Arras & Groundworks

Week 1 – A New Kind of Freshers Week, 8-12 September:

This week was an introductory week to the scheme. The first two days were spent at the Groundwork Environment Centre. Here, we spent our time getting to know each other as individuals through various exercises such as individual presentations, group work and team games. We also discussed as a group what Groundwork will expect from us as individuals, what the communities in which our projects will be based will expect from us and also what we will expect to gain from the work which we are carrying out.

All of it is in order to make us all clear and aware of what the scheme has to offer us, which is, an insight into different aspects of community work, project management, marketing and events management for which we are expected to be fully committed, reliable and keen to learn and develop skills. We also spent this time working through health and safety at work so we are all fully aware of how to handle any situation that could occur whilst at work.

The next three days were spent at the Foundry Centre in the Peak District for a team building residential. Whilst in the Peak District we carried out conservation work consisting of clearing footpaths that had become enclosed, by sawing down trees and clearing debris and fun activities such as abseiling and bridge making. The time spent in the Peak District helped us to bond as a team and gave us the opportunity to experience some of the conservation work that Groundwork carries out.

Next week we will be given our projects, which we will be working on in pairs. The week will mainly consist of the initial planning of our projects and the carrying out of background research into the project we have been given.

Week 2 – Welcome to Project Initiation Week, 15-19 September

This week I was given my project for which my partner and I started to research and plan. Our project is going to cover the next ten weeks of the graduate program, with the final two being used to review and present the work we have carried out.

I am going to be working on a youth forum which is based in two areas of Oldham. The main aim of this project is to set up a group of youths aged 11 to 18, who will then represent the young people of these areas. The members will be required to attend the weekly meetings we set up to discuss relevant issues within their areas and to bring ideas to the table of how we could bring about appropriate action to target these areas. Our job will be to structure these meetings, find volunteers from the above mentioned areas to take part in the youth forum and to formulate a 12-month plan of action for the forum, with a budget of £900.

This week I have researched into pre-existing youth forums and the work of young advisors so that I have a full understanding of the work involved and to get an idea of the way in which we will structure our meetings.

I have also visited our specific districts, taking a tour of both areas to find out where the main communal places are and to find out about the history of both areas. Both areas are predominately council estates, both with facilities for the youths of the areas such as a park, a community centre and a youth club. My partner and I spent two of our evenings taking part in sessions both at the youth centre and at one of the activity sessions already held by Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale. From this we discovered that it is going to be a challenge to get the two areas working in unison as there is a background of problems between the two areas. On both evenings we found youths that would be willing to help on our project and we held discussions at both meetings as to what they believed were the main issues in the areas and also what kind of activities/events we could hold to bring these areas together. Being in these areas gave us a feel of what the community spirit was like and what kind of expectations we could have in regard to volunteers. The youths were very willing and helpful and from this we found that both areas seem to have a strong relationship with Groundwork staff.

This week we have also had two seminars, the first being in Budget training. We needed this training because we will be working with a budget of £900 and it is imperative that to be successful with our projects we will have to 'plan and record' all monies being spent. This was useful as I have never carried out such a task, and I learnt about factors such as contingency, advanced planning, engagement and consultation.

The second seminar taught us how to define a community. This information was useful as all of our projects are community-based, so for us to have background knowledge into community principles and central Government sectors is essential.

Following an action plan we have set up, next week we will begin planning our first meeting, including advertising, setting a date and making arrangements such as location, travel and activities for it. We also have two other meetings set up, one in each of our two specified districts, in which we hope to generate interest for the youth forum and set a date for the first meeting.

Week 3 – Youth Interaction and Breaking the Ice, 22-26 September

This week our main focus has been to plan, prepare and recruit for our first youth forum meeting. To achieve this we have attended several meetings, one of those being with counsellors of the area we are working with. We communicated our ideas to them and wanted to know if we could feed into their monthly gatherings the ideas and goals of the youth forum. The idea was welcomed as it would be refreshing to have the ideas and thoughts of the youths of the area - as opposed to anyone assuming what would be more favourable for them and they would have representatives to discuss future ideas with.

The second meeting was with members of the community who plan events for the evenings in the local area. From this gathering we gained an understanding of previous events which have been held to bring the community together, interpreting how these events were taken up and what objectives stood in the way. The final meeting was more informal: Our aim was to recruit some more youths to attend a meeting next week. From these events we gained an understanding of how the community is run, the community spirit and also some insight into what changes could potentially be made and what issues need to be raised at our meetings.

In regard to our preparation, we have produced a meeting schedule in which we have made sure we have allocated sufficient time to 'work and play' as to make this project exciting for the youths as well as being beneficial to the community. We have also researched ice breaker issues so that the youths will be given the opportunity to interact with each other and find out more about each other's interests and backgrounds - to make them feel more comfortable when involved in debate and discussions.

At mid-week we attended a meeting with our marketing team; this gathering took place at a local venue that we have researched and will hopefully be using and interacting with throughout our project. The venue is a musical production and events company, one in which we are hoping to have an event on at the end of the project alongside a group of youths that our marketing team is working with. We are also hoping to work with this company to carry activities involving the youths such as DJ workshops.

Also this week we have had a day of First Aid training in which we carried out numerous tasks and were made fully aware of how to handle any situation that we may come across in work or in everyday life. This was very beneficial as we will be working with children on all different kinds of activities and made us feel able to cope in any situation that may occur.

Next week we will be holding our first youth forum, so the beginning of the week will be spent carrying out preparation whilst the second half of the week will consist in evaluation and ideas of how our following meeting will run. We will also be taking part in finance training.

Notes from the editor

Week 3 already, and Zoe has started the most important part of the project lifecycle - planning. There have been a lot of meetings to attend (pretty normal in the every day life of a project manager), but each meeting had a clear objective and Zoe knew what she needed to take away from each one in order to help her plan her project. Zoe's week has demonstrated just how far reaching projects can be and how many people are impacted by them - the people who will be impacted by the project in some way are generally known as the stakeholders.

As Zoe starts to plan her meeting, she utilises the tools available - meeting schedule. Good project management methods (like PRINCE2) include an abundance of tools and templates to assist the project manager - there's no point reinventing the wheel when a tried and tested method is available. Like all good planners, Zoe is also thinking about how the planned meeting might go with the children and she can foresee some potential issues - the need for icebreakers - issue management is another key area of project management Zoe is experiencing and she makes sure the issue has been resolved with a good solution.

Week 4 – Developing Feedback and Turning to the Lottery

This week my partner and I held our first youth forum meeting. The first two days of the week were spent making final preparations for the meeting and finishing a session plan. To do this correctly, we had to take into consideration the allocated time to include fun activities and have serious discussions as to gain insight into and give the youths an idea of how future sessions will be structured and what both parties can expect from the running of these sessions. I feel that the meeting went well, and we had an even balance of work and fun, from which we had the opportunity to discuss a range of topics to give us an idea of how we will be able to structure the next session.

The downfall to our meeting was that there was an imbalance of children from the areas, so we will need to recruit more people in order to give the meetings an even playing field, which in turn will allow us to draw ideas from both areas involved in our project.

This week I have also carried out some shadowing of youth work with particular emphasis on children with learning difficulties. From this shadowing I gained an insight into how the session was planned and how it ran, which gave me ideas of how we could structure future sessions. It also gave me the opportunity to work with different people and carry out different activities. I really enjoyed this day’s events, and as a follow up next week, I will be working with the team to plan another session in advance.

Toward the end of the week, much of our time was spent researching the ideas that were presented to us at our first meeting. The idea behind it was so that we could develop feedback on these ideas for our second meeting. Our ultimate aim is to have researched every idea we were given so that we will have a list of ideas that we will be able to carry out. In addition, we will determine whether or not this will be carried out immediately or something that we will be able to include in our 12-month plan for the forum.

We have a series of ideas to look into for projects, ranging from environmental issues to fund raisers and educational sessions. We will also be looking at previous projects that have been carried out around the area and how they were structured; specifically, we’ll be looking at the results of these projects. In the meeting, the youths talked about previous projects and what they liked and disliked about them, and how they believe they affected the area. This will give us the opportunity to take the initial idea and research how we would be able to implement changes to gain a better result.

We also had funding training this week, which included sessions where we were taught how to apply for money for the community through the National Lottery. This training was very necessary, as we may need to apply for more money to cover our projects. As mentioned last week, our current budget is just £900.

Next week we have several meetings lined up with youth groups and will be spending time researching potential projects. I will also do some more shadowing and subsequently be holding our second meeting.

Notes from the editor

In this week's project activities, Zoe has learnt the importance of planning. Ask any project manager which stage of the project is the most important, and all will say planning. Making preparations for the meeting and ensuring session plans incorporated all the elements they wanted to include; the importance of time management is crucial. Zoe's planning also included expectations - managing expectations is a crucial part of a project managers role; thinking through what she wanted the meeting to achieve, what outcomes she was looking for and preempting any objections. One element that may have been missing from Zoe's preparations was risk management - in hindsight could she have preempted the issue regarding the imbalance of children at the meeting? Already Zoe has thought about risk avoidance for future meetings by making sure she recruits more children. What else could Zoe do in relation to risk management? To find out more about risk management - view the presentation "Risk Management" from CITI (PDF).

Zoe also had the opportunity to see how others were planning. Useful advice from colleagues and peers means she can incorporate any new techniques into her own work. Carrying out research on the ideas gathered may not necessarily be a role the project manager would perform in isolation: project team members with experience in areas such as business analysis or technical specifications may be called upon to provide expertise. Zoe has also been introduced to the notion of scope; she's trying to determine whether the ideas will be incorporated into her project or not, the ideas that will go on to form the project will be "in scope" the ideas that don't make the project will be "out of scope". Zoe talks about some ideas potentially being incorporated into the project later down the line so she's already thinking about her project schedule too.

Zoe's project seems to have a large group of stakeholders. The children are definitely important stakeholders and she's managing the stakeholders expectations - by gaining their input during the meeting as to what they liked and disliked she will be able to ensure their expectations are met by the project she will be implementing. What other stakeholders does Zoe have to be aware of (and manage) in her project? Zoe is very aware of her project budget - £900 - and its important that the project manager has a firm grip in the finances of their projects, the funding training will certainly help to give her an insight to finances.

Week 5 – Risk Assessment and The Reality of Budget Cuts

This week I spent the majority of my time planning sessions for my own project and also for a different project with a group of young people with learning difficulties.

To plan for our second session, we first had to identify any objectives we had from our previous session so that we could include ways to overcome the objectives and think of targets that we would like to have reached by the end of the session. Planning these sessions is developing my research skills and time management skill. Carrying out the session plans is an essential part of our project, as it documents the progression of our project and then also gives us the opportunity to then evaluate the session and to make positive change to all subsequent sessions.

We also carried out a ten-week plan for our project to identify the very scope of it: In essence, we figured out what we want to have accomplished by the end of the time we have spent working on it. In this plan, we had to identify the resources that we have to use, the money we have to spend and the time that we have to carry it all out. This helped us a lot, as it gave us the opportunity show that we were able to combine all of these elements into document form and for us to then be able to focus on the direction that we want to embark on.

A change to the plan this week was when we were told that our budgets have been changed from £900 to £500. This change has not made a major impact on our project at the present time, but when we are planning the project we will be carrying out with the young people, it will be a factor that we will have to take into consideration. The main reason for this is because the overall cost is uncertain at the moment, as we do not yet know the specific project we will be carrying out. To make sure that we keep within this new budget, we will have to make sure we consider every aspect of what we are doing and keep a diary of all the costs we incur on a weekly basis.

When carrying out my session plan, I also had to carry out a risk assessment this week, which taught me how to identify any risks and how to put measures in place to target these risks. I feel that it was an important part of the session planning because it gave me opportunity to ensure that no harm would occur to anyone that attended the session. It also made me realise that even the smallest and simplest things that may seem irrelevant at the starting point need to be considered.

Next week will be a very busy week. I will learn how my project management skills have been developing and will then give myself the opportunity to test these skills. I will also be helping on various projects as well as my own, which will mean that I will have to use my time efficiently to make sure that the next session we will be holding will be planned in advance and that we will be fully prepared.

We will also be taking part in CV training and also participate in a presentation in which we will report on how our projects are going and what our aims for the project are.

Notes from the editor

In this week's project activities, Zoe is still spending time on the all-important activity of project planning. She's also been looking at risk management, project budget issues and change management. In Zoe's activities she refers to a "session plan", which documents the "project progression". In all projects there are elements of reporting to be carried out. Progress reporting is an essential activity for the project manager, because it informs all those people with an interest in the project how the project is coming along. The progress report not only covers which activities were performed this week (or month depending on when reports are required), but also other elements such as costs incurred, any issues which occured, and planned activity for the coming period.

In this week, Zoe has also identified the scope - what is going to be included within the project - and importantly what resources she will need. Resources on a project can include not only the people required to carry out the activities but also resources such as materials, equipment, facilities and funding. Zoe is also looking at the budget available and the time they have available to carry out the project, in fact, Zoe's focus is the very essence of project management and is often defined as a project management triangle (see figure bottom left).

The project management triangle contains the three most important factors: the amount of time available, the cost of the project (or the budget available) and the scope of the project (what's going to be delivered). The three factors also include quality - ensuring that the finished project meets the expectations of the customer. The triangle is a good model to demonstrate the constraits the project has, for example if a project budget was cut, as in Zoe's situation this week, this will have an impact on time and/ or scope. Zoe may need to reduce the scope (or what's being delivered) to ensure she meets the costs or reduce the time needed to deliver the project (reducing the time will mean she needs less resources or man hours to fund). One for Zoe to think about as she moves forward in her project.

Also in this week's activities Zoe covered risk management again, I wonder if Zoe identified the risk of her project budget being reduced? Zoe has experienced what many project managers and their projects face, issues popping up which need to be quickly identified and managed so they don't become major risks to the project. A budget cut of this size could very well stop the project going ahead - a very major risk. Let's hope Zoe overcomes this issue and we will see how it has impacted her project next week.
 

Week 6 – Re-Organisation and Cherry-picking New Ideas

This week we held our youth session. The session ran differently from any we had carried out previously, as the group was bigger with slightly older youths. We also arranged to have the chairwoman of the youth sub-group attend our meeting for the sake of introducing herself and speaking to the group about how they can get their voices heard.

From this meeting, we were able to develop more ideas about what kind of projects the youths would like to be carried out in their area. It was also exciting to see debate and discussion between the youths. It is interesting to see that we are improving on a weekly basis with the structure, the time management and our communication skills. Because of this, we seem to be getting more out of the meetings every week, as we build a relationship with the youths. One objective we have come across is the fact that an idea for a project from the previous meetings that we have looked into was not taken very well by the new members of the group this week. Because of this, we will have to look at the positives and negatives and find a way to present this idea to the group in a positive light, as we believe that the project would serve as a beneficial one for all the areas that the young people live in.

We also had a day of CV training this week. The training proved to be very useful, as we were given hints and tips of how to improve our CVs, as well as advice on different layouts to use. Representatives from both the private and the public sector gave speeches to us as well, enlightening us on the differences between public and private sector job applications. Within the public sector, application forms are more commonly used in the recruitment process; in the private sector, the process focuses on CVs.

We have also been given the opportunity to stay in contact with the representative from the private sector by sending our CVs on a regular basis for her analysis. She promised to look through the documents and send us back any pointers that would benefit us in our search for employment after the project has been completed. In addition to this, we were given interview tips, such as how to handle both competency questions and unexpected questions. I found that even though I have personally had a lot of interview experience, both I and others within my group benefited greatly from the day’s activities.

I also spent two days helping with other projects that were being run by other graduates from my group. This was useful to me, as it gave me insight into different approaches people use to run and structure sessions; moreover, it gave me and my partner ideas as to how we could make our own sessions more effective. One of the projects I helped with was named "Jubilee". Members of the Jubilee project were holding an event which drew from the involvement of young people from a primary school. The second project required less involvement, as it involved a panel that had been created by another team. We mainly sat-in and observed their work.

Next week, my partner and I will be holding a different kind of session from the one we had previously planned. We will also do some thorough research into the ideas we have lined up for projects so that we are ready to brief these in the next session.

Notes from the editor

In this week's activities, Zoe learns more about her stakeholders - the youth members - through an interactive session which saw a lot of discussion and debate. In programme and projects, stakeholder management is crucial for the success of the project - after all these are the people who have a lot riding on the outcome of the project and it's important that the outcomes meet their needs, there's no point delivering a project within the agreed budget and time if it doesn't deliver what the people were expecting or need. To read further information on stakeholder management see the presentation here.

Zoe talks about the importance of communication to the stakeholders - the idea they are presenting needs to focus on the positives, another way to describe this is "selling the benefits" to the stakeholders. Just like we see in marketing everyday, if you want people to buy a product or service (or in the case of this project getting them to "buy into what you're doing") you need to tell them what benefits they will experience from doing so. When the benefits are captured they must be communicated to your stakeholders - not once, twice or three times but constantly and through different mechanisms.
 

Week 7 – A Lesson Learned From a Broken Schedule

This week we decided to plan a different kind of meeting to the ones that we have previously held. We made this decision because we want to keep the young people engaged and also because they have been working well at the previous meetings; therefore, we decided to hold a cook-and-taste session to promote healthy eating and also to give the youths an opportunity to learn how to cook a meal themselves. To do this, we had to ensure there was a detailed plan for the session, which included carrying out a risk assessment, ensuring we had both a recipe and ingredients, and that we had a suitable location for the meeting to take place.

On the day of our meeting, we had a structured session plan completed. However, after the meeting was held it became clear that we still had several hurdles to contend with.

The first unscheduled event was that when transporting some of the young people, several attendees were late. This meant that by the time we arrived at our meeting, we were 30 minutes late. To ensure this does not happen again, we will have to improve our communication skills and identify a more sufficient method of keeping in contact with the young people, as this affected the other members of the group who were on time and forced to wait. The second problem I encountered was that my partner took sick, which meant that I then had to make my best effort to lead the meeting by myself. In the planning stage, my partner had been taking the lead, and as a result, I felt more under pressure. Couple this with the fact that the event was already running 30 minutes behind schedule and my primary role of taking ‘more of a back seat’, and most of our plan was out the window already.

Looking back at this, I now realise that we need to be more flexible with our session plans for our meetings and realise that we will not have thought of everything when planning our session. I have also realised that it is not always possible to stick to your session plan, and that when things do go wrong, it is the way that you analyse the situation and react to it that puts you back on track for a successful project or event.

We have also been researching projects that we will be carrying out over the next few weeks. I have been shadowing a Prince’s Trust session, as there is a similar position available, which I am considering applying for.

We have an event next week scheduled for the half-term holidays, for which we are teaming up with another project group that is running within the graduate scheme. As a result we will be spending the beginning of the week planning for this. The rest of the week will be spent planning for our weekly meeting, and also setting dates for two other projects that we hope to complete by the end of the scheme. One project is a graffiti wall and the other is a presentation evening for the youth forum, which aims to give the youths an opportunity to meet with influential people in area and show what they have been doing during the time we have spent with them.

Notes from the editor

In this week's activities Zoe learns that the best well laid plans can sometimes not be enough. Project Managers know that planning is the "king" activity in project management but sometimes there will be "exceptions" and "issues" that threaten the project schedule (or costs or quality). The risk management process helps the project manager to foresee potential threats before they become issues and enables them to make a decision well before the threat as even occured (and in a lot of cases it never does occur). The definition of risk; " An uncertain event that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of the project or business objectives" and the definition of issues on projects: " A problem that is not resolvable by the project manager – it needs escalation". With the specific unscheduled event which happened - the attendees arriving late - how might Zoe have managed this from a risk management perspective? What could she have done to avoid this happening? How could she have reduced the impact of the risk? If she couldn't avoid this risk from happening could she have protected the project in anyway - or mitigated the risk?

Zoe also experienced problems with the "resource management" on the project this week- team members taking ill at crucial times will always lead to extra pressure on the ones left to carry on the delivery and Zoe recognised that planning to account for the unexpected will pay dividends in the future. As project managers gain more experience managing their projects it becomes much easier to foresee potential issues, risks and threats which enable them to plan well but also become skilled at managing these exceptions when they pop up unexpected - a cool calm project manager is an experienced and skilled project manager.
 

Week 8 – Direct Targets, Deadlines, the Mayor, and Footy

We set out direct targets this week, as our project’s completion date is only three weeks away and we want to ensure that we have covered and implemented all the needs of our project brief that we were given at the start to ensure a strong end result. We have two events that we will be completing within these three weeks, as has been mentioned in prior entries.

With regards to our weekly Youth Forum meeting, my partner and I now have a solid understanding of how to plan for these and how to be able to tackle any issues that may arise. I was not present at the meeting this week, which gave my partner the opportunity to take the lead. The session proved to be very beneficial: the group covered a risk assessment of the event that we held later on during the week, and they also raised issues that they believe will need to be covered beforehand. This gave them the chance to think logically about how an event will take place, and pinpoint areas that may need special attention, to make sure that the day runs smoothly.

We joined up with another team on Thursday that is working in the same area as ourselves. The team held an event day, which included a clean up, a discussion into improvements that they believe could take place in the area, and activities such as baking for the Halloween party that was being held on Friday. For this, we had to produce a detailed proposal for the celebration, one that included a suitable venue/location, coverage of any health and safety issues, writing of a press release to gain exposure for the work we are carrying out, and organisation of equipment and ingredients for the day. We needed to do all of this to ensure that the event would run smoothly and to make sure that we had full control of the event. The day itself went very well. Volunteers from our Youth Forum turned up, and because of the pre-planning exercises, everything ran smoothly and fit into the time we had allocated for the event.

On Friday we attended a Halloween party that was being held in the park of the area we are working in. This gave us the opportunity to liaise with people from the area, including members of the Council and the town’s Mayor, to show them the work we have been carrying out at present and are planning to carry out in the future. For this, we put together a presentation board with pictures from the youth group sessions and the clean-up day, not to mention our own personal aims for the project. Members from our Youth Forum again proved helpful, and the evening was a great success, as well as a lot of fun, which included us getting our faces painted!

There was also an evening football match, pitting the Groundwork volunteers against the young people from surrounding areas who volunteer regularly. It proved to be a fun evening and served as an example of the strength of the relationships that Groundwork has with so many young people and adults.

Next week, we have a motivation day on Monday, which is going to be a surprise for the group. We also will be carrying out a post-evaluation of the events we carried out this week and also plan for our Youth Forum meeting, which is going to be another ‘cook and taste’ session.

Notes from the editor

In this week's activities Zoe can see the end date in sight, one of the key things a project manager should be doing with their project brief and associated project plans is ensuring they continually check back to see if the project is on track to meet objectives, and importantly is the project even working to the same objectives! Zoe has shown in this week's activities that practice makes perfect; like any good project manager knows, planning and managing the same kinds of projects over and over will give you the added benefit of knowing what's likely to go well and what issues you can anticipate. Good project managers also know that complacency needs to be avoided - you never know what might be around the corner.

In this week's activities, Zoe had the opportunity to present the team's work to an influential member of the community. Project Managers should always be ready to pomote their project and the project team and ideally should have their soundbytes ready. Within any organisation, senior managers, stakeholders, project sponsors may drop by or bump into the PM in the corridor and will enquire about the project - how's it going? Being ready with the positives and the key messages from the project, the Project Manager makes sure the organisation knows how well the project team is working.

 

Week 9 – Rejection, Contingency Plan and Cook and Taste: Part II

We started this week off with ‘Motivation Day’. This event consisted of heading out into the streets of Oldham for some fun activities. First up was a scavenger hunt of sorts: we were split into teams and given a list of objects, people and places we had to find and photograph. That activity was then followed by lunch at a local restaurant and then a tribal drumming session held at the local gallery. The whole team had a fun day whilst also getting the opportunity to have a look around the town which they are working in.

Our weekly meeting was another ‘cook and taste’ session; this week we made fajitas with the young people. As this was our second ‘cook and taste session, it went very smoothly, as we had gained experience from the first session and knew what to expect and what barriers we needed to overcome this time.

In the project brief that we were given at the beginning of our time at Groundwork, the main purpose was to feed into the local youth sub-group. The chairperson has already attended one of our meetings and after discussions with her this week, we have planned to have the meeting here at Groundwork so that we will be able to feed into this meeting. We will present to the group sharing what we have been doing, and hold a buffet which the young people will plan and prepare. This will be a perfect opportunity for both groups to meet and gain insight into what each group does.

In regards to the graffiti board that we have been planning to locate in the local park, we have been denied permission to put this up. After a week of waiting in which the most we could do was plan for this project, it was rejected by the parks department and a local councillor who believed that this would promote graffiti in the area. We are very disappointed about the decision; from researching this idea we have found that this has proven to be a positive action in other communities. We will be feeding this back to the young people in the next session. As we knew that this idea was subject to approval from the start, we did have a contingency plan, which is crucial when planning for the unforeseen. The contingency plan involves creating a website for the young people which will hold any information on the local area, events and meetings. We are hoping to join with another group from our graduate team that are also working in the same area as ourselves, as to give the local community an insight into all aspects of what is happening.

Next week, we will be holding our last discussion session with our youth forum. We will be planning for a local event next week, our final meeting with the youth sub-group and having an ideas session as to how the young people would like this group to follow on once our time here is over. I will also be shadowing another Prince’s Trust session and spending some time on other projects that are running in our programme.

Notes from the editor

It's important when a team of people are working to a common goal to schedule time to have a break and let their hair down. Project Manager's often schedule time for a project team get together, sometimes this can be an organised team building event or just a beer in the bar. Good project managers know that project success relies heavily on the resources (the people!) and getting those people working well together can make the difference between project success and failure. In this week's activities Zoe experienced a disappointment which was out of her control - the project not receiving the approval to go ahead. Luckily there was a contingency plan in place. Contingencies are " an event that may occur but that is not likely or intended; a possibility" and a contingency plan could be better described as a "back up plan".

The contingency plan in this particular project require a completely new solution - the change from the graffiti board to the website, but a major change like this might not be the case in other projects. Project contingency planning would include elements such as contingency budget - setting aside a porportion of the project budget should any contingencies occur (almost all contingencies are going to cost!). The OGC provides an article on contingency planning and shows what elements are included.

 

Week 10 - Marketing, Locality Forums and a Page on Facebook

This week we held our weekly youth session. This was our final ideas and discussion session, as the following two will be focusing on upcoming events.

We made an agenda and pack for each member to ensure that we addressed every point we had to cover in the time allocated. This meeting centred around preparing presentation posters for our youth sub-group meeting presentation, and also a talk from a member of Groundwork who is working on a new project. That project will possibly involve members of our youth forum. Also in this meeting, the young people elected a chair and vice chairperson, who will both take on various responsibilities once we leave Groundwork. We thought this would be a good idea, as it will give the chosen youths a position of authority within the group while also giving both Groundwork and other outside agencies a link within the youth forum.

I also attended a meeting with local groups to discuss the possibility of having locality forums in the area and applying for funding to support this. The work we have been carrying out with our youth forum has been recognised, and the intention is to use the work we have done as a template for other groups to look at and move toward. A draft funding application for a 12-month plan is being produced within the next week, for which we are having a meeting about next Wednesday to discuss. This will then be presented to various local groups and councillors at the youth sub-group meeting.

The rest of the week was spent working with the marketing team to produce business cards for our chair and vice chairperson, invitations for our youth sub-group meeting and posters for the presentation. I also worked on our Facebook web page, which we now have up and running. This includes information about the youth group, pictures, details of the work we have done and upcoming events.

An issue of concern this week came to pass when an event we had been planning for was cancelled, which unfortunately we had not been informed of until last minute, meaning that time was lost.

Next week is the final week of our projects and thus will be a very busy week. We will also be supporting each other’s projects, to include final events and outdoor work. Our events will include the Groundwork Christmas Fayre, which we will be planning for with the young people on Wednesday evening and final preparation for the youth sub-group meeting.

Notes from the editor

Thoughts are now turning to the exit strategy, the project is coming to an end and Zoe is looking to the future. The project was scheduled to run for 13 weeks and now with a few weeks left, the project managers (Zoe and her partner) want to ensure that their project has been successfully delivered but also that it has a lasting effect - a legacy. Projects often turn into "business as usual" i.e., the project was designed, planned and delivered to either make improvements to a business, add new products and services, make lasting changes or instigate new policies or regulations. In this community project, Zoe's project had these objectives:

• To feed into the Youth Sub Group
• To facilitate group meetings on a regular basis with support of the Groundwork Youth Department.
• To identify projects for the group

To write a 12 month plan with support from the Youth Department, and to hand this over to the group
The project activities that have taken place over the last 10 weeks has set the foundations; enabling the group to move forward as a cohesive group taking on new initiatives. Annoucing the new Chair of the group is the first positive step forward, making the move from just a newly formed group of people interested in creating a better community for themselves into a formal action group that can collectively work together under the leadership of a new Chairperson.

 

Week 11 - Final Week for the Projects

This week was the final week of our projects. This meant that we spent time helping each other with preparation and planning for our final events. I spent the first day of the week on a project called ‘Green Scheme’ for which I was helping another member of our Graduate Team clear out and tidy up disadvantaged members of the communities gardens. Although the weather was much to be desired the day was a success and enjoyable.

Our week was focused around an event - the Christmas Fayre. For this the young people from our Forum were supposed to be baking an assortment of cakes and baked goods for us to sell and raise some money for local charities

We had changed our meeting from a Tuesday to a Wednesday as this was the evening prior to the Fayre. On the evening itself at 5pm only one young person had turned up.

As time went on no-one else had turned up, so we decided to contact them. We then found out that a meeting had been organised on the same night for football by our Youth Works Department, and when this was realised, our one member turned to zero members as he had to be there also!

This was the first time that we had an unsuccessful meeting and the key to this flaw was communication. We had communicated with the young people and they had agreed on the change of day but they had not communicated to us that there was another meeting on the same evening. Furthermore, we had not communicated with our Youth Works Department to ensure that there were no other meetings or activities held on this evening. From this I have learnt that communication is key to the smooth running of the project, whether this is with the participants of a Youth Forum or major stakeholders in a multi million pound project!

It can be difficult, as we found out on this occasion, a good communication system needs to be in place to overcome this kind of issue in the future.

Nevertheless my partner and I (and a few girls that turned up late) made all the baked goods and sold them at the Christmas Fayre on Thursday; whilst also show-casing what work the Youth Forum has been carrying out over the past few months. The event was a success and the cakes were enjoyed by all!

On Friday I attended an ‘Away Day’ which consisted of people from all areas of Groundwork coming together to discuss, debate and share ideas on what the organisation offers at present and how things could be changed to make the organisation run more efficiently. This was a very interesting day as it gave us an insight into every area that Groundwork works in and also gave us the opportunity to listen and share with others the work that we have been carrying out at Groundwork.

Next week we will be holding our final meeting with the Youth Forum. This will entail holding a presentation evening and buffet for the Youth Sub Group; a group, which the young people will be feeding into from now on, on a regular basis. For this the young people will be preparing the buffet so Monday will be spent finalising details, as the rest of the group are on the ‘Away Day.’ We will also be starting to write our reports for our projects.

Notes from the editor

Sometimes you just have to roll your sleeves up and get on with it, what do you think Zoe could do next time to ensure communication within the project works better? What about communication from the project to the external world? If you were planning this session for the first time, what other factors would you take into consideration? Communication is vital but can you think of other activities which are just as important? Zoe describes her issue very well and yes it can often be the simpliest things that bring the project to a halt!

The following link gives a good overview of project communications management, especially taking into account projects of varying sizes. The bigger the project, the bigger the communication. Looking at the Priority 4 for small projects, did Zoe do well?
 

Week 12 - Project Closure

This week we spent our time writing a report on the work we have carried out over the last ten weeks. We were given an outline of headers that we may want to consider using and previous reports to browse.

When planning our report we had to identify the reader, this will be future and present workers of Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale and agencies from Oldham. Next we had to plan the content of the report and the structure, as this report should be around 4 pages long, we needed to ensure we included all the information.

Half way through the week we had a meeting with our project manager to discuss our first drafts. This gave us the opportunity to identify any areas which she believed could be improved, or to help us include any information that we had missed or had been badly written. We handed in our final drafts on Friday, which I have attached for you to read through. (PDF)

This week we also held our final event, which was a meeting with the Youth Sub Group, for which the young people of our Youth Forum prepared a buffet for and held a presentation. This meeting was a great success; the young people showcased what they have been doing over the last ten weeks and made a great impression on the members of the Youth Sub Group. The elected Chairperson of our Youth Forum also presented us with a website that she has been working on over the past few weeks. The website included all the details of the work we had done whilst also providing a tool for future communications and work with the Youth Forum.

The address to view this website is www.stjamesyouthforum.piczo.com.

Next week will be holding our final presentation and taking part in evaluation sessions.

Notes from the editor

Project Closure, phew! The temptation to put your feet up and start to wind down is strong but project closure is just as important as all the other stages of the project. The Project Closure Report or Post Implementation Review is a documented review of the project and a formal process to ensure the project met its objectives, deliverables were delivered, did the project stay within its original project scope and project schedule? The Project Closure also covers Lessons Learnt, the successes are highlighted and celebrated and areas for improvement are focused on.

Here's an example template to take a look at: Project Closure

So why are Lessons Learnt so important? One key reason in community projects like this is the ability to pass on learnings to the next team who are tasked with delivering a project like this. In last week's activities the importance of communications were uncovered when something went wrong with the project. If the next team are aware of the importance of communications from the outset maybe some issues can be avoided. Lessons learnt are an excellent way to share knowledge about projects within an organisation; an indicator of the need to have specific project training for future employees (especially if the same lessons are not being learnt each time), a device to kick start process improvements in an organisation's programme and project management capability and ultimately to improve the programme and project management maturity in an organisation.

Week 13 - A Farewell to Graduate Schemes, A Hello to New Opportunities

Week Thirteen was our last week at Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale. We spent the week planning for our final presentation, which was held on Thursday. The presentation was held at Groundwork and the theme was '‘The 12 Days of Groundwork.' Each of the six groups that have worked on the scheme talked about what they have achieved over the last 13 weeks and how their projects will progress in the future.

The presentation went well and contacts from outside agencies, as well as volunteers and Groundwork staff members, turned up to watch. We also each received a folder with all the qualifications we have gained since starting at Groundwork. These included:

• First Aid Training
• Manual Handling Training
• Child Protection/Vulnerable Adult Training
• Budget Management Training
• John Muir Explorer Award
• V Inspired Certificate of Achievement

Our last day was spent in Manchester; we visited the Manchester Urbis Centre to view the galleries and take a tour of the city, and went to the Print Works for our 'last supper.' The day was very enjoyable and gave us a memorable last outing as a team.

Next week I begin working for Groundwork as a member of staff, as I have been offered a role with the Youth Department as a NEET Project Officer Assistant. This job is working on a project with young people that are not in employment, education or training, and helping them pursue any plans they may have for their future.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the Graduate Scheme at Groundwork, as have members of the team I have been working with. The experience was very beneficial and interesting, and it provided me with many opportunities and experiences. I would recommend this scheme to any individual that would like experience in a similar field.

Notes from the editor

Zoe's final week and what a great outcome - she's secure a post at Groundwork as a Project Officer Assistant! The Project Officer Assistant works with the Project Officer who in turns works for the Youth Works Manager. The Project Officer role is responsible for "working towards identifying individuals and groups of young people, in particular those not in education, employment, training or identified as at risk, and in partnership with key agencies develop with them appropriate action plans and opportunities for their personal and social development." To progress in a role like this the indivdual will have these kind of attributes and skills:

• Well developed communication and interpersonal skills and excellent presentational abilities, both written and oral
• Ability to lead and motivate others to achieve all objectives and to develop their potential
• Strong motivation and a determination to provide an excellent service to all customers and to meet or exceed all objectives
• Ability to raise the profile and reputation of Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale for the impact that it achieves through its youth programmes
• Ability to relate to and work with young people from a wide range of backgrounds
• Ability to support young people to overcome barriers
• Innovative and proactive approach to opportunities, issues and problems
• Very strong networking skills
• Strong ability to plan, prioritise and organise workloads
• Ability to identify the interests, needs and aspirations of young people and successfully match them to available opportunities
• Creative, imaginative and a lateral thinker
• Excellent team player with strong initiative
• Computer literate