LO2
Local Social Action Groups: Research
Operation Confidence:
This is a concerted effort to address crime and disorder, and highlight what Thames Valley Police, its partners and local residents are doing to make communities safer.
The campaign, which was launched in October 2009, sees police, councils and partners informing local people about what they are doing to tackle crime and anti-social behavior (ASB).
Each Thames Valley Local Police Area (LPA) is running its own operations to target issues such as drunken disorder, violence, criminal damage and other crimes that impact on the quality of life of Thames Valley people. They will focus on reducing ASB, protecting and supporting victims and, where necessary, bringing offenders to justice. The operations are planned to target the issues that matter most within each neighbourhood.
Shelter Thames Valley – Slough
This social action group involves specialist help in community care, debt, housing and welfare benefits for anyone who is homeless or has a housing related problem. Subjects covered include disrepair, rent/mortgage arrears, illegal eviction, harassment, housing benefit, repossession and landlord/tenant disputes.
They target anyone with a housing, debt or welfare benefit related problem.
They only work in the areas of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and North Hampshire.
Thames Valley Adventure Playground
As children, most of us would take for granted the chance to get out and about, exploring, climbing trees, visiting the park and hanging out with friends, but for many children and adults with a special need, it just isn't possible. If you have a physical disability, the difficulties are more obvious, but, if you have a learning disability or sensory problems, you may find it hard to relate to other people and to join in their games.
Since 1982 the Thames Valley Adventure Playground has provided a chance for children & adults with all types of special need to enjoy the fun, freedom and friendship afforded by the opportunity to play and share experiences in a safe and stimulating environment, with users travelling from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and London and beyond.
This is a video by Ricahard Taylor (from The Independent), explaining why University fees should be scrapped. The whole video, Taylor is only stood in this position talking to a camera. My video will include a lot of the information and opinions he uses but will be filmed in a very different manner. For example, when he is talking about students feeling unhappy with fees, I will interview and film students opinion on the subject. However, as this is not actually a Social action video, he wouldn't trying to create the same effect that I want to create.
These two women are Student Finance Officers from Newprt University. Between them, they discuss all the relevent information that students need to know to sort out their finance prior to starting University. Similar to the last video, they camera is in a static position throughout the video. After lots of research and searching, I can't find a social action video on this particular topic. This would make my video the existing one on this topic.
Task 3
My Social Action Project
For my socail action project, I am going look at and try and find a solution for the number of Students from the Henley-on-Thames area that get put off the prospect of University because of the fees and lack of job oppotunities. During my production, I am going to work out what percetage of students in this area don't go to Uni, Why they don't go, and how there are solutions to attend Uni amongst the high tuition fees.
Last year, 2/3 of students from The Henley College who were eligible to apply for University did, and went on to secure a place at their chosen destination. Although this figure is more than half of the eligible people, I want to understand what put the others off applying. University is regonised as the norm after finishing education at either college of sixth form. The reason for so many applicants each year is due to the possibilty of securing solid careers after earning a degree. However during recent times, university graduates have come out with a degree and struggled to find employment. This is unfortunately one of the reasons that students have been put off the thought of University and have opted to try and go straight into employment.
I am also going to try and promote University to college students in my video by exploring elements of Uni that are regularly overlooked in the current climate.
About 75% of students in central
southern England say the benefits of going to university outweigh the costs,
despite tuition fee rises.
Just 10% of 1,009 students questioned across the region, in a
ComRes survey for BBC
Inside Out, said the increase in fees had put them off university.
Fees at Reading, Southampton and Oxford will be £9,000 from 2012.
Bournemouth University will charge £8,200 for most courses from next year,
Portsmouth £8,500 and Solent £7,800.
Annual tuition fees at English universities will rise up to a limit of £9,000
next year, whereas under the current system students pay about £3,000 a year for
their degrees.
Mary Barlow, a prospective university student from Winchester, Hampshire,
said: "The whole point of uni is that I get a degree that means I can have a
successful career.
Task 4
Who can you interview?
To start with I will interview students at the Henley College. To get a wide range of opinion, I will ask different age groups about their thoughts of University and what encourages/discourages their decision on it. I will also interview teachers from the college; this will allow to me get information such as teacher’s job situations and other problems that may concern them as teachers if students don’t go to University. Interviewing local residents of Henley will also give me another range of opinions on the matter, but this will also allow me to understand their thoughts on young people using the town centre as a ‘hang out’ area.
Henley College Teacher, Sarah Wilson - 07919***411 sarw@henleycol.ac.uk The Henley College, Deanfield avenue, Henley on Thames RG9 1UH - 26/10/'12 - 10:45
Henley College Student, Zach Millward - 07805****** zmil@henleycol.ac.uk The Henley College, Deanfield avenue, Henley on Thames RG9 1UH - 22/10/'12 - 11:00
Henley College Student,Georgina Nelson - )78456****** gnel@henleycol.ac.uk The Henley College, Deanfield avenue, Henley on Thames RG9 1UH - 22/10/'12 - 12:00
Members of the Henley Town Community; Elderly members, younger members, parents with university/ex-university students. All to be filmed in Henley Town - 27/10/'12 - 16:30
What will your angle be? Informative, educational, change of attitude…
I will create this video from an angle that will be very much informative. I want the video to show and demonstrate the need for going to university by using facts and statistics. Then even if towards the end of the video they still don’t feel the need for university, then it will hopefully have opened their mind about alternative options in life. However, I also want to make the video 'shocking' for any students watching it by giving them facts and statistics about young people that haven't attended university. This will be the main pulling point of my video that will grab peoples attentions.
Do they have any footage you can use for your video?
I am going to find my own archive footage to include in my video. However most of the video will include footage that I have captured myself.
What issue does the community project want you to focus on?
Since I’m not working for a community project I will have to decide what areas on the topic to focus on. These focuses will include; college students, college teachers, University fees, amount of students in Henley-on-Thames that continue to go to university and alternative options.
What ethical issues will you have to overcome or be careful documenting?
Obviously students and teachers might feel the information I’m asking them to reveal may be seen as personal. Due to this I will need to be careful and tactful about what I ask them during interviews. It will also mean giving the interview time to see how comfortable they are talking about the topic.
Meetings
Sarah Wilson 02/11/12
We had a meeting to discuss the content of the interview and how the video will be structured. I gave an idea of the questions so that she had time to prepare and respond with help and relative information to give the video a professional style.
Zac Millward 05/11/12
When meeting with Zac we only discussed the types of questions I will be asking him on the topic. He let me know that some of the questions would not be relevant for him to answer as he had no experience on the topic. This meant I had to adjust some of the questions before we began to film.
Liam Graham 10/11/12
When I met with Liam to discuss the video we not only had to discuss the content and structure of the video, we had to talk about the possibility of filming in his house. After coming to a conclusion about what rooms will be available, we looked into how we could set the camera up in a way that will accompany the room layout as well as lighting.
An Account of the Issue
Recent statistics say that only 2/3 of Henley College students applied for and attended university.Of those that didn't go, 25% were then unemployed. After researching into the reasons why this was the case, a frequently occurring answer was that university is 'too expensive'. However, I don't believe that this is an eligible reason to ignore the prospect of further education at university.
This is why I have decided to set up this social action group to inform students about the facts of university. Mostly facts that teachers, parents and even news reporters may tip toe around. The social action video will involve current students, ex-university students, teachers and the local community. These people are involved with the project because they can all give an accurate insight to there current state of decision making. It will also involve a student financial adviser who will be able to reassure students as well as parents on the prices of university.
This social action video will help out the students of the local of community by supplying them with a further knowledge of university that could be hard to find or learn in other places. During the current situation in the UK in terms of unemployment, university should be considered in a more serious manner.
