For the first week that I worked at The Passage I mainly did research from my desk. This meant working out exactly how the changes to benefits eligibility worked; a non trivial task. Reading the actual legislation was only marginally helpful so I had to look elsewhere for information. This lead me to find that the Social Services Advisory Committee (SSAC) was investigating the effects of the change. Thankfully the minutes of all the SSAC meetings are published online and I was able to find out more about the intended effects of the change. As part of their investigation, SSAC called for ‘evidence’ from organisations working with homeless people, such as St Mungo’s. These organisations submitted documents explaining how the change had affected their work and I was able to read these documents and find out a lot about some of the unforeseen effects of the change.
After researching for a week I felt ready to begin contacting other organisations and so I drew up a list of day centres and other institutions that work with homeless people and might be able to give some helpful information.
Alongside the work I was doing for the report on non UK EEA nationals I also did various odd jobs around the office. Being able to do different tasks for different people lets you get a wider breadth of experience and try new things and I feel that it is a strong reason to work in a medium sized organisation such as The Passage. It is large enough that there is always something to do but not so large that people’s roles have become overly specialised. Because of this I could find myself writing the organisation’s twitter and facebook posts one morning, wrestling an enormous desk through a maze of corridors and staircases the next day and questing all the way to Wandsworth in search of discounted furniture only to end up negotiating with the manager of the local homebase that afternoon. Being trusted with access to the Twitter, Facebook and website of The Passage felt like a large responsibility; it was being allowed to represent the organisation to the public in effect. I was also often asked to research a particular opportunity. This might mean looking for a company to make branded keyrings or it might mean searching for funding organisations that could pay for a research project. Overall I was able to get a real sense for how things actually get done in a medium sized business.
Since my last blog there has been quite a few events at RECLAIM. Firstly I conducted one of my focus groups with some girls from the Gorton project last year. The group was of about 5 or 6 girls who were very willing to express their opinion and give us some useful information. I arranged for the group to take place at the Gorton Monastery; a beautiful building that has recently been restored in the slightly disadvantaged area of Manchester. The girls had been there before and had an existing relationship with the director, Elaine. Elaine took time to speak to the girls about an exciting re development opportunity at the monastery and an old run down community center down the road. From the focus group RECLAIM and the monastery got some very interesting feedback about what we can do to support and help young people in Gorton.
The summer programme for the young people involved with RECLAIM continued with a trip to Liverpool. We took 12 young people on the train to Liverpool to see some of the museums including the International Slavery Museum. The slavery museum is very interesting as it explores Liverpool’s part in the slave trade and encourages you to think about you heritage and how your ancestors were involved in this monumental part of history. The trip was generally successful and the young people seemed to enjoy themselves and learn a lot from the museums. We also managed to have time to have more of a look round Liverpool where we went clothes shopping, had lunch at a Lebanese restaurant and went into a traditional sweet shop.
Another stream of work that I am working on is a program run by Sky called Stand Up Be Counted. Sky are asking for 16 – 25 year olds to make a short video about something they are passionate about. These videos are featured on the website and also may be on Sky News. This is a great opportunity for young people to be heard which is RECLAIM’s main aim and also some good publicity for RECLAIM which is a very small charity. I have been contacting some of the older people RECLAIM are in touch with and have had some very interesting, thoughtful and intelligent responses from them.
During my last week at RECLAIM I will conduct some one to one interviews with two of the RECLAIM graduates. This will form a case study for my evaluation and report on the Gorton Girls and Moss Side Boys 2013 projects. I will finish writing my report and hopefully provide RECLAIM with a useful and insightful piece of work that will highlight the good work RECLAIM have done and also where there is room for improvement. I have set up an online survey for the past RECLAIM graduates which has received some very interesting responses which I will include in my report.
Also the next trip on the summer programme is a trip to Bradford which I will be helping out with. We will visit the media museum and also sample some of Bradford’s famous Indian cuisine at one of the first Indian restaurants in the country.
This week has been great! I am continuing on with the data organisation project that I started last week. I have come to realise that I may not be able to get through the entire data set so I hope to design a formal method to approach the organisation (without delving into the world of code to make it easier).
I also accepted a side task proposed by my supervisor to give myself a slight change. The task regards File Case Retentions. All young carers within the Barnardo’s scheme require Barnardo’s to store their data for multiple years depending on their situation. Accordingly, I have been designating appropriate time frames (based on the carers hard copy files) to carer’s files enabling Barnardo’s to store the data for the appropriate period of time.
Finally, I have been discussing, with different colleagues, what is involved when working with young carers. The process of working with children in a one to one meeting is stricly a confidential matter. Hence there is little information that they can officially give me (as I am not qualified to be working with children in a one to one format).
I thought I would let you know what I have been up to on my charity insights placement and a little bit about me/ my project.
So why did you choose the British Red Cross as your charity?
Well I have been a Volunteer with them for 4 years as a Peer Educator in First Aid and love it, so it was an obvious choice. They are always keen to take on Interns to help out as well!
What is the project and why are you doing it?
I am working in the People and Learning department where I am linking two pieces of research data together, one on volunteer rentention ( quantitative) and a second on staff and volunteer engagement (focus groups). From this we hope to *reads off from piece of paper*: Aid Area Business planning, improve volunteer engagement and improve staff rentention of volunteers. So serious and important stuff.
So, What have you been doing?
Well I have been getting to grips with the project and fully understanding it as the outcomes have to be presented to the Area Management team (Ekk!). We also had to overcome some problems …. We found out we were missing data for the project. 3 months of data had not been sent to us! This meant that the spreadsheet with all of the data we had anaylsed was totally false. So Wednesday and Thursday were days of looking at the spreadsheet and sorting graphs out and adding formulas to it. Thankfully we got it all sorted and I remembered how to work Excel again! We thought that we might have to wait until Friday to sort it as the spreadsheet had been created by another intern. I have also started to link the projects together by using a table as a layout for planning my report.
Some planning notes for my project
Overall, it has been a great first week and I have really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the rest!
Today I thought I would provide a brief summary of developments over the last few years.
The first wave of A8 nationals (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) arrived in 2004. Within 8 hours of the borders opening there was a queue from the passage all the way to Victoria Coach station. At the peak of the influx 53 coaches from Warsaw arrived in a single day. As many migrants were from Catholic countries they immediately went to nearby Westminster Cathedral which directed them to The Passage. At that time a potential client did not have to have ‘support needs’ to be eligible for The Passage’s services. Having support needs means having some kind of mental or physical health issue; this is because The Passage aims to work with only the most vulnerable adults. Initially this influx was considered a boon for the careers and training department as they now had a large number of clients with a good chance of finding a job. However it soon became clear that many clients, including some with qualifications as high as Masters degrees, wanted work as soon as possible even if it was unskilled and poorly paid and despite their over qualification for the sort of work they were seeking. This was so that they could start sending money home as quickly as possible. This was compounded by lack of understanding of how job-seeking in the UK economy differs to job-seeking in Poland. Unrealistic expectations on this matter combined with the language barrier and cultural differences resulting in difficult communications. For example if asked to present themselves at the day center between ten and three, many clients would arrive at 2:55 and fail understand why they were not able to be seen. Not enough minimum wage work was available and in 2005 the decision was taken to exclude EEA jobseekers from The Passage’s target client group and introduce the support needs criteria. The ‘building base services’ initiative aimed to discourage organisations such as The Passage from supporting people in continuing to sleep rough. To this end use of the day center was made conditional on assessment and full engagement with The Passage’s other services where appropriate; beforehand this was only strongly encouraged. After these changes some clients turned to the black market to look for work.
On my first morning at The Passage I was granted the blessing of a leisurely start: at eleven I presented myself at reception and met Miranda, who was to be my supervisor, for the first time. No work got done that morning, instead we talked about the project that I was to work on and agreed some first steps.
My work consisted of researching, and then writing a report on, the situation of European economic migrants with ‘no recourse to public funds’. These are both terms that would benefit from clarification. For the purposes of my report, I effectively considered any national of a country in the European Economic Area (EEA) other than the UK to be an economic migrant. This was generally an accurate assumption within the group of people that I was considering: the homeless. No recourse to public funds is a pleasant little turn of phrase that I first encountered in a document published by Westminster City Council: it means that a person is not eligible for any benefits.
So why was I looking at this particular group of people? Because they are an increasingly problematic client group (The Passage refers to the homeless people who use their services as clients) for organisations like The Passage. This is because of two separate changes in the rules regarding eligibility for certain benefits: on January 1st eligibility for jobseeker’s allowance was removed for non UK EEA nationals and on April 1st housing benefit was removed as well. This is a simplification as there are saving clauses and exceptional circumstances.
My task was to contact organisations that worked with this client group all over London and find out how they were responding to the changes and to develop a clear picture of the work that The Passage was able to do. The ideal outcome of this exercise would be to discover some way of effectively helping these clients or some service to which they could be referred. If that was not achievable then the report would serve to clarify the situation and draw together information on it in to one place.
Almost a week has passed since I finished my internship at the MS Trust and I have had time to reflect on what has been a wonderful experience. My fourth week involved finishing the literary search and a final visit to the local therapy centre. I was also lucky enough to spend two days with my supervisor, a physiotherapist, in Norwich, where I saw more people with MS receiving therapy.
Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience that the Charity Insights Scheme has given me. I have had the chance to work with some fantastic and inspiring people, and learn a lot about a condition that affects thousands of people, but is often overlooked. I now realise that so many health professionals are involved in patient care; it’s not just doctors and nurses. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to speak with patients and develop my communication skills, which I hope will serve me well in my upcoming clinical years.
For anyone considering the Charity Insights Scheme I highly recommend they apply; it’s a great way gain valuable work experience, learn a lot, and at four weeks long, still gives you enough time to relax during the long summer holiday. Thank you MS Trust for letting me spend four weeks with you this summer, and thank you Imperial for running such a worthwhile scheme.
For someone who hardly spends time in East London, it’s weird to look back and realize I’ve been spending 10 days doing just that. It’s quite a quaint little part of Camden that I’m tucked away by too! I don’t think I’ve seen so few ATMs and so many artisan bakeries during my time in London.
A recap of what’s happened since the first day:
Dissemination plan – First draft completed! A nice little list of allergy-related charities, clinics and research centers both large and small. Once again let it be known that there’s probably a charity for every type of disorder there is out there (what might this mean in terms of sustainability of nonprofits? *hint hint*)
Virtual packs – First draft of Making sense of screening completed! Rewriting/condensing a 15 page booklet into about 15 slides with max. 200 words is truly a challenge, but a fun one at that, with lots of quirky décor and infographics. Now it’s off for review around the office, then from there to Jane’s and John’s for evaluation of clarity, and finally some screening experts to make sure I didn’t write “screening makes you Godzilla” somewhere
#AskForEvidence – Got an opportunity to call out a newspaper article from last week on omega-3. Fun journey since then, involving a nutritionist and a PR firm walking into a bar. Hope I can publish some details in good time
News check – Responsible for me waking up at 7AM this past week (and doing my first 9-5’s – ever!). Given that I normally start at 10 and walking in to find everyone already all at work, it’s refreshing to know that all Sense About Science staffers actually wake up and commute like normal caffeinated people, and not teleporting AI’s. Fantastic insight as well into the core work of Sense About Science in addressing the latest science claims in the media, and trying to critically analyze press articles myself
Maddox Prize – Top Secrets
Promise that pictures of some things I’m doing will come about eventually. In the meantime: why Shark Week sucks! (io9)
A series of weekly blog entries inspired by my work at Sense About Science. This week: Infographics.
As a graphics designer I have worked on a range of tasks, from simple ones like making buttons for websites to designing print media for distribution and display. But rarely have I had the chance to bridge my scientific interest with my design hobby. On the one hand, this may be because visual design tends to take a back-seat for scientific media – the focus for design in likes of reports and posters are that of functionality and practicality. But there’s a more raw side to it; as engaging as it is to be perfectionist and pixel-perfect, it’s a rather alien concept to pair the abstraction of design with the concrete nature that are data and facts from scientific discovery.
Those feelings, though, may be increasingly unfounded. While one shouldn’t expect brilliantly illustrated posters or artistically decorated journal articles anytime soon at conferences, initiatives in science communication have raced to take advantage of modern styles and conventions to better captivate their audiences. For instance, at the recent Royal Society’s Summer Exhibition, I was genuinely impressed by the lengths taken by some stalls to create brochures capable of bringing the science to life. Take a look at this excerpt from the material produced by the folks showcasing the Higgs Boson discovery:
Excerpt from “The Higgs Boson and Beyond”. (CERN and partners) Click image to view original booklet in digital format
I’ll admit it: aside from astronomy, physics haven’t captured my full interest since GCSE’s. Although I have harbored superficial intrigues as to fields such as particle physics – mainly due to their high research profile at Imperial – I do not understand them. Yet, coming out of reading the guide, I feel more confident about the basic elements. My knowledge has expanded – I know now how quarks fit in with the scales of our world, the foundations of matter/antimatter, and the basic principles of the Higgs Boson and Higgs field. The cartoonish graphics, brightened with a pastel palette, breaks down the highly complex topic into digestible chucks of appeal to a visual learner.
What the content of The Higgs Boson and Beyond illustrates is the increasing power of infographics. In a world increasingly reliant on social media and instant messaging, these hyper-visual ‘sight-bites’ can take advantage of our sharing culture, allowing skilled professionals like scientists to capture key information and data and disseminate it wide and far.
The argument can be made that such a method to communicate science may be ill-conceived. Breaking down science into tiny, digestible chunks may threaten the integrity of the information being communicated, as it wouldn’t present the full dimensions and nuances of scientific texts. Moreover, infographic production can be done by almost anyone, with or without science training. By combining a focus on visuals with a failure to present information appropriately, errorneous and/or exaggerated information can easily be fed to the public and gain great appeal.
Example of what a bad infographic can be – deliberating using visuals to distort the information being presented. (Marketing Technology Blog)
Thankfully, such a phenomenon doesn’t seem to have developed (or at least, isn’t mainstream). It helps that so many science organizations and groups have jumped aboard the ‘infographics bandwagon’ in recent years. The high output of graphics, combined with a general appreciation of science from Internet communities, seem to have kept the flood of visual pseudo-science at bay. It also helps that proper infographics are not something that can be made easily in one’s average word processor, and follows strict guidelines. True infographics are ultimately about the accurate portrayal of data and evidence, not to act as decorations to a document. It stands to reason that accurate infographics require more care and attention, perhaps through commissioning professional designers, who would be more readily able to produce quality products. These, in turn, would sport better aesthetics and hence be more captivating and readily disseminated.
On the other hand, an example of a brilliant science infographic. Note that the visuals not only bring the content to life, but also reflects the science itself with larger virions for greater data and viral coats reflecting that of actual viruses. (Good & Column Five)
Returning to Sense About Science, one of the main challenges during my 4-week internship would be to try and create infographics based on the charity’s Making sense of… guides, for sharing on social media both to regularly inform followers and potentially be used as a promotional tool. Having never made an infographic before, this is proving to be a thrilling yet daunting challenge. The points discussed above would set a basic framework which I trust will inform my work in the weeks ahead. to set down a basic framework which I trust will inform my work in the weeks ahead.
(As of the time of posting, 2 infographics have been drafted for Sense About Science. Once these are approved, they will be posted as part of my Xth Day series)
I could not believe how quickly my last week at the PHG Foundation arrived, and that it was already time to wrap-up up my project. I spent the beginning of the week implementing the last corrections and feedback for the briefing note, which will be published on the PHG Foundation website. I will be one of the authors on the publication, and before the briefing note can be accessed on the website it will be converted into a very smart format, similar to that of other briefing notes, by the communications team. It will be very exciting to see the final document!
Further to this, I spent the remainder of my week preparing a presentation on the project research findings. In order for everyone to be able to attend, we scheduled the presentation in a few weeks time, so I am already looking forward to coming back to the offices then. It made it much easier to say good-bye to everyone on my last day, seeing as I already knew that I would soon be back again.
My internship at the PHG Foundation has been a truly fantastic opportunity and I whole-heartedly enjoyed the experience of working in such an intellectually stimulating environment. I am extremely grateful to have been given this opportunity and I highly recommend for any future interns to start searching for prospective internships early, and to realise opportunities that come their way.
