the Young Scot 2011 award under the category for Diversity and Citizenship. The award is in association with the Sunday Mail and the co-operative foundation and we are over the moon for the nomination.

Our wonderful nominator said:

Through their activism, they are changing Scottish society, and not only are they themselves developing into responsible citizens, they are helping other young people to do likewise.

The awards are held on the 7th of April and we have our fingers and toes crossed but at the end of the day, it was an honour to have been nominated. We will let you know what happens. Wish us luck.