2009 News from “creative inspirations”

“creative inspirations” has just received a congratulatory letter from the Department of Children, Schools and Families, in respect of our work. We were referred to them by the Home Office. The programme we are now developing is mainly encouraging parents, grandparents or family friends to realise their value to their own children enabling children to develop a positive identity in a very negative world, by getting them to choose and share just one hobby or creative interest.

PROGRAMME

HOBBIES AS AN AWARE BACKBONE
PROJECT 2009-1021

allowing children to step safely into life

AIMS

• The very early prevention of crime, personal and social problems.
• To bring into the life of each child everywhere an opportunity, to create a sound personal/social ‘backbone’ through the introduction of a hobby they love and specifically choose from their heart and for their very own, individual and personal life.
• To enable trustworthy adults who are in every community everywhere, to understand a simple ‘tool’ they can use to relate to children and young people naturally in their lives.
• To thus combat the current widespread ‘impotency’ in society where individuals and organisations are fearful of all adults in case they may be paedophiles.

METHOD

For me to train community co-ordinators for this project, who will:

1. Find parents within their community who already share time with their own children, over hobbies loved and chosen by the children, in an entirely natural way. For the parent, or co-ordinator, (with the parent’s agreement), to teach out into the community the huge value in this natural shared creative time.
2. To teach the huge value to relatives and natural family friends, of their encouraging a child or teenager they know personally, towards choosing an interest. Also, being ‘there’ for them constantly encouraging that interest as far as the child themselves wishes to take it.
3. As a last resort, after the two above entirely natural approaches, to create a local database of craftspeople and trustworthy adults (to be vetted by authorities) who are willing to offer between one hour a week and one day a week, sharing a creative interest with a child; specifically an interest much loved by the child.
4. For local authorities to consider viewing particular adults on our vetted register, (because of their awareness and relationship towards the family), to be acknowledged as being as important as foster parents – even if they only share time with one child specifically over a loved interest for one hour a week. This has long been proven by our work and we would suggest that some families/children may be offered too much to be significant and meaningful because what is offered is not personal enough to be felt.

PURPOSE

• To prevent personal and social problems from ever developing.
• To prevent children being taken away from their own homes and put into unnatural institutions and programmes (no matter how caring the staff may be, they cannot replace the child’s natural parents).
• To allow them entirely natural support within their home community.
• To enable reliable and trustworthy adults in all communities to feel part of a soundly-supported local framework that will not let them down.

STRENGTHS of this approach

• It has been tried and tested under my total supervision for 26 years.
• It has constantly shown up a human phenomenon where, no matter how ‘impossible’ the child’s situation has appeared to be, once they choose and follow an interest from their heart, not only do they change, their family, teachers, social workers, lawyers and courts etc. all relate to the interest and focus upon that as though indeed it was the child’s social life-saving backbone.
• The possibilities of re-channelling local and central government finances are immeasurable.

STORIES

Ben

Ben was 16. He was acting out his rage at home, in school and on the street; there was nothing on offer for him. A social worker asked me to visit him at his home and chat to him with his parents present. I asked him what interest he would love to take up more than anything else. He said immediately that his dad had been a blacksmith in the army and he wanted to be a blacksmith.

I left the family and went home and looked up blacksmiths through the Yellow Pages (now readily available on the Internet). I rang each one, until one said he would definitely take Ben each Saturday for a whole day. I simply gave them name and telephone number of the blacksmith to Ben’s social worker who organised Ben to go. His enthusiasm was boundless and cycling out on a Saturday morning from his town to the village where the blacksmith lived was nothing to him. He was fired up.

At school, teachers – instead of having to bellow at him in the corridor – stopped to ask him how he was getting on with the blacksmith’s work. Ben’s behaviours changed and he had very quickly gained a positive identity. His parents, teachers and social worker and the local magistrate’s court all felt supported by Ben’s interest that had become a fulcrum around which his own very personal life and world evolved. If only he and his family had received that sound, constructive support when Ben was small, not only his world but that of his whole family would have changed positively and so many problems prevented.

Tina

Tina was five and just started in school. Her family was in turmoil and Tina very vulnerable. Social workers were faced with the strong possibility that she would have to be taken into care. Her social worker and head teacher both mentioned her situation to me. I found out from the head teacher that Tina loved to bake cakes and I introduced a personal friend of mine, Betty, to the head teacher and social worker. Tina was allowed to spend one day a week with Betty producing delicious cakes that she ate and was allowed to take home and impressed a very busy mum. This sound support from within her home community definitely saved Tina from being taken away and mum felt so supported too she was able to reach out of her own depressions.

Roy

Roy was in secondary school and he just could not concentrate. When he was amongst his classmates he was more like a kangaroo leaping all over the place and also in the street when with his mates. His teacher asked me if there was anything he could do on a one-to-one. The local museums service in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, welcomed Roy to work alongside their model maker, Tim, who was also a foster carer. Roy spent time with Tim over six months and then he went to his teacher and asked if he could go back into school full time, he was so ready just to mix in and get on with everyone.

SIMPLE FOCUS

This simple focus can be brought into the lives of all children through my teaching and enabling local co-ordinators to retain the total simple and natural approach.

Margie McGregor
Director

"Young people encouraged, outside home and school, to develop one creative interest they have always dreamed of, change positively and dynamically. Their lives often change overnight.

Many adults will be encouraged to understand their own value to young peoplethey know personally.

When you were a child, can you remember an adult in your life who just "knew" who you were? They always seemed to say such encouraging things and really believed in your creative abilities?

Believe it or not, very many adults I have met cannot remember one adult like that, who was there for them in that way, as a child or as a teenager.

It has been a subject close to my heart for very many years now, consciously encouraging young people to choose a creative interest they have always dreamed of taking up, then helping them develop it, or even encouraging them to dream more about it. Their lives are often transformed overnight as they become positively focused from the heart. Parents and teachers relate to the tangible interest and the young person begins to find a creative identity. The younger they can be reached, the wider they blossom.

The Aim of Creative Inspirations

To encourage children to choose a creative interest they have always longed to take up.

Building onto a relationship with an adult where there is already trust, over an inspired interest the adult also loves, allowing a child, early in life, to develop a positive identity within themselves. This is based upon the belief that failure to reach such a positive identity is the very root of social and behavioural problems, and even illness. Placing trust in a single creative interest allows a bond of understanding and a simple focus.

If you have any further questions about Creative Inspirations, please contact Margie McGregor at:
margie@creative-inspirations.co.uk

Creative Inspirations acknowledges that adults also have creative interests they would like to develop with an adult who shares the same interest, please see the Creative Inspirations for Adults page