A gentle reminder that it is time for the Irish Pony Club Annual Conference!
This year the Conference will be held in the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel, Abbeyleix, Co. Laois on Sat. 10th October.
http://www.theabbeyleixmanorhotel.com/
The Conference is open to branch officials, senior members, parents and Instructors.
This year, we are delighted to announce that we have lined up a number of interesting and informative speakers for the Conference including
Paul Stephenson from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) where his role is ‘Child Protection in Sport Unit, Senior Consultant’.
Title of his presentation: Understanding the attraction and risks of Social Media
Paul Stephenson, lives in Lisburn with his wife Phyllis and their three children. Paul has worked for the NSPCC for over fourteen years as a Child Protection in Sport Unit Senior Consultant. Prior to this he worked for Extern and managed a probation funded hostel. In his social work career Paul has also worked directly with the survivors of abuse as well as the perpetrators. In his current post for the NSPCC Paul’s primary role is working with sports governing bodies to promote good practice in their work with children. He provides sports organisations with advice on the development of safeguarding policies and procedures and responds to issues arising from specific cases. Paul takes the lead in Northern Ireland with public policy, campaigning, promotional and awareness-raising work in the sport and leisure sector. Paul has worked with the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure in the development of their safeguarding policy and provided advice to a number of the organisations under their governance. Paul has also met with a number of local councils to advise on their safeguarding policies as well as training staff on implementing these policies. Paul currently represents the NSPCC on the National Organisation for Treatment of Abusers (NOTA) (NI) steering group, and the Sexual Violence Strategy Prevention sub group.
Paul’s 7 year old son has recently taken up horse riding and enjoyed attending a pony club during the summer.
We believe you will find his talk both informative and interesting and Paul is happy to take any questions you make have for him. He is an expert in Social Media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat), how young people use it? what the dangers of social media are? what are our responsibilities as officers, coaches and parents?
Booking and payment for the Conference will be online at:
http://www.irishponyclub.ie/online-system.html
The cost of the Conference is €30 which includes tea/coffee on arrival at 10 am, 2 course lunch plus tea/coffee and entry to Conference.
A full Agenda / timetable will be sent out next week.
