Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

What Does “At Risk Youth” Mean?

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What does at risk youth meanQ: I’ve heard this term used about quite a lot of young people, but what does “at risk youth” mean?

A: At its most basic, it means youth who are at risk – surprising, huh?! But “at risk” of what?

There are many risk factors that can lead to hazards in young peoples’ lives:

  • Poverty
  • Abuse (physical, sexual, mental, etc)
  • Crime
  • Poor schools
  • Living in foster care, group homes, etc
  • Bullying
  • Disabilities
  • Unstable home life
  • Learning difficulties
  • Drugs
  • Alcohol
  • Mental health
  • Sexuality

In short, this could mean that pretty much all youth are – to some extent – at risk. Like risk assessments though, some young people will be in a far higher risk situation than others.

How are youth identified as being at risk?

All youth in their lives have both risk factors (such as those listed above) and protective factors. Having a higher number of risk factors and lower number of protective factors in their life are good indicators of whether they should be deemed an “at risk youth”.

Protective factors can include:

  • Stable home life
  • Encouraging parents
  • Scholastic ability
  • Good teachers
  • Safe neighborhood
  • Learning social skills
  • Being taught life skills
  • Healthy lifestyle
  • Good diet
  • Access to services

How can we tell if they’re at risk?

As youth workers, we should try to be aware of any youth in our programs who are at risk. Sometimes these young people will be easy to identify, particularly if you work with a group that are generally regarded as being in a higher risk situation, such as foster youth, young offenders or students in low-income areas.

It can therefore sometimes be harder for youth workers like youth pastors to know which of their young people are at risk. There are some signs though that could indicate that youth are in more hazardous living situations:

  • Highly sexualized behavior – Might indicate sexual abuse
  • Wearing same clothes / clothes don’t fit / clothes have holes – Might be living in poverty
  • Unwilling to read anything out – Might have learning difficulties (although could just be shyness)
  • Extremely aggressive – Might indicate abuse of some kind
  • Wears clothing that covers body, even in hot weather – Might suffer from physical abuse and so trying to cover bruises. This can also be a sign that they self-harm (covering up cuts/burns) or that they suffer from sexual abuse (don’t want to draw attention to their body)

Next week, we’ll look at some of the implications of working with at risk youth.

Question: Do you work with at risk youth? What advice would you give to other youth workers on how to deal with these situations? Please share your advice in the comments below.

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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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What Is Youth Work?

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What is youth workQ: What is Youth Work?

A: Through my experience and studies, I believe youth work is informal education, led by a reflective practitioner. It is voluntary and creates opportunities for youth participation and empowerment. It works in a way that is both dialogical (meaning through dialogue rather than lecture) and anti-oppressive.

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 youth work is and what the role of a youth worker 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.

I strongly believe that the primary role of the youth worker is to be an informal reflective educator who seeks to work in an anti-oppressive way in order to help young people develop through “choice, voice, convivial settings for learning, reflection on experience, conversation and interaction.” (Smith 2000:22) A worker must also help young people make connections that show that learning is a “fully human activity,” (Smith 2000:33) one which I believe carries on beyond school and throughout life, thereby making it an important concept to understand and skillfully master.

Reflective Practice

Firstly, learning must be modeled by the practitioner; this is done through reflective practice. Smith (2000) describes two methods for understanding the youth worker’s reflective role within the learning process. Through “reflection-on-action” after a youth work session and “reflection-in-action” during the youth work session, (Smith 2000:102) youth workers have the potential to improve their own practice and actions for future youth work sessions.

Voluntary and Participative

Youth work is identified as a ‘voluntary relationship’ (Young 1999) in which young people and youth work are in a partnership designed to support young people’s learning. Article 12 of the UNCRC (Unicef UK 1990:4) says that young people have the right to have a say in decisions that are being made for or about them. Voluntary participation can be identified on the scale of Arnstein’s (1969) ‘Ladder of Participation’ which was later updated by Hart (1992) to reflect work with children and young people. The ladder has eight rungs which range from “manipulation” to “child initiated and adults sharing in the decision making.”

Informal and Dialogical 

Paulo Friere is noted as a key figure in shaping education, particularly informal education, by identifying problems within curriculum-based education and posing solutions based on respect, dialogue, action and finding opportunities for learning in every situation; the two forms of education being mainly non-formal “dialogical” education (Friere 1996:70) or formal curriculum-based education. For the youth worker, non-formal education principles based on respect and conversation can be more effective than rigid forms of “banking education” (Friere 1996:53) in which the educator is only concerned with depositing information into the educatee, rather than having an environment in which both parties can learn from the other. These foundations for informal learning mirror modern principles which underpin youth work.

Anti-Oppressive

Members of society experience unfair discrimination every day; sexism, racism, and disabilitism to name just a few. What is the difference between being discriminated against and being oppressed? Oppression is internalised, making it deeper and more systemic. According to Friere, oppression is the “dehumanisation” of people, or at the very least stopping them from fully realising their full “humanisation,” or “vocation” in life (1996: 25-26). He goes on to say that “[humanisation] is thwarted by injustice, exploitation, oppression and the violence of the oppressors.” (1996:25-26) My understanding is that oppression is using the perceived or actual power within a relationship to maintain control over a person, the situation or circumstances. One is actively encouraging the superiority of some to the detriment of others, working to maintain this level of power in the relationship, as the status quo.

Question: If someone asked you ‘what is youth work?’ what would you say? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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What Is Pre-Teaching And Why Does It Matter?

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Pre-teaching techniquesQ: I’ve heard someone say that we should pre-teach to youth when they’re going to encounter tough situations. What is pre-teaching and why does it matter?

A: Put simply, pre-teaching is a way of setting young people up for success. Youth can often find themselves in situations that are alien to them or that can cause extreme pressure or stress. If they don’t know how to react appropriately, this can result in them saying or doing something that gets them into trouble.

Pre-teaching therefore helps youth identify the way that they should react, whether that relates to how to stay calm, things to say or whatever else might be deemed appropriate youth behavior, instead of them following their natural instincts.

It’s not possible to use pre-teach everything to young people, as you aren’t going to know every situation they’ll ever find themselves in. There are other times though where you can use pre-teaching to help ensure they don’t get into trouble or avoid getting into further trouble.

Here are some examples of situations where pre-teaching might help, along with suggestions on how to approach it with young people:

1) School Reports – If a young person knows that they’re due to get a bad school report, they might be concerned with how their parents will react. This fear can lead them to become defensive and argumentative when confronted by their parents.

One pre-teaching technique would be to discuss the reasons for the poor report with the young person. Have them identify ways in which they could improve on this the next time round and commit to making these changes, whether that’s through improved behavior in class, handing in their homework on time, etc.

That way, when they have the inevitable discussion with their parents, they can discuss with them how they’ve identified what they didn’t do properly and how they’re going to rectify that. This should help their parents be impressed by their self-reflection and maturity, improving the overall tone of the conversation.

2) Arguments – Perhaps one of your young people has a problem with managing their aggression, resulting in them becoming violent when getting into arguments.

In this situation, pre-teaching would involve working with them to help identify some alternative options they have to break the cycle of resorting to violence. One method is to use the Vicious Cycle aggression management technique. This gets them to look at the different stages of the situation and find ways to control their aggression, deciding when to walk away, etc.

3) Stealing – There are many different reasons why young people choose to steal, so we can’t assume that it’s simply down to greed. Sometimes it’s due to peer pressure, sometimes it’s an outward behavior of internal stress, while for some it’s simply a behavior they’ve learned from their parents.

Whatever the reason behind it, stealing is a behavior that can get young people into serious trouble, both now and later in life. This is therefore an area where pre-teaching can have a positive impact on their future.

One pre-teaching technique would to be run a youth work session on stealing. Here, you help the young people identify for themselves the reason(s) why they steal, how to avoid the temptation to steal, along with the natural and logical consequences of their actions if they don’t stop stealing.

 

These pre-teaching techniques are actually more like self-pre-teaching, as you’re guiding the young people into teaching themselves the best way to react to situations.

By having young people reflect on these situations for themselves, you’re helping them to internalize the actions they need to take, thereby increasing the likelihood that they’ll make good choices in the future.

 

There are other occasions in youth work where you might do more of the pre-teaching:

1) Youth Trips – If you’re planning a trip somewhere, it’s important to pre-teach to young people if you have any specific expectations. This pre-teaching could cover things like acceptable language and behavior, what time they should check back in if you’re splitting up into groups, safety advice, etc.

2) Behavior Policy – If you’re setting up a new youth work project, or even if you’re running an existing project, we recommend setting up a youth behavior policy. This sets expectations for your group and pre-teaches the young people as to what is and isn’t appropriate behavior.

3) Youth Worker Leaving – If you or another youth worker who is an important part of your group leaves, this can cause great upheaval for young people. Use pre-teaching to discuss how it’s OK for them to feel sad and to look at appropriate ways for them to react, instead of rebelling against the new youth worker.

Question: How do you use pre-teaching in your youth work? Share your thoughts on best practice in the comments below.

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What Is A Group Agreement?

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Youth group agreement
Creating a group agreement means everyone is setting expectations together

Q: What is a group agreement?

A: A group agreement (sometimes also called a youth group contract) is a document that outlines what the expectations of the group are for the time they are meeting together.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Wait, isn’t a group agreement just ‘the rules’? I already have those, so check you later Youth Workin’ It.”

Some might consider a group agreement, ‘the rules.’ The key difference between a group agreement and ‘rules’ comes in the creation and enforcement.

Rules are often top down. They’re usually created and enforced by the person in charge. A group agreement though is created by the entire group. They decide what goes on and discuss why it’s important for the group.

Creating a Group Agreement

Creating a youth group agreement takes time and discussion. It needs ownership and participation from all the youth to work well. You’re a part of the group as well and can therefore make sure that any zero-tolerance items end up on the list. But again, do so conversationally. For example, with a no alcohol ‘rule’, explore why it’s important to the youth that everyone comes sober.

When creating a group agreement try to keep items positive. Instead of a list of ‘NOs’, try to create a list of positive activities that everyone agrees to. From our previous example, instead of ‘No alcohol’, try ‘Come to group sober’. Instead of ‘No put-downs’, try ‘Speak kindly’. The youth will probably give you a list of ‘NOs’ – take the time to help them create a list of ‘YESs’.

Once a group agreement is created have everyone sign it. Yourself included. When new group members join have them review and sign the agreement too.

Enforcing a Group Agreement

Enforcing a youth group agreement is just as important as creating one. Don’t always be the one to enforce the expectations set by the group. It’s the group’s agreement, not your rules. Everyone is encouraged to give positive peer pressure to adhere to the group agreement they created together. If you have a youth team leader on a project within your program, encourage them to also take the lead in helping remind the group about the group agreement.

Refer to it often, even when no one is breaking it. Praise the group when they are following the agreement. It’s often easy to only notice when a youth is breaking a part of the group agreement, but take the time to praise individuals and the group when they’re working well and following the group agreement.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how group agreements help manage youth behavior. On Thursday, we’ll provide a youth work session plan for creating a group agreement, so check back!

Question: Do you think a group agreement is different from ‘rules’? Why or why not? Share your answers in the comments below.

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