Saturday 16 February 2008

i am going on holiday

To Australia and New Zealand and so i shall not be writing anything on this blog for a few weeks. I will keep my ears and eyes open for any interesting stories to tell you when I get home.

By the time I get home it will almost be light evenings again, the air will smell of spring, and more of us will have a bounce in our step. Gorgeous.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

The secret of sex - learn to enjoy it

Sam Roddick, founder of Coco de Mer and daughter of Body Shop legend Anita Roddick spoke at our annual conference today. In a direct, sensible and thought provoking speech she urged us to ensure young people know the route to good sex is to enjoy it. Sounds obvious hey, but we know that for many people enjoyment is not on the agenda.

The last two days has been quite remarkable and a real privilege;

We held our first ever awards dinner, hosted by Mica Paris, Brook Ambassador, TV Presenter and Singer. Full details, including photos, of the winners will be on our website in the next week or so - wonderful work being carried out by passionate people.

The awards dinner was also attended by Tracy Cox, relationship expert and a brilliant Brook ambassador alongside colleagues, supporters and friends of Brook. Now it is all over, the adrenaline is dwindling and I am too tired to write anything more. Except of course thank you to the young people and staff who made it sure it was a success. Thank you also to our main sponsors Bayer Schering Pharma, Organon and Durex.

We launched a hard hitting campaign It's Your Choice www.brook.org.uk/itsyourchoice and on the back of this an article appeared in the guardian society pages entitled young people can be responsible about sex. Others recognised the power and potential of our new campaign - describing it as clear, direct and informative.

Running a big event like the awards and conference is a bit like running a marathon for me, just before its over, you're sure you'll never do it again, and even before the legs have stopped aching, you know it won't be long before the planning and preparation starts.....I look forward to starting planning our 2009 jamboree in earnest before too long!

The link below is to an opinion piece I wrote about young people, responsibility and sex that appeared in the guardian this week http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/13/youngpeople.health

The secret of sex - learn to enjoy it

Sam Roddick, founder of Coco de Mer and daughter of Body Shop legend Anita Roddick spoke at our annual conference today. In a direct, sensible and thought provoking speech she urged people to ensure people know the route to good sex is to learn to enjoy it. Sounds obvious hey, but we know that for many people enjoyment is not on the agenda.

The last two days has been quite remarkable and a real privilege;

We launched a hard hitting campaign It's Your Choice www.brook.org.uk/itsyourchoice

We held our first ever awards dinner, hosted by Mica Paris, Brook Ambassador, TV Presenter and Singer. Full details, including photos, of the winners will be on our website in the next week - wonderful work being carried out by passionate people.

The awards dinner was also attended by Tracy Cox, relationship expert and a brilliant Brook ambassador and alongside colleagues, supporters and friends of Brook. I am too tired to write anything more right now except thank you to the young people and staff who made it sure it was a success. Thank you also to our sponsors Bayer Schering Pharma, Organon and Durex.

Saturday 9 February 2008

Good news and stunning performances

I was so pleased that Dawn Primarolo, public health Minister announced new money for contraception this week. At Brook we have been increasingly worried about the cuts to contraceptive clinics over recent years. We have been calling for increased leadership and resource for contraception and now we have got it. Next week we launch our own campaign on promoting contraceptive choice. Watch this space and the Brook website on Tuesday to find out more.

From central leadership to local action, if I was excited at Dawn Primarolo's announcement, I was equally excited by the stunning performances of young people involved in a creative arts programme as part of Trafford Youth Service. Performing at the Greater Manchester Sexual Health Network conference, they cut straight to the chase - talk to us, inform us, help us, don't judge us, hear our stories.

And one young woman blew delegates away with a performance of her own song. The song focused on her hopes, dreams and aspirations and the experiences of 'living, watching and learning in the neighbourhood she lives'. The key message I took from her song was, sexual health is intimately bound up with the rest of her life. Her hopes for the future helping her manage and negotiate the day to day pressures of living in a deprived part of Manchester where drugs and violence are commonplace.

It was humbling and insightful. It challenged me yet again to ensure we address the core task of helping children and young people grow, develop, stay safe and dream. Anything short of that has the potential to simply tick a box.