Top 5 NKBL Moments of 2017

13 Sep 2018
by Orielle, NKBL and youth work, Evaluation

We’ve had a busy 2017 here at NKBL and we wanted to share our best bits. In no particular order, here are our five favourite moments of 2017.

1. Growing our social media

In September we launched our new Instagram profile. It has reached over 2000 people and has gained 1020 followers. We even had Peer Educators from PSYV run a takeover of Instagram Stories taking you behind the scenes of their work in Dundee. You can follow us @NKBLScotland.

We kicked off November with a special focus on National Youth Work Week. During the week we had a special focus on the youth work practice element of NKBL, including case studies, guest blogs and tips for using NKBL resources.

Over the summer we started a new fortnightly blog schedule. Big thanks to our amazing guest bloggers Dr Claire Lightowler, Lisa Hogg, Kai Peacock, Sarah Robinson Galloway, Graham Goulden, Cat Macdougall and PC Kenny Blades.

2. Launching new resources

In May we released a new resource, designed to be used as a 35-minute classroom or assembly input. The Lesson Plan has proved to be very popular with practitioners!

At the Scottish Learning Festival we launched our new toolkit, Playing It Safe, for practitioners working with children 6+ to support preventative work around knife carrying.

We’ve also produced guidance on integrating knife crime prevention into Curriculum for Excellence with ideas on including content into expressive arts, numeracy, languages and more.

3. Hosting our first unconference event

In September, we held a sold out Unconference event with 60 attendees focused on Positive Prevention. The discussions between practitioners were dynamic and energetic and there was certainly no shortage of ideas!

We’ve already started planning our next network event for the spring. Stay tuned for more details.

4. Delivering training across Scotland

So far this year, we’ve trained 312 people from a range of organisations including Police Scotland, secondary schools, third sector organisations and practitioners within local authorities.

5. Touring ‘Balisong’

This year we partnered with Fast Forward and Strange Town Theatre Company to develop a piece of youth theatre on knife crime prevention. ‘Balisong’, written by Jennifer Adam, was performed by actors Daniel, Ashleigh and Maddie in over 60 schools reaching 12,000 young people.

‘Balisong’ shows the journey of friends in their final weeks of school. They’re facing a dilemma – what should they do now that one of their friends has started carrying a knife?

Thank you for all your support over the last year. We can’t wait for 2018