More good stuff

Something is in the air -
Anthony has just started a plumbing course in Swindon;
Den has just started a vocational studies course in Swindon;
Lisa has started a part-time job in Trowbridge;
Pat has signed up for a bricklaying course in Trowbridge;
Tash has signed up for a child care course in Trowbridge;
Steven is on a parenting course in Swindon;
Aurora and Gemma are starting the Parents With Prospects course in Trowbridge;
Josh is continuing his college courses in Calne;
Stuart has started on Resolve;
Brett and Marcus, both working, are tackling really difficult situations;
Max and Harvey are both going to nursery school and are now potty-trained!

University research projects

A researcher from Reading University has been working with several U-Too young couples as part of a year-long investigation into the lives of young parents in rural areas. Phoebe is a young mother herself so is well aware of the pressures that come with parenthood. Here she is with Tash, Pat and Harley in Melksham after a three hour visit to Trowbridge College where Tash and Pat are now both enrolled on courses - but not before some major hassles involving complications around benefits and travel costs.

Phoebe is also seeing Dan and Zuzu in Salisbury, Damian and Gemma in Westbury, Will and Aurora in Trowbridge, Stuart and Leia in Melksham, and Josh and Terri in Calne. We are looking forward to seeing the results of her research in due course.

Another researcher, based at King's College, London but working for the Government Office South West, has interviewed Chris in Calne as part of her study about lifestyles and young fatherhood.

Healthy Eating!

Last night Anthony was preparing his gourmet version of spag bol. Here he is with his FRESH ingredients, including mince, chopped onions and green pepper. It's always a bit of a trial for me to go round to see him and Chelsey in the evening, as I don't get home to eat till after I've seen them, because there are usually mouth-watering smells wafting out of their kitchen.

CSJ DVD

I've just been sent some copies of these so I'll be giving one to Den and Will, who both appeared in the film, and one to Marcus who went to the award ceremony. If anyone else is interested in a copy, let me know.

New courses

A number of courses for young mums-to-be and follow-on parenting skills courses are about to start:

YMTB SALISBURY 15 September to December at Salisbury Foyer
SWINDON 15 September to December at Drove Children's Centre
TROWBRIDGE 14 September to December at Bridge House

Parenting Skills SALISBURY 9 September to March at Bemerton Heath
SWINDON 28 September to March at Drove Children's Centre
TROWBRIDGE 24 September to March at Bellefield Children's Centre

For further details contact Carolyn on 01380 850547 or Zoe on 07989 929193

Partners of the young women on the YMTB courses in Salisbury and Trowbridge may like to do their own course in preparation for fatherhood. If so, please contact Mike on 07875 639992.

NCLP Internal Verifier report

Once again U-Too was given a really positive report for their Young Mums To Be and Parents With Prospects courses. Comments include:

• This centre is providing excellent support for the candidates.
  
• It is clear to see all tutors are dedicated to their work.
• The candidates' portfolios are of a consistently high standard.
• Links with external agencies in Salisbury are excellent.
• This centre has excellent achievement results and shows best practice in assessment.

So thanks once again to our team of tutors, Alison, Jayne, Lesley, Sue, for maintaining such high standards, to Zoe for her support and excellent outreach work, and to Carolyn for making sure the show stays on the road.

Baby Massage Course takes place

Three couples came to the course at Studley Green Children's Centre in Trowbridge. Marcus, JJ and Nickolas came by train from Swindon, via Bath Spa. Anthony, Chelsey and Laila came from Calne, and Will, Aurora and Connor came from Trowbridge. Three other couples hoped to attend but various bits of life got in the way. Chelsey said she and Anthony "loved the baby massage. Laila was really relaxed all day and was as good as gold!" Aurora came despite having an unpleasant cold and all three couples picked up some useful techniques to use with their children. Thanks go to Niall for setting up the course and to Catherine for running it.

Chelsey massages Laila's legs and tummy watched by an attentive Anthony.

Mark does the same with Nickolas, watched by Catherine and JJ

Baby Massage Course

This is going to take place at Studley Green Children's Centre in Trowbridge from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 15th August. Niall Howard, who works there, has organised it for us. Lunch is being provided and we'll pay fares. All you need to do is to get yourselves there! It's a great opportunity to meet 'old' friends from the DVD, as well as 'new' U-Too dads.

Lijit - who's visiting us?

Here's a new 'wigit' called 'lijit' (scroll down the page on the left) that should show us where visitors to the blog come from, what's most interesting to people, and what else is interesting on the websites we've mentioned in 'useful links' ... Or you can just click 'surprise me' and it opens a surprise page from any of our linked sites. It could search other sites, flickr, things like that.. let me know if there's something i should add.
John suggested the original counter back in the early days of the blog, and that's been a great way to see the impact.
I hope this one might be interesting too...

Puzzle of the day

Which U-Too dad says "I wear the trousers in our relationship ... but my girlfriend picks which ones I wear."

U Too Dads

Watch the CSJ short film shown in London (including a couple of extracts from the Dads Matter Too DVD)

We won!!

Jackie's beaten me to it! U-Too Dads have done it again - so congratulations to everyone who has made this possible - particularly to those of you who insisted on making Dads Matter Too, to all eleven of you who took part, and to Jackie who filmed us and put it together so well.

The Awards evening was even more nerve wracking than we anticipated because we were the very last group to be announced as Award winners. Marcus gave a short, but memorable, speech outlining the impact that he feels that U-Too has had on his life. A considerable number of people came up to him afterwards to say how moved they had been by what he said.


1 Are we going to get an Award? 2 Tamsin Greig hands it over ... 3 Marcus telling 'em like it is

4 Mike trying to do the same ... 5 Later with Simon and Tamsin ... 6 Max is proud of his dad

Steven and Chris in Swindon, and Chris in Calne with the trophy

Karl hard at work

Well Done!!

Well done! Fantastic news from the CSJ awards:

'This year’s award attracted nearly 400 nominations from across the country, with 13 projects shortlisted by a panel of independent judges.

The seven winners, announced on the night were: Nelson Trust, Working Rite, Blue Sky, Chance UK, Young Disciples, U Too, and SOS Gangs Project at the St Giles Trust.'

http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/default.asp?pageRef=37

and photos at:

http://www.johncairnsphotography.co.uk/CSJ_Awards_09/large-46.html

blog visitors

Thought it's time for an update on the blog's visitors...
according to google analytics, which I registered the blog with a couple of months after it was started, and which is quite a strict 'countng' system:
1 122 different individual people have visited the blog. The average time spent on the blog is 2:39 mins. and the average is 2.02 page views - not bad considering there's upto 20 posts on each page. People from 53 differnt countries have come onto the blog!
The longest active visit recorded was someone in Jan08 who spent over 32 minutes on the blog. Just this month alone (June 09) 138 individual people have visited the blog, looking at 306 pages, and spending over 2 minutes on average.

How everyone looks now

It's about time we posted some up-to-date photos of everyone so you can see how gorgeous you all are.
1 2 3
1 Mark and the long-suffering Nickolas
2 Lisa and Den with a very happy Max
3 Chris with a less-than-cheerful McKenzie
4 5 6
4 Brett and April with Kailum and Harvey
5 Pat (after a hard day's work!) with Tash and Harvey
6 Congratulations to Josh and Terri on the arrival of Alexia
7 8 9
7 Dan, Zuzu and Henley-Jai
8 Tash and Lee with Leo sleeping off his feed
9 Anthony and Chelsey with Leila
101112
10 Marcus and Charlotte with Harley
11 Ben and Georgia with Joshua James
12 Aurora and Will with Connor, another new arrival
13
13 At home with Stuart, Leia and Jess

14 And last, and at last, Steven with Jamie