Since its launch in February 2017, 127 people have become Founding Members of the Social Pedagogy Professional Association (SPPA).

What’s been happening this month at SPPA?

  • At the SPPA trustees meeting on Friday 10th November, the new membership types for 2018 were agreed. These will be announced in December’s SPPA newsletter.
  • The SPPA team is in the final review stages of SPPA’s application for charitable status. This is to be submitted before Christmas.
  • Claire Cameron, CEO of SPPA, visited Northern Ireland and Scotland this month to support SPPA members in each country to grow their networks and to facilitate discussions around the future of social pedagogy.
    • Members and friends in Northern Ireland are meeting in December to continue discussions.
    • Members and friends in Scotland are meeting in the New Year to continue discussions.
  • We have applied for up to £15K worth of funding, to broaden the field of social pedagogy into a new area for the UK: working with older people. We’ll find out whether our application has been successful next week.
  • The SPPA team is developing a pilot scheme to run networking events on a regional basis. The first pilot event will be in London on Tuesday 30th January 2018 at the Thomas Coram Research Unit. For more information and to sign-up, view the event page here.
  • The SPPA team have been working with ‘Marketing, Communications and Public Relations’ Trustee to identify allies in the UK Government. We plan to increase our profile amongst key policy-makers, to ensure social pedagogy is on their agenda.
  • We are currently support the growth of 4 Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which are available for all members to join:
    • Creativity, led by Prof. Pat Petrie
    • Learning, led by Cecile Remy
    • Older People, led by Rob Hunter
    • Young People, Participation and Association, led by Jameel Hadi
  • SPPA Founding Member Janet Grauberg hosted a webinar on the ‘Social pedagogy approach to organisational change’. This webinar is now available for members to view here. We have arranged a comprehensive series of webinars for the New Year:
    • ‘Writing for the International Journal of Social Pedagogy’ on Tuesday 23rd January at 12.30pm. Find out more and book here.
    • ‘Going back to a new way of doing’ on Wednesday 21st February at 12.30pm. Find out more and book here.
    • ‘Level 3 Diploma in Social Pedagogy: a learner’s perspective’ on Wednesday 14th March at 12.30pm. Find out more and book here.
  • The Crossfields Level 5 Diploma in Social Pedagogy is now launched. If you’re an organisation interested in commissioning the qualification, please see our information pack here.
  • SPPA has confirmed that its 2018 conference will take place at The Surgeon’s Hall, Edinburgh on Friday 28th September 2018. The programme is to be developed in December, more information will be available in the New Year.

What else should we be doing? Please get in touch via sppa@ucl.ac.uk with suggestions for activities and events you would like SPPA to offer. We will do our best to support you and with an ever growing network we have the possibility to connect people ideas and resources across sectors, countries and fields of work. We look forward to hearing from you. You can join SPPA as a member. Find out more about our membership packages here.