Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

What Is Global Youth Work?

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What is Global Youth Work?Q: What is Global Youth Work?

A: Global Youth Work has many faces. Some consider Development Education to be Global Youth Work. Others say that it’s any time global issues are explored with youth.

I believe that at it’s heart, it’s informal education that engages young people in a participative way, to explore their own role as a citizen in their local, national and international community. It works to encourage empathy in youth, focuses on justices and injustices in the world through the process of globalization and focuses on positive change through action as a member of any community.

Below is an excerpt from my Master’s Dissertation ‘Letters to a Child: A Critical Study of the Effectiveness of using Child Sponsorship as a Method for Engaging Young People in Global Issues’, published in 2009 through the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at DeMontfort University, which goes into a bit more detail about what Global Youth Work is.

As it was an academic paper, there’s more academic language and referencing than we normally provide in our blog. If you’d like the bibliographical information on the references provided, please contact us.

The Development Education Agency (DEA) identified the following ten principles which underpin Global Youth Work (GYW), a phrase which began to gain momentum after a research project “A World of Difference” was published by the DEA in 1995. After this list there will be a breakdown drawing out the underlying key principles and creating a definition which will define global youth work principles throughout this research:

1. Starts from young people’s experiences and encourages their personal, social and political development

2. Works to the principles in informal education and offers opportunities that are educative, participative, empowering and designed to promote equality of opportunity

3. Is based on an agenda that has been negotiated with young people

4. Engages young people in a critical analysis of local and global influences in their lives and those of their communities

5. Encourages an understanding of the world based on the historical process of globalisation and not the development or underdevelopment of societies

6. Recognises that the relationships between and within the North and the South are characterised by inequalities generated through globalisation processes

7. Promotes the values of justice and equity in personal, local and global relationships

8. Encourages an understanding of, and appreciation for, diversity locally and globally

9. Views the peoples and organisations of the North and South as equal partners for change in a shared and interdependent world

10.Encourages action that builds alliances and brings about change

(DEA 2000:4)

Global Youth Work is important for two reasons.

  1. It fights Nationalist and Xenophobic Ideas that can be used to oppress others – Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute found that young people who had not “thought about news stories from around the world from different points of view are, by contrast [to those that have], less positive.” (DEA 2008: 12) The research also showed that young people who did not think about news stories did not feel they could make a difference in the world or that their actions affected people in other countries. (DEA 2008) It is these nationalist ideas which exploring global issues can help to address. Osler and Starkey (2005) suggest the roots of nationalist ideas can be traced back by Dewey (1916 in Osler and Starkey 2005) to the end of the nineteenth century, at which time the government took over the education of young people, thereby making teachers accountable to the state and thus altering education towards a nationalist mentality. Osler and Starkey (2005:20) note that nationalist “discourses encourage xenophobia because they make a sharp distinction between national citizens and foreigners.”
  2. Relevance to their everyday lives – “The impact of globalisation and international activities on young people’s lives can be direct or indirect but it is difficult to deny there is an impact.” (White 2002:3) In Sallah’s (2008) five ‘faces’ of globalisation, one can begin to identify how culture, technology, economics, environmental issues and political changes all affect young people. The key is to realise that “young people’s needs are complex and are interwoven with needs of others, locally and globally.” (DEA 2001:1)

Question: What do you think Global Youth Work is and what is its relevance (if any) to today’s youth work? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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3 Youth Unemployment Solutions (And Why It Matters)

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Youth unemployment solutions
Use these ideas to help your young people get a job

We’re starting a new series on Wednesdays that compiles some of our previous posts. We’ve published hundreds of posts over the last year, so you may have missed some of these (shocking, I know!)

This first compilation covers some youth unemployment solutions by providing tips on how to help young people gain a job:

1. Youth Unemployment – Does It Matter? – This post from the early days of Youth Workin’ It’s blog looks at whether we should be concerned about the youth unemployment rate more than the unemployment rate that encompasses people of all ages (spoiler alert – we should)

2. Job Interview Attire For Youth – Before they go for a job interview, young people need to know what to wear. The first of our youth unemployment solutions has a number of activities to organize to help your youth identify appropriate interview clothing, including how to find cheap job interview attire.

3. How To Conduct A Mock Interview – Now that your young people know what to wear, it’s time to practice their interview skills. This youth work session idea on how to conduct a mock interview has suggestions on how to give your youth this essential practice, along with ideas of who to partner with in order to perform these mock interviews.

Mock interviews can be extremely useful in helping unemployed young people gain the confidence they need, while also providing them with vital feedback on what they need to change to become more employable.

4. The Retweetable Job Interview Resource – After conducting the mock job interviews, your young people may have received feedback that they weren’t concise enough in the interviews. If that’s the case, the third of our solutions for youth unemployment could be just the thing to help them.

The purpose of the Retweetable Job Interview Resource is to help young people practice being concise when being interviewed. This enables them to convey the main points of what they want to say without waffling on, or going off on a tangent and not answering the question they’ve been asked.

Question: What other youth unemployment solutions have you used to help young people get a job? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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Media Literacy Activities For Young People

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Media literacy activities
Can your youth trust what they see on here?

“But Miss. Women like to be controlled by their men. It says so in that Mary J Blige song.”

This was an actual comment spoken to Shae at one of her groups this week. Ironically, it was while they were covering media literacy! We therefore thought that this week’s youth work session plan idea should provide some media literacy activities for young people.

What is media literacy?

Before you start running any of these activities, ask your young people “What is media literacy?” To help them define this, split the phrase into its two separate words and get them to define both “media” and “literacy”.

When defining media, get the youth to list all the different types of media they come across – music, TV, movies, newspapers, internet, magazines, billboards, adverts, video games, apps, etc.

Once they’ve defined what “literacy” is, get them to put the two definitions together so that they have a better understanding of the answer to “What is media literacy?”

Next, look at these different types of media and explore some of the messages that they communicate. Have the young people think critically about these messages:

  • Do they have some kind of bias?
  • What message are they sending?
  • Is their message true?
  • Why might this type of media not tell the truth about a situation?
  • Do you think they have any ulterior motives
  • Can you trust this type of media?

Media Literacy Activities – Music

There are all kinds of songs that you could use to explore media literacy. One example we thought might be useful is Poker Face by Lady Gaga, as you can use it to explore the issue of media literacy and sexuality due to the lyric:

And baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun

Ask your youth what message this lyric is sending about sex. Is it true? Go through the other questions listed above.

Media Literacy Activities – Internet

When Shae was doing a lesson on alcohol awareness this week, she told them that contrary to popular belief, alcohol doesn’t make you sleepy. One of the young people responded “That’s wrong – it does make you sleepy. Just check on the internet”.

Although we joke that “you can’t trust what’s on the internet”, to a large extent we do trust what’s on there. Here are a few ideas though of ways you can explore with your young people whether they can trust what’s on the internet:

  • Facebook status updates of friends
  • Twitter trends about celebrity deaths
  • Banner ads that say you’ve won a special prize
  • Blogs
  • Wikipedia

Media Literacy Activities – News

In theory, news can fall under all different types of media – internet, TV, newspapers, etc. – so this can be looked at from many different angles.

One suggestion for exploring this issue is using newspapers. Get copies of newspapers that provide a contrast to the political divide. For example, in the US you could use the Wall Street Journal for a right-wing outlook and the New York Time for a left-wing outlook. In the UK, you could use the Telegraph for right-wing and the Guardian for left-wing.

Find a story (preferably with a political slant) that’s reported in both newspapers. Have your young people identify what aspects of the story are the same in the papers and what aspects are different. Are opinions presented as facts? Is there emotive language used to make an argument to the readers?

To generate further conversation, ask your young people what killed Whitney Houston. Many of the early news reports stated that it was due to drug abuse, so this is what’s often believed. The coroner’s report though stated that although cocaine use was a contributing factor to her death, she died from accidental drowning. Ask your youth why news reports were so keen to suggest that her death was due to drug use rather than as an accident.

Media Literacy Activities – Advertising

There are so many examples that you could use with your youth, but here are a couple to get you started:

1) Nutella – There was recently a class action lawsuit against the makers of Nutella, as one of their adverts was deemed to have falsely given the impression that it was more healthy and nutritional than it actually is. I know, a chocolate spread with nuts in it isn’t healthy?! Here’s more about the story with a 2 & 1/2 minute video explaining what happened.

2) Smoking – Looking back, TV ads about smoking were ridiculous but at the time many people believed they were safe/had health benefits. Show the video below to your young people and see what they think about it. Can they think of any adverts nowadays that seem to espouse benefits that they think are untrue?

Media Literacy Activites – Movies

Again, there are all kinds of different movies that you could use to explore the messages that they send. Depending on the issues you’re working on with your young people though, this could be a good opportunity to address the issue of porn and how it affects their perception of sex and relationships.

Do they think porn movies accurately reflect relationships? If working with males, ask them if they think that women like to be treated the way that they are in porn.

Question: What media literacy activities would you run with young people? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

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How To Explore Natural And Logical Consequences

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Natural and logical consequences
Image courtesy of swigart, Flickr

Young people can sometimes find it hard to consider (or don’t care about) the consequences of their actions, which results in them making choices that have a negative impact on themselves or others.

This week’s youth work session plan is designed to help youth explore the natural and logical consequences that result from a variety of different behaviors. By having your young people consider consequences, they’ll be better placed to make informed decisions and make better choices in the future.

What are natural and logical consequences?

Natural consequences are those that happen naturally and aren’t imposed by anybody else. Logical consequences are those that happen as a result of a choice that they’ve made and which are imposed by somebody else.

To give an example of the difference between natural and logical consequences, take the situation of a young person who sometimes babysits in the evening. If they had arranged to babysit one night and didn’t show up, a natural consequence is that they wouldn’t earn any money that night, while a logical consequence could be that the family wouldn’t ask them to babysit for them again as they think they’re unreliable.

Scenarios To Explore

For your youth work session, we’ve provided a list of different scenarios below. Have your young people consider each of these scenarios and work out both the natural and logical consequences they might encounter. Think through the issues and pressures that your young people face and add extra scenarios to the list that you think might be relevant to their lives:

  • Going out without a coat and it starts raining
  • Smoking
  • Not eating fruits and vegetables
  • Texting while driving
  • Doing drugs
  • Not doing homework
  • Insulting someone on Facebook
  • Having sex without a condom
  • Bullying someone
  • Not tidying your bedroom
  • Not showing up to work
  • Stealing from a store
  • Stealing from a friend
  • Stealing from parents
  • Eating too much candy
  • Not exercising
  • Watching porn
  • Gossiping about friends
  • Getting in a fight at school
  • Getting in a fight outside of school
  • Not doing chores
  • Cheating on an exam

Consequences From Different People

Depending on the scenario, they may receive logical consequences from different people. For example, if they don’t do their homework it’s unlikely they’ll receive a logical consequence from their friends, but they might get a detention from their teacher or be grounded by their parents.

Explore these different kinds of consequences and which ones they feel have more impact on their actions.

Consequences For Other People

The behavior of young people will often not only affect themselves, but others as well. When going through the scenarios, have them also consider the impact on the following people:

  • Friends
  • Parents
  • Siblings
  • Teachers
  • Employer
  • Members of the public

This can help them to consider their actions in a different way than if the focus is purely on themselves. For example, getting young people who smoke to consider the impact it has on a younger brother or sister could lead them into re-evaluating their actions. Even though they know smoking is harmful, they often don’t care about their own health. Young people can be loyal and staunch defenders of their younger siblings though, so getting them to stop and think about how their example could encourage their brother or sister to smoke could have more impact.

Ways To Explore Consequences

This session could be hard-going for your youth, so try to explore the different scenarios and their natural and logical consequences in some of these different ways:

  • Discuss as one large group
  • Discuss in smaller groups
  • Have young people call out their ideas for you to write on a flipchart
  • Provide the youth with sticky notes to write their ideas on, with them then sticking the notes on a flipchart
  • Provide the youth with a worksheet that has a table listing scenarios and spaces for them to write their thoughts on natural and logical consequences

This session plan could prove to be uncomfortable for your young people, especially if they’re not used to having consequences for their actions. It’s therefore important for the session to not be an exercise in being judgmental against their behaviors, but about equipping them to make positive decisions for the future.

Question: How would you explore natural and logical consequences with your young people? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

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World Awareness Games Part 2 – Youth Work Session Plan Idea

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World Awareness GamesAt Youth Workin’ It, we value diversity and think it’s important for young people to learn about the world around them. We’ve shared three world awareness games before and today we have another one.

This world awareness game might be useful before discussing children’s rights around the world or participating in an event like Slum Survivor, since the purpose is to get youth thinking about the richest and poorest countries in the world.

Richest and Poorest Countries Activity

Resources

Instructions

  • Place a world map on the wall
  • Split the youth into two teams
  • Explain what GDP is. (Very basically, it’s the amount earned by everyone in the country divided by the number of people in that country each year)
  • Give each team a set of rich and poor piggy bank markers
  • Ask the youth to guess which countries they think are the richest in the world and which are poorest by placing their piggy bank markers on each country
  • Go through the markers and discuss which countries are the richest and poorest, as well as where the ones chosen by your youth fall on the list

Keep this world awareness game light and fun, otherwise it has the potential to be a less fun activity. Consider having some interesting facts available about the five richest and poorest countries, or provide access for the youth to find fun facts about the countries they do choose.

Question: How would you introduce the topic of wealth and poverty among countries to your youth? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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