Author Archives: Heather

Inspiring Creativity Course: Embedding Creativity in Your Working Practices

KeysCreativity

This course looks at how creativity used daily can improve your working practices. It will engage with different ideas of what creativity is, how the working environment can be made more creative and will leave you with a plan of how you can personally become more creative in how work. It will run over four weeks in the evening, giving you a chance not only to engage with the subject over a length of time but also to reflect on how this can impact in your working practice.

All of our courses are interactive, creative and focused on reflecting on your working practice, and developed in consultation with the community sector.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Identify ways to create more creative working environment
  • Develop an understanding of the connection between wellbeing and creativity
  • Be able to inspire creativity in others
  • To have a grasp of different creativity techniques
  • Be able to have a clear plan of how you can apply different techniques to increase your personal creativity

Course Schedule:

  • Week 1 – Defining creativity, art, inspiration and connectivity, what does it mean in different working situations, why is this useful in the work place? What does and doesn’t work and why.
  • Week 2 – A creative environment – overcoming fear and workplace wellbeing, creating a balance: the role of confidentiality and the importance of space of sharing, team working, networking and diversity
  • Week 3 – Techniques for becoming more creative: exercise’s in lateral thinking, divergent thinking, metacognition
  • Week 4 – Going further – looking at the actions you will take improve creativity in your workplace and making a personal creativity plan

The course will run over four weeks on Wednesdays from 2nd February – 1st March from 5pm – 8.30pm in central Brighton.

The course cost is £30 per person and includes supporting electronic resources from the session. Book Your Place Online Here

The course is run in partnership with our funders UpStream Ideas

Demonstrating Impact Course: Effective and Innovative Research and Evidence Gathering for Annual Reporting, Funder/Sponsor Reports and Funding Applications

This course tackles the tricky area of demonstrating the impact of your work. It expands on the different ways you can collect and use data, and looks at ways that this can be done innovatively, engaging with service users. It will run over four weeks in the evening, giving you a chance not only to engage with the subject over a length of time but also to reflect on how this can impact in your working practice.

All of our courses are interactive, creative and focused on reflecting on your working practice, and developed in consultation with the community sector.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Be able to describe, evaluate, and communicate the impact of your work
  • Be able to assess the requirements for different types of reporting
  • Evaluate the challenges of different types of research techniques and where to access support on using them
  • Be able to identify different types of data and understand how you might choose to analyse it
  • Understand how you can engage service users, customers or your audience creatively in measuring your impact

Course Schedule:

  • Week 1 – Different types of reporting processes and where you will encounter them, a chance to share current experiences and issues you have faced
  • Week 2 – Research techniques – how to evidence different types of working, desk-based research, surveys, interviews and data protection
  • Week 3 – Dealing with data, an introduction to working with different types of data and the limitations and challenges different types of data bring
  • Week 4 – Beyond KPI’s: A Creative Enhancement Based Approach to Planning and Evaluation – looking at use of case studies, user-led representations, storytelling, video work and visual arts as integral and robust reporting mechanisms

This event is ideal for those working in the community, voluntary or social enterprise sectors looking to develop their skills in researching and reporting.

The course will run over four weeks on Wednesdays from 11th November – 2nd December from 5pm – 8.30pm at the Bridge Community Centre.

The course cost is £30 per person and includes and supporting electronic resources from the session. Book Your Place Online Here

The course is run in partnership with our funders UpStream Ideas

Fit for Funders Course: Sourcing Funding, Making Applications and Developing your Presentation Skills

  This course will run on Monday evenings from the 21st September – 12th October at the Friends Centre, Brighton Junction Isetta Square 35 New England Street Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4GQ, Training Room 3, from 5pm, – 8.30pm

Course Description:

An introduction to making funding applications and developing the skills to pitch your project ideas, these are often skills that must go hand in hand to make your funding application successful. It will run over four weeks in the evening, giving you a chance not only to engage with the subject over a length of time but also to reflect on how this can impact in your working practice.

All of our courses are interactive, creative and focused on reflecting on your working practice, and developed in consultation with the community sector.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Understanding of the different funding streams available and different routes to how to access and identify them
  • Have had experience in looking at example grant forms from small and large funders and understand what they are asking for
  • Have evaluated the use of partnership working for future projects
  • Have understood and applied the principles of making an effective presentation/pitch

Course Schedule:

  • Week 1 – Introduction to funding, limitations and opportunities – how to source finding, different types of funding (including grant funding and crowd funding) and how to access this
  • Week 2 – Unpicking the process, looking at different application forms and what they ask for, what different funders expect and how you might evidence the need for your project
  • Week 3 – Partnership Working and Presentations, how you can work with others to increase your chance of funding success alongside looking at what makes an effective presentation and introduction of week four task
  • Week 4 – Making your pitch, in the final week everyone will get a chance to apply skills learning and do a short presentation on a funding idea and get feedback from the rest of the group

This event is ideal for those working in the community, voluntary or social enterprise sectors looking to develop their skills to achieve funding for projects.

The course will run on Monday evenings from the 21st September – 12th October at the Friends Centre, Brighton Junction Isetta Square 35 New England Street Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4GQ, Training Room 3, from 5p, – 8.30pm

The course cost is £30 per person and includes supporting electronic resources from the session.

The course is run in partnership with our funders UpStream Ideas

Book Your Place Online Here

Call for Papers – Critical Studies (in)Visibility Issue

Critical Studies is an interdisciplinary journal of the humanities, dedicated to critical studies broadly construed. It is an annual, open access, peer-reviewed print and digital publication, and functions both as a traditional academic journal and as an annual report of the activity of the Critical Studies Research Group, a postgraduate community based in University of Brighton’s School of Humanities.

Access all articles and the full journal online here: http://www.criticalstudies.org.uk/journal.html

Critical Studies

Call for Papers Issue 2: (in)Visibility

Politics has been diversely theorised as the making visible what is invisible, as the uncovering what is covered up, as the giving voice to the mute, as the inclusion of those excluded into the regime of the perceptible. Secrecy is typically connected to the state and its agencies operating in the shadows, or to the police order and its suppression of the voices of the marginalised and abjected. Valuable, powerful, and potent though such theorisation may be, it leaves unanswered the question of the value that may lie in remaining, precisely, invisible, of keeping off the radar, of staying underground, for radical activism, artistic performance, and alternative politics.

Critical Studies welcomes papers on these and related topics from a broad range of disciplines, both research papers and non-conventional forms of presentation related to the issue topic. We encourage transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions.

Deadline for submission 1st September 2015

Full Call for Papers, style and submission guides available here: http://www.criticalstudies.org.uk/call-for-papers.html

All enquiries to: CriticalStudiesResearch@brighton.ac.uk

The Rights Room Installation and Workshop – Brighton

Human Rights 1Human Rights 2outside

Human Rights – What would you change: a participatory installation with sound and chalk.

11:00 – 17:00 tues – fri
10:00 – 18:00 sat – sun

Come to the ‘it is what it is’ Pop up shop and explore our current bill of Human Rights through chatting, writing and sound making. What would you change? What new rights might you add or what rights would take away? This is your chance to have your say!

We will be running 2 workshops for young people in the Rights Room at 4.30-6.30 Tues 21st and Weds 22nd of July. Work with professional sound and inclusive artists to collaborate on a new bill of rights and soundscape, which will form the exhibition that will run for the rest of the week.
 
Pop in any time to see the installation as it evolves.

Book your place for the workshops now, as they are limited:
BYC 01273 681368 – Office open 10:30 – 18:00 office@brightonyouthcentre.org.uk info@distantanimals.com

Facebook Events Page

It Is What It Is Venue Page for Updated Photos and Info

chris legoskittlewhat it isThe Rights Room

Women’s History Festival: Interrogating the Past to Change the Future

The Sex and Power Report in 2014 stated that at the current rate of progress that “a child born today will be drawing her pension before she has any chance of being equally represented in the UK Parliament”. It is not just parliamentary representation but other positions of power where we are falling short, only 5% of national newspapers are edited by women. A recent report on Higher Education by the Equality Challenge Unit showed that only 20.1% of Vice Chancellors and Principals at Universities are women, with women also under-represented in other senior roles across the sector.

Part of the reason for this is the stories we are told, and the stories we tell ourselves, help shape who we are and what we choose to do. So much of the history around us such as the statues we see, the pictures on the walls of our educational institutions, and the authors and protagonists we are given to study, are male, and tell a story of male dominance. Merely having a consciousness of the change from when these were created, to the times of legal equality now, is inadequate to change the impact this historical replication of patriarchal construction has on women today.

Free University Brighton is a community-led initiative that organises and promotes practical and academic education. Following on from their events for LGBT History month, Free University Brighton are putting on the city’s first ever festival dedicated to women in history. The one-day event on 14 March 2015 will mark International Women’s Day celebrations and it will launch a year-long women’s history project to promote positive female role models within schools and the wider community, giving an awareness of the historical significance of women that will help us write a fairer future.

The event will feature the hidden histories of extraordinary and pioneering women such as Brighton and Hove suffragettes, the African Princess in Brighton and women who inspired the trade union movement. There will also be guided walks, workshops, activities for children and an interactive exhibition.

They are still looking for support to put on this inspirational event, it will allow them not only to cover the costs of the event but to have a fund for childcare and travel for those who may not otherwise be able to attend. Please click here for their crowdfunding page to support this project and help shape how we live as women today and tomorrow.

Bespoke Training Sessions

Training

We offer bespoke training and can work with you to develop training within your organisation to meet the needs of your staff.  Uniquely we will also work with you to ensure that you are able to deliver this training in house in the future by offering a free half day of training to staff members in how to deliver each of the sessions.

In addition to working with you to develop specific training, we also have some set off the shelf training sessions ready to deliver in your organisation.  Each one we will spend time with you adapting to suit the needs of your staff or volunteers.  With the exception of the Train the Trainer courses, which must be delivered over two days, the other courses can be delivered over one or two days.  Please click here for costs.

  • Train the Trainer 1: Delivering the ideal training session – 2 days
  • Train the Trainer 2: Training Design and Development – 2 days
  • Events Management in the Community Sector: An Introduction to Events Management in the community sector from local networking events to large conferences
  • Researching and Evidencing: Research and Evidence Gathering for Annual Reporting, Funder/Sponsor Reports and Funding Applications
  • Making Applications and Developing your Presentation Skills
  • Students’ Unions: Research Authenticity and Accountability: Setting up and running student-led research projects
  • Students’ Unions: Beyond KPI’s: An Enhancement Base Approach to Planning and Evaluation
  • Students’ Unions: Developing Your Course Rep Training and Supports
  • Students’ Unions: Internationalising your union – making your union more accessible to international students and gloablising your outlook

Workshops

We also have a number of workshops that we can run in your organisation, each workshop is 2 hours long.

  • Time Management (2hrs)
  • Cooperative Values (2hrs)
  • Assessing Workplace Wellbeing (2hrs)
  • Running a Networking Event (2hrs)
  • Become an Effective Networker (2hrs)
  • Evidence Based Campaigning (2hrs)
  • Research Basics Workshops
  • Qualitative Analysis (2hrs)
  • Interview Techniques (2hrs)
  • Running a Focus Group (2hrs)
  • Effective Survey Questions (2hrs)
  • Writing a Research Proposal (2hrs)

Please click here for costs.

If you have any questions please email heather@magneticideals.org

Train the Trainer – Learn to deliver the ideal training session!

What is the Course?

The course is ideal for individuals working in or for the community interest who are just starting out as trainers, or those with some experience who would like to learn more and refine their practice and become reflective pratitioners.

The course runs over two full days, during which time attendees will get practical experience in delivering training and get feedback on how to develop in practice.  It will focus on how people learn in training sessions, how reflective practice as a trainer, how to evaluate your sessions, creating a positive environment for training, and dealing with challenges that may occur in training sessions.  There will also be a brief introduction to training resources for designing your own training programmes.

The course is assessed on day two when attendees give a short training session and get feedback from the rest of the group, a certificate of completion will be issued to each attendee.  Attendees will also be signed up as members of the Magnetic Ideals Training Network where they can share best practice with other developing trainers and receive invites to skills sharing sessions.

When is the course?

The course runs over two days on the 5th and 6th March from 9.30am – 4.30pm at the Bridge Community Education Centre, Brighton.  Lunch and refreshments will be provided.  To book a place please email heather@magneticideals.org

Pricing

While may local courses charge £400 – 500 or upwards for a Train the Trainer courses we have kept the prices as low as we can.  If you have multiple people wanting to attend from your organisation please get in touch to see if we can offer a discounted rate.

Corporate Rate n/a *
Public or Education Sector Organisations £225
Community/Voluntary Organisations, Social Enterprises (with paid staff) £175
Sole traders/freelancers working in community interest/development/arts £125
Community Organisations/Groups (with no paid staff) £75 or Free **

To book your place please email Heather McKnight: heather@magneticideals.org

If you are unsure of which rates apply please contact heather@magneticideals.org payment must be received before booking can be confirmed.

* Magnetic Ideals does not provide training for corporations

** As well as keeping our prices low we reserve two free slots per training session for community groups with no paid staff as part of our ongoing commitment as a social enterprise to build capacity in smaller organisations, who may not always be able to access training.  These are allocated on a first come first serve basis.