The Government is to establish an independent panel to give victims of the riots a chance to “have their voice heard”. The panel will produce a report within six to nine months to be presented to the leaders of all three main political parties.

The Government has appointed Alan Milburn as Independent Reviewer of Social Mobility and Child Poverty pending the establishment of a statutory Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission next year. The call for evidence will help inform the first report to parliament spring 2012. Closing date 16 Oct.

The 2012 Call for Proposals for participation in the Lifelong Learning Programme has been published and is available on our website. Updated guidance documents and application forms will be available soon. Read more.
Good news and congratulations: We have approved a total of seven Grundtvig Assistantships and 20 Learner Workshops for the 2011 call. Well done to all concerned!
Thinking of submitting a Grundtvig Partnership, SVP or centralised project application in 2012? Apply for a Preparatory Visit grant to visit potential partners and discuss your project idea. Read more.
The 2009 Call Grundtvig and Leonardo Partnerships Guide to completing the Final Report and the European Shared Treasure (EST) database has been updated with important information about the EST database. Read more.

UK News
Ecorys staff contributed to the European Year of Volunteering 2011. You can contribute too! Read more.

NCVYS is seeking your views to help us shape a number of key products and services we are developing to support workforce development.

Your input is vital to helping us ensure what we develop meets your needs.
From 2011-2013, NCVYS’s workforce development activity is funded through the Catalyst consortium, a NCVYS-co-ordinated partnership funded by the Department for Education.
The Summer Workforce Challenge e-survey will be open until the end of September 2011.
To complete, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9P992JV

Changes are proposed that risk losing UK wide co-ordination and active engagement of the youth work sector in determining how it should be represented in the future for Sector Skills Activity; and
Along with partners across the UK, we are conducting a brief survey to gather views that we will use in our discussions with policy makers in order to inform their decisions.
Please follow the link below to access the survey which will take less than 5 minutes of your time

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D52887K

Simplistic attempts to compare private and public sector pay are ‘misleading’ Commenting on Public and Private Sector Earnings: Fact and fiction published by Incomes Data Services (IDS) today (Monday), TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber
said:

“Simplistic attempts to compare private and public sector pay levels are misleading, taking no account of the different skills, gender or jobs profiles between sectors.

On Wednesday 23 February, the TUC will host the UK launch of Power in Coalition: Strategies for Strong Unions and Social Change, Amanda Tattersall’s new book on how to build powerful coalitions between unions and community organisations.
The release of Power in Coalition is timely given the need for civil society organisations to come together to present an alternative economic and social vision in response to the public service cuts.
Amanda Tattersall will lead a discussion on how coalitions can be a powerful strategy for social change, organisational development and union renewal, and offer suggestions for how UK unions should go about building coalitions with community organisations. The event will take place at Congress House, and Frances O’Grady (TUC Deputy General Secretary) will introduce Amanda and launch the book. A drinks reception will follow.
How can we change things in an age in which governments are fixated on the bottom line and conventional protest rallies are not enough? Coalitions can be important tools for social change and union revitalisation. What makes them successful? What causes them to fail? Power in Coalition explores these questions through an examination of successful coalitions between unions and community organisations in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Amanda Tattersall is the instigator and Director of the Sydney Alliance, a diverse coalition of unions, community organisations and religious organisations. She has been a community and union organiser, a researcher, and is currently an elected official (Deputy Assistant Secretary) with Unions NSW.

Date: Wednesday 23 February, 18.00-19.00 (followed by a drinks reception)

Location: TUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS

RSVP: Zoe Molyneaux (email zmolyneaux@tuc.org.uk or phone 0207-467-1273)

Researchers identified eight groups of friends covering a mix of social class, gender and education, using data from the Belfast Youth Development Study. The 41 participants – aged 18 or 19 when interviewed – were asked about their drinking between the ages of 12 and 18. In this way, the researchers construct a picture of the groups’ drinking culture and how it developed as the friends grew older.
The

: * discusses the development of tacit informal rules and regulations about drinking with groups (‘drinking etiquette’);
* investigates how teenagers manage their intoxication within the group;
* considers the importance of relationships both within the group and outside it (e.g. parents);
* presents findings about underage experiences of alcohol-related harm;
* discusses the implications of these findings, including restricting access to alcohol, teaching harm reduction skills and the role of parents.

Y Care International in taking action on disabled people’s rights. You can still get involved in this exciting project.Y Care are recruiting ten organisations in the UK to raise awareness of disabled young people’s rights and take action to end discrmination faced by disabled young people in the UK and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Groups which take pat in the project will receive:

* One day free training on disability rights for up to two people from your organisation. The training will be on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 in London. This could be a youth worker and young person or two youth workers.
* £500 to undertake a project with twenty five young people which advocates for the rights of disabled young people
* The opportunity to co-create a training pack for other youth groups on disabled people’s rights which will be available to YMCAs and other youth organisations.

We still have spaces available to participate in this project. You get involved by emailing globalyouthwork@ycareinternational.org with details about your organisation.

For more information please email globalyouthwork@ycareinternational.org or call 0207 549 3160.