I am delighted to be able to highlight the positive action, maturity and professionalism of four of my students.
The Public Services students, Jay Bullock, Libby Ashman, Grace Beaumont and Lucy Loveday, were invited to the Medway Community Safety Partnership conference by Councillor Adrian Gulvin, Cabinet Member for Resources, and Chair of the Community Safety Partnership; and Chief Inspector Simon Alland, Medway Commander and vice-Chair of the Community Safety Partnership.
MidKent College hosted the conference with over 100 adult attendees which included councillors, members of Medway Council, housing, police, fire and rescue, charities and other agencies.
The conference centred around homelessness, begging, drug and alcohol addiction - a subject I have just delivered on the programme. The students were involved in key discussions and were so professional when they disagreed with a subject by challenging it and presenting their arguments soundly and in several instances, changing the other person’s opinion.
At the end of the conference, the panel of experts sat on the stage to answer questions that were written out earlier in the evening - out of the 10 questions asked, four came from the four students and really made the panel think before they answered. I had many people complimenting the attitude and maturity of the students.
Several housing charities, the PCSOs, and Fire and Rescue representatives and Medway Council requested the students’ contact details to continue dialogue in the future.
For these students to firstly volunteer without really knowing what the conference was going to involve, then attending and being the youngest in the room and actively challenging views and opinions that they disagreed with in a mature manner, deserves considerable credit and praise.
Darren Everitt, Public Services lecturer at MidKent College. Find more out about our Public Service courses.
