The world PARTY is said a lot in the world of DFs and has a number of meanings. In this sense though and the one which is probably heard the most is in the Project or Centre sense.
PARTY stands for Politically Active Re-Thinking Youth, it is similar to the MESTUP project, it’s what could say is a political and current affairs peer education.
The aims of PARTY are to get people thinking both inside and outside the box on ‘political’ issues, as well as getting people thinking for themselves on these issues and for them not to be jumping on ‘bandwagon’, but also to help you understand why people have the viewpoint they do, and just because its not the same as yours doesn’t mean its wrong.
The issues currently explored by PARTY are
PARTY uses a number of medians in order to help people come to their own viewpoint on certain issues, these involve a media walkway which covers particular issues in every viewpoint, therefore you will see articles from the Daily Star to the Guardian, as well as all the available leaflets, Posters and Documentaries surrounding the Particular Issue. The walkway will always have a member of the PARTY team present, so it also acts as a drop in centre for you to ask about any questions you have from any recent news that you have seen, to a particular opinion or just for a chat about what you saw on TV last night.
There are also workshops and mock court cases to explore the issue in more depth, the court cases have become a great hit with the participants with you getting to choose to be either a defendant/prosecutor lawyer or the jury. An example of a court case was surrounding the issue of climate change, with the younger generations coming back to sue our current generation, as they think we could have done more to prevent climate change.
If you are interested in joining the PARTY team then send an email to Jeff Meddemmen at 0451251@student.manchester.ac.uk or contact kate yorke(Project Rep) details in DF news and on the committee pages.
The District Fellows Movement is the 16-20 year old members of the co-operative educational youth charity, the woodcraft folk, whose ideology is based on the principles of equality, peace, social justice and co-operation, with an emphasis on the empowerment of young people.
DF meetings usually consist of a group of like minded individuals meeting up at a regular time and place (someone's house, or a pub for instance, or even a community hall if the group is large enough) and taking part in usual woodcraft activities. These activities range from co-operative games, orgainising events, workshops and discussions, and general socialising!
The DF movement also meets up on a national basis frequently, to hold both social, educational events and business events allowing everyone to be involved in the running of DF's...
North East Thing: 11th to 13th December
Winter Wonderland: 27th to 30th December
Span that World With Music: 26th to 28th February
Spring Awakening: 6th to 10th April
