John McCarthy speaks at Teesside

Renowned journalists John McCarthy and Polly Toynbee will be guest speakers at a University of Teesside conference next week. Entitled ‘A Place to Call Home: rethinking connections between people, households, neighbourhoods, communities and cities’, the conference will be held from Monday 19 July-Tuesday 20 July.

It is hosted by the University’s Social Futures Institute. Polly Toynbee will speak on Monday 19 July. Her talk is sponsored by the Evening Gazette’s Tees Pride campaign, while John McCarthy’s talk is on Tuesday 20 July, sponsored by Northern Rock Foundation.

There will be an opportunity to photograph Polly Toynbee at 1.30pm on Monday 19 July, and to photograph John McCarthy at 5.30pm on Tuesday 20 July. Both photo opportunities will take place in Room HO.O1, Centuria Building, Victoria Road, Middlesbrough. Call Stephen Laing on 01642 342962, e-mail s.laing@tees.ac.uk, for more details.

Polly Toynbee, Guardian Columnist, Broadcaster and Writer will give a lecture entitled ‘Home Truths: What the Poor need is more Money’ at 2.00 in HO.01 (Centuria Building) on Monday 19 July. This lecture will explore the problems the very poorest paid workers in Britain have, in achieving stability and security in their day to day lives. Polly will examine how the state should tackle this problem so that low paid workers can enjoy the kinds of home lives others are able to enjoy. She will draw upon her experiences which were reported in her recent book Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain when she took the lowest paid jobs in hospitals and other public services to see how ordinary, hard-working people managed to live their lives in poverty.

John McCarthy, Film Maker, Broadcaster, Writer and former Lebanon hostage will give a lecture entitled ‘No Place Like Home’ at 6.00 in HO.01 (Centuria Building) on Tuesday 20 July. This lecture will consider how many people, often for reasons beyond their control, find that their home lives are unstable or fractured by outside events such as wars, famines and other disasters. He will also explore how everyone, at some point in their lives can experience home as insecure and unpredictable, whether this is due to the ageing process, divorce or separation or other life changes such as geographical migration across cultures. John will show excerpts from the recent film Blind Flight which dramatised his experiences as a Lebanon hostage.

Dr Tony Chapman, Institute Director, said: “This conference will explore the connections between home and community, home and family, home and a sense of self identity. We will debate key issues such as homelessness and migration, the experience of home amongst children, young people and older people, and the importance of understanding the diverse nature of our culture and community.

“The conference will attract a wide range of delegates including policy makers, practitioners in all areas of community life and neighbourhood renewal, and academics from across the UK. The conference will help these diverse groups to connect ideas with practice, and help them to forge links with wider social policy agendas. It’s all about being involved with the community and making change for the better.”

There will also be a photographic exhibition, showing entries from a Tees Valley secondary school competition sponsored by Regeneration Exchange and an exhibition by Studio Art of portraits by African refugees in the North East.

The event is sponsored by: Northern Rock Foundation, Regeneration Exchange, Evening Gazette, Northumbrian Water, Middlesbrough Council, Stockton Borough Council, Home Housing, Coast and Country, University of Teesside.

For more details please call 01642 342321, fax 01642 342399, e-mail socialfutures@tees.ac.uk

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