Youth Takeover Day – Sandwell Council Communications Department

My day at the Sandwell Council House benefitted me in so many different ways. I worked within three main departments within the Communications department, these were: marketing, cuttings and press department. The marketing department taught me about the sort of things Sandwell produces in order to help the public. For example, a phone book of all useful numbers within Sandwell was produced. I was also shown all the thought that went into the Sandwell logo from font to size of the text.

The amount of interest from the press was explored within cuttings where I learnt how to name and mark all articles Sandwell council featured in within different newspapers. Here I would scan the articles onto the computer and mark whether they were positive or negative press.

The department that interested me the most was the press department where I met a freelance journalist, Ken. I was told about how journalism works and how to make it in the world of Media. I was then given an article that I could shorten and make it sound interesting.

Another event I took part on this day was the Memorial service held by the Mayor of Sandwell. This was a beautiful event of which I took pictures for the Councils Facebook page and other press.

This experience has benefitted me as it has highlighted what it is like within the media department and what I need to do in the future to get there. I would like to thank everyone that helped and guided me, especially Voice21 for making this happen.

By Nikita Gaur

 

Youth Takeover Day – Sandwell Council Communications Department

For Youth take over day, a couple of journalists at Voice 21 and I did some work experience at a press office in Oldbury. We were moved around to 3 different sections of the press office; Cut outs, Press Releases and Marketing.

I was at Cut outs first, this job consisted of me getting news paper articles and scanning and entering details of the article through a system that the press office uses to track any important news stories that people may look back on for any reasons in the future.  I did this from 10am till around 1.15pm.

We all then went out to lunch, once we got back I moved onto Press Releases. I got introduced to the person in charge of the Press Release section and he spoke through and taught me different things they do there.

After that I got to do my own press release to do which involved me having a piece of entertainment information which I had to edit down so it was suitable and readable for a local paper.  This was my favourite section as I love writing about entertainment.

To finish off I did Marketing which involved me looking at the plans that the council have for West Bromwich at the moment and what they hope to achieve in the future with the new Sandwell College being built and the new Tesco in process of being built.  I gave my opinion on what I think of the new changes to West Bromwich and told the council what I think young people would like to see change in the West Bromwich area.

Overall I had a really fun and educational day which I enjoyed.  I hope they ask me to come back!

By Shanice Abbott

 

Youth Takeover Day – West Midlands Police

On the 11th November myself and three other fellow volunteers took part in the Youth takeover day. The day was situated shadowing Sandwell Police force based in the recently opened West Bromwich police station.

The day began at 8.10am with a tour around the West Bromwich Police station with a Police Constable. During this time we had the opportunity to ask any questions. We then had a quick drink and chat before attending a morning meeting with other police officers, lasting around half an hour.

Immediately after this the four volunteers, myself included, were divided into a sector of the Sandwell Police force. I spent the morning based at Smethwick police station looking at Criminal Justice in Sandwell. Upon arriving in Smethwick police station, I was given a detailed tour of the building including the custody area.

I found the day most interesting. It was especially interesting to learn that the tour was not anything scripted, instead it was just an average tour of a day in the life of a police officer. 

By Tom Harris