Experience of Working with Children and Young People in the Voluntary and Community Sector

Margaret Thompson 2008

Experience of working with children and young people in the voluntary and community sector

I have worked in the voluntary sector for well over 20 years in Hong Kong, the UK and Europe, advocating for children’s rights, particularly those most marginalised and excluded (including Gypsies and other Travellers; Refugees and Asylum-Seekers). I have worked as a volunteer, project worker, community development worker and since the early 1990’s in management positions for both project and strategic development, including 3 years with a national anti-poverty responsibility for and international NGO, development a range of initiatives to tackle children’s social exclusion.

I first worked in Wolverhampton for 5 years in 1987, developing inter-agency and multi-disciplinary models of work with Gypsy/Traveller families and since late 2005 I have been the manager at Re-entry, a project working with young people excluded from or not in school for a variety of reasons.

Experience of working at a strategic level

In previous management rolls and with Re-entry I have been a member of many organisation and local authority strategic development Forums and Boards e.g. Child Care Development Board in Birmingham, Staffordshire Inter-Agency Board (Gypsies/Travellers) etc.

Since February 2006 I have had the privilege of representing the voluntary sector on Wolverhampton’s Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Strategy and Development Board and I am a recent Director to Youth Organisations Wolverhampton (YOW).

I have previously been a Trustee/Director of voluntary organisations concerned with disability and anti-poverty issues.

Why I wish to continue as a representative on the CYPSP S&D Board

Working at a strategic level is on the of the means to influence the development of more relevant and appropriate services for Wolverhampton’s Children and young people and the Third Sector is an essential player in this development; I have always supported a partnership approach as being more effective in delivering to this end. The 5 outcomes of Every Child Matters were developed by children and young people themselves and are therefore more real to their own lives and experiences and I am committed to ensuring that those voices are heard in both strategy and service development, I believe in the principles of children’s rights as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and throughout my career have endeavoured to uphold those rights.