Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Come Open Your Mind (And Ministry!) In Boston

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Open BostonIf you weren’t at The Summit a couple of weeks ago, make sure you don’t miss out on the Youth Cartel’s next event – Open Boston – on February 2, 2013.

This is a new kind of youth ministry conference that will be focusing on a wide range of different ideas – you can check out the manifesto here. One of the best things is that tickets will start from just $25, making it much more affordable.

And now there’s another good reason to be there – Shae will be one of the speakers! She’s going to be talking about “helping your students think globally” and this will be:

An informative and practical session about how to help young people in youth ministries internalize global issues in youth work and turn those changed attitudes into action. We’ll look at how youth ministers can engage young people in the process of global learning that goes beyond being sympathetic. This session provides practical tools and tips on how to engage young people in the church in global issues through empathy and community volunteering opportunities.

I can’t recommend this highly enough and not just because I’m her husband! Being at Shae’s session will be worth the $25 by itself, but there are so many other great speakers and sessions, there’s really no excuse not to be there.

Unless you live thousands of miles from Boston.

Even then, I’d recommend jumping on a plane to be there.

I’ll be there as well (albeit as a learner rather than a speaker), so come meet Youth Workin’ It at Open Boston. Don’t miss out – register here now.

 

What Is The Thompson PCS Model?

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Thompson PCS Model
No, PCS – Personal, Cultural and Structural – not PCs!

Q: What is the Thompson PCS Model and why does it matter for me?

A: Please see this excerpt below from some of my MA coursework for an explanation of Thompson’s PCS Model. If you’d like any bibliographical information, please contact us.

“Thompson’s (2006) Personal, Cultural and Structural analysis (‘PCS Model’) does an excellent job of explaining how power relationships are expressed between individuals, groups and through the wider societal context and highlights the layered effect of oppression.

Levels of the Thompson PCS Model (Thompson 2006)

The “Personal or Psychological level” is where individuals form and express personal beliefs and values. This includes “practice, individual workers interacting with individual clients and prejudice.” (Thompson 2006:27) The ideals at this level are based mainly on personal experiences.

The level at which “social norms” are expressed through “consensus” and “conformity” is the “Cultural level.” (Thompson 2006:27) It is at this level where stereotypes are created, etiquette and manners are expressed based on social expectations and other forms of behaviors and belief systems are reinforced. It is at this level where “taken-for-granted assumptions or ‘unwritten rules’” are processed. (Thompson 2006:27)

There is also a societal level which is the “Structural level.” This is where systemic discrimination is created and “institutionalized” through social policy. (Thompson 2006:28) It is also at this level that the media operates and affects the wider conscience of the nation.

The PCS Model shows how each level of society interacts with the other. The power relationships do not exist independent of one another, but are actually interconnected. Personal beliefs when felt collectively create a cultural sense of what is acceptable. Meanwhile, cultural ‘norms’ then affect the personal experiences and thought processes of the next generation being raised within the community. Cultural norms begin to be identified by policy makers and social policy and laws begin to reflect cultural values and beliefs, regardless of their accuracy. As laws change and people become more controlled by the State and its policy makers, it is seen as acceptable to express cultural views, which may discriminate or oppress others. This, in turn, causes individuals to become more oppressed or powerful based on the current governing system and laws.”

The PCS Model is important to understand as it explains how personal beliefs, cultural norms and structural institutions all contribute to oppression within society.

Last week’s post identified what oppression is and how you can work in an anti-oppressive way within your organization. By having a clear understanding of anti-oppressive practice and the PCS Model, you can more fully identify and combat oppressive structures in your organization, community and personal practice – particularly with how it relates to the youth you work with and the ageism they may be experiencing.

Question: How does understanding the relationships between the Personal, Cultural and Structural levels of oppression help you in your youth work practice? We’d love to hear about your experience with the Thompson PCS model in the comments below.

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Live In Nashville Or Atlanta? Get Youth Workin’ It’s Services For Free

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Free youth worker training
Get free youth work services for your organization

On 1 September, Youth Workin’ It will officially be one year old. On the one hand the year’s gone quickly, on the other it feels like so much has happened in that time. To celebrate our anniversary, we’re going to be running some competitions and here’s the first.

Are you in Nashville, TN or Atlanta, GA?

On the weekend of Friday September 21 – Sunday September 23, we’re going to be in Nashville, TN for Jon Acuff’s Quitter Conference. The conference finishes on the Saturday night, but we’ll still be about on the Sunday morning.

On the weekend of Friday November 9 – Sunday November 11, we’re going to be in Atlanta, GA for the Youth Cartel Summit. This conference finishes on the Saturday night as well, but we’ll be about on the Sunday morning here as well.

What we’re offering for free

While we’re in both of these places, we’d like to offer two hours of our services for free. What kind of services can we offer?

Shae has trained youth workers in many different countries, so could run a training session with your organization’s volunteers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a faith-based organization or a non-profit working with young people – the training can be tailored to meet your organization’s needs.

Alternatively, perhaps you’d be interested in having a guest speaker come in to talk to your young people. Or maybe you need some help setting up program monitoring and evaluation. Whatever your needs, we’d like to be able to help.

How do I sign up?

Please drop us an email at info at youthworkinit dot com, or use our contact page. We’re only going to be able to offer our services to one organization in each of these locations on the respective weekends, so please get in contact ASAP if you’d like to be considered.

We’d love to hear about what your organization does and how you’d like us to help serve you and your young people. We’d especially love to help organizations that wouldn’t normally be able to afford consultancy services/guest speakers, but we’re happy to consider any requests.

As we’re going to be driving back to Virginia after these conferences, we regret that we won’t be able to travel too far outside of the Nashville / Atlanta areas. However, if you’re located fairly close to the route back through to VA, we might be able to sort something out.

If you don’t live in either of these places, please pass this on to anyone else you know that lives in these areas! And don’t forget that you can still take advantage of our services any time, especially things like virtual consultations.

 

What Do Youth Pastors Need More – Experience Or Qualifications?

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Youth pastor qualifications vs experienceLast week we discussed whether youth work qualifications are more important than experience. A follow-up question was submitted regarding youth ministry specifically – here’s our answer.

Q: How about in terms of youth pastoring – is having several years working in christian youth groups better than qualifications?

A: In days gone by, I’d have told you that all you needed to get a job as a youth pastor at many churches was some experience running a youth ministry or volunteering, a heart for youth and a heart for God. And for many churches that’s still the case. There can also be a shocking lack of professional boundaries in the warm and fuzzy world of church youth ministry.

But times, they are a-changin’. Many churches want more staff for less money, qualifications as a requirement and significant experience.

Here are three things that you might expect to see required when researching jobs in youth ministry nowadays:

  1. Qualifications – You probably need some kind of qualification and often it’s required to be in theology, not youth ministry. Many churches view the role of the youth pastor as a short-term vocation; eventually you’ll mature and get into ‘real ministry’, in which case it helps if you already have the theological underpinning needed to provide pastoral care to adults within other ministries.
  2. Talents – You might need to be multi-talented to be truly competitive. I’ve seen so many ‘youth pastor / worship leader’ jobs. Churches need more bang for their buck and, like in agencies and organizations worldwide, they’re looking for people with more than one skill set that can better meet the needs of their organization.
  3. Flexibility – You may need to broaden your ministry options to include working with children, or maybe the whole family as a ‘Family Pastor’. Many churches – particularly smaller churches – are including the need to work with 3rd graders through to college age young people in the job description of the youth pastor.

If you’re someone planning to recruit for a youth pastor and one, two or all three of these thoughts have crossed your mind, or been a discussion point in a committee meeting, consider these thoughts:

  1. Qualifications – Theology is important, especially in a church leader. However, consider meeting with candidates who have diverse qualifications and experience, as well as a long term commitment to their faith. Simply because they haven’t been to seminary doesn’t mean a youth pastor can’t be effective in ministering to youth. When in doubt, ask for a sample youth ministry session and test it out with your youth. Alternatively, have them come and speak on several occasions on various topics in both large and small group settings to find out more about them and their ministry style.
  2. Talents – Be willing to consider a great youth pastor who can’t also fulfill your worship leader requirement. If you have a need God will provide, but not always in the way you think. You may end up with a great youth pastor who is completely tone deaf, but who’s effective at raising up youth. They might mentor a young person who would make a great worship leader – all they needed was someone to believe in them.
  3. Flexibility – Children’s ministry is very different from youth ministry. The needs are diverse and the way in which a youth pastor relates to teens will be very different than to a small child. Even if they’re just ‘oversight’ for the children’s ministry, it’s important that they care about it if that’s the route you decide to go. Otherwise your children’s ministry might flounder while your youth group grows and gets all of the attention. Alternatively, you may lose all your youth by hiring a gifted children’s pastor who doesn’t know how to relate to teenagers.
Question: What have been your experiences when applying for youth ministry jobs – are youth ministry qualifications more important than experience? 

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Are Youth Work Qualifications More Important Than Experience?

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Youth work qualifications vs experienceQ: How important are youth work qualifications when looking at a career, in comparison to experience through volunteering?

A: Unfortunately there isn’t one straight answer for this question. Each organization and agency is different and therefore is looking for different things in an applicant. Some are looking for qualifications and some are looking for experience.

Youth Work Qualifications

Requiring youth work qualifications benefits an employer for a couple of reasons. By requiring a type of degree or certificate, they can be better informed about your knowledge-base. Some degrees or qualifications are required for certain types of youth work, such as at activity centers or in social work.

Requiring a certain level of education also provides a benchmark for all applicants and helps them weed out some candidates. In the current economic climate that can be a very valuable tool for recruiters and employers, as they’re receiving so many applications for each position.

However, having qualifications doesn’t necessarily mean more experience or better rapport with young people. It can be frustrating to be a fantastic youth worker who just hasn’t had the opportunity to pursue higher education, thereby costing you the opportunity to be considered for a job before someone has even met you.

I’ve experienced this on occasion with my degree – a Master’s in Youth Work and Community Development – because a ‘youth work degree’ isn’t really something offered in the US. There are social work degrees, youth ministry degrees and other human services degrees but not a ‘youth work degree’. It can be frustrating, but the right role and employer for you will see beyond your unconventional or lack of qualifications.

All that being said, theoretical underpinning (a base of theory from research and studies that informs your youth work practice) is essential. You can be a fun youth worker, make up great games and build relationships with youth, but knowing about things like group dynamics, the effects of Personal, Cultural and Structural barriers on youth, the history of modern youth work and adolescent development issues will only serve to make you that much better of a youth worker.

Take your professional development seriously and attend training, conferences and courses whenever it’s appropriate and possible.

Youth Work Experience

Some organizations rely heavily on youth work experience when recruiting for a youth worker. While theoretical underpinning is important, there’s no substitute for real world experience working with youth. If you’re interested in youth work as a career, the more opportunities you have to work with young people, the better.

Youth workers with some experience are often better able to:

  • Think on their feet – the more you practice coming up with games, creating new activities, changing the plans to suit the mood of the room and judging the feeling in the room during a discussion, the better at all of them you will become
  • Build rapport quickly – you find more ways to engage young people in conversation the more you practice it. You’ll be able to get beyond, ‘so do you like any subjects in school?’ or ‘what’s your favorite color?’ as your opening line

That doesn’t mean that a youth worker without the experience doesn’t possess these qualities. It takes time to get better at what you do. It’s true for musicians, artists, managers and youth workers. Use volunteer opportunities to increase your level of experience, especially if you are planning to change careers from something completely un-youthy like corporate tax law.

Years of experience are still not a complete replacement for training. You’ll be better able to serve the young people you work with when you can understand youth behavior or where a certain law came from. Best practice is often rooted in both theoretical underpinning and real life practice in the profession of youth work.

The best of both worlds is a youth worker who is well-rounded. One who has some experience working directly with young people – learning how to plan, build rapport, knows the lingo of youth culture and has proven dedication to a low-pay, low-appreciation (at times) job. But also one who takes their professional development seriously and makes every effort to increase their knowledge and understanding, even if it’s not possible to undertake a degree course.

Question: Which do you think is more important in youth work – Qualifications or Experience? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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