14/01/2020 – As we face a third lockdown in the UK due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Fight for Peace Alliance partners have gathered to produce episode two of the Fighting Back podcast. 

This podcast series brings together four Alliance member organisations, and Fight for Peace, to discuss responses to the current challenging times and offering best practice ideas for adapting our work to meet the needs of some of our most vulnerable groups of young people.

This collaborative approach to sharing best practice epitomises the spirit of the Fight for Peace Alliance, whose aim is to ensure that, by working together, we all better placed to support the young people and communities we serve.

The Fighting Back podcast is part of a wider Fight for Peace Alliance Tackling Inequalities project, made possible by National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Tackling Inequalities Fund.

You can find all episodes of the Fighting Back podcast, including episode two, here.

Episode Two of the series, titled Learning from Lockdown, focuses on how Fight for Peace Alliance organisations are responding to new restrictions, whilst continuing to support young people in our communities. Best practice ideas emerging from this episode include: 

1. Develop a learning culture. Consult, develop, deliver, learn and adapt. Encourage staff and members to be inquisitive, adaptive and willing to try new things. Learning includes making mistakes. If you encourage a learning culture, challenges become opportunities to build a strong and effective organisation. 
2. Be agile and flexible in thought and action. To survive and thrive in a changing world, we need to try new ways of delivering our services. Being able to think, act and adapt quickly is essential to this. 
3. Connect and join up services. Take a look at the network of support in your community, (community partners, schools, statutory organisations, food banks etc) develop partnerships to compliment not replicate and share learning and knowledge. 
4. Support your team. Check-in to make sure your team have everything that they need to work from home. This includes the right equipment and the right resources. Identify ways to make wellbeing and mental health support available to all members of your team.

A big thank you to all of the Fight for Peace Alliance member organisations who participated this episode, namely Vulcan Learning Centre, Switch Up CIC and Sheffield City Boxing Club.  

Thank you also to the National Lottery Community Fund and Sport England for their support of this initiative and the wider Tackling Inequalities project.