Youth and Community Work

Michael Emslie argues that the time is right for youth work in Australia to be professionalised in line with other human service practices such as nursing, education and psychology. He identifies a groundswell of activities that support the professionalisation of youth work and a concurrent growth in high-level interest in strengthening social and community services. He argues that this context presents an opportune time to professionalise youth work. Emslie provides reasons why it is imperative to regulate and monitor the youth sector as a profession, and explains how professionalisation will help address the critical shortage of qualified youth practitioners and also improve the quality of service young people receive.

This paper is the introductory chapter of a reader on European Youth Studies, the first in a series of publications reflecting upon the rapidly changing world of young people in Europe and seeking to contextualise and understand those changes. Its primary objective is to create the ground for the conception of European youth studies as an emerging European-wide integrated field of youth research, youth policy and youth work.

I will consider what effect I had as an educator through my planning and delivery of 3 sessions, merging two youth forums, and more widely examining how educators impact on group and individuals learning within the youth and community setting.

Abstract
Digital Tools, Spaces and Places as Mediators of Youth Work Practice.
In the context of English youth and community work, this research project investigates digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice, and proposes a model formulated through the identification of expansive drivers to guide both professional conduct and curriculum-based practice.

The lives of English young people today are shaped by technologies which make interaction in a variety of digital spaces and places possible, yet there are divided views within the youth work community of practice about the place of digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of informal learning in a discipline traditionally focused on association, relationships and critical dialogue. Supported by the conceptual framework of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), Developmental Work Research (DWR) techniques have been used to gather data from four English youth and community work practitioners through a workshop-based approach framed by CHAT pre-suppositions and the first three stages of Engestrom’s expansive learning cycle. The data analysis uses the four areas where contradictions can manifest within CHAT activity systems to examine how the use of digital tools, spaces and places aligns with youth work values and principles, and to examine how they can mediate informal learning opportunities with young people.

The contribution to knowledge comprises the identification of four ‘spaces’ which are named as safety, production, information and communication, and which form the basis of a model to scaffold the professional use of digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice. Expansive drivers, defined as the forces for learning, development and change, are identified within each of the spaces within the model and examined using continuum-based representations portraying professional practice and curriculum-based priorities. Metaphors of digital space and place emerging from within the DWR process are also appraised as a means to situate the work. 

The model is underpinned firstly by the premise that a youth worker’s choice of digital tool, space or place needs to be based on the needs and input of young people. Secondly, that using digital tools, spaces and places as mediators of youth work practice is most effective as an extension to existing face-to-face youth work where relationships between young people and youth workers have already been formed.

Key words: youth work; digital tools, spaces and places; contradictions; expansive learning; expansive drivers; mediators.

Despite the attempts at an inclusive and equitable education system, the school environment in Ontario remains one of the dominant institutions where Black
youth experience inequalities. More recently there has been an intensified focus on the widespread disparities in experiences with a renewed call for systemic change (James & Turner, 2017). These conversations include highlighting unequal educational outcomes and differential treatment. In responding to calls for action from the helping professions working within the school settings, school-based Child and Youth Care (CYC) practitioners must recognize the implications of their interactions with Black youth. More importantly, CYCs should also understand the ways anti-Black racism is manifest while also appreciating the systemic issues that lead to risk factors encountered by Black youth daily inside schools. This call for an increased awareness by CYC practitioners further suggests the need for an antiracist theoretical framework to guide the field of CYC practice.

This paper aims to help fill the gap in the literature on how to educate reflective youth work practitioners. The author reflects on his teaching practice. This includes in class, online and field‐based critical reflection work that cuts across a number of courses over three years. Students engage in a range of teaching and learning activities that promote the exercise of human agency and responsible action, alerting them to their own capacity for transformative action and professional youth work practice. The lessons can be adapted for use in other discipline areas where staff appreciate the pedagogical value of reflective practice.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

Young people’s participation in public decision-making is generally seen by adults to be an important, positive and active process. What is missing from this discourse are the perspectives of young people themselves.

Drawing on data from 6 telephone interviews and 2 focus groups with young people engaged in formal youth participation fora, this study aims to explore young people’s perspectives and experiences of their participation in public decision-making. In
particular, it focuses on their understandings of power and representation, and their perspectives on the benefits of participating.

The findings point to four conclusions: young people are do not feel they have the power to make decisions; even when in representative roles, young people do not always feel like representatives; those young people who actively participate personally benefit more that those who do not; and, young people feel adults have a necessary and critical role in their participation, but are unclear as to what role this is.

These conclusions raise interesting issues about young people’s understanding of what it is they are participating in, for what reason and for whom, as well as highlighting the continuing challenge in addressing the power imbalance between young people and adults.

This paper was submitted as part of my MA Degree, and scored a 72% - the highest mark awarded in my cohort.

De finals de 2001 fins a 2003, la Fundació Jaume Bofill va animar un procés de reflexió al voltant de projectes i experiències de Catalunya que ja aleshores utilitzaven l'expressió artística com a mitjà educatiu amb joves en risc d'exclusió. Aquesta publicació va ser el resultat de la posada en comú entre diversos/es professionals del sector i també l'embrió de la xarxa Artibarri: http://artibarriblog.wordpress.com/

Съвременните темпове на развитие на системите за средно и висше образование се характеризират с динамика, която изисква образователната система да бъде обогатена с иновативни форми и методи на обучение, което трябва да доведе до повишаване на качеството на учебния процес. Докладът анализира гражданската култура на младите хора в България, идентифицира нуждите и включва нови подходи и теми в модули за обучение по гражданско образование.

This Youth Knowledge book presents theoretical references and reflections on the experiences of young refugees and the way they reconcile personal hope with the tensions within their host societies. It also explores learning from practices and their theoretical underpinnings concerning the role of youth work in a cross-sectoral approach. This book aims to be a reference for policy makers, practitioners and researchers in the youth field and stakeholders from other sectors working on inclusion, access to rights and the participation of young refugees.

All the contributors propose a very critical engagement with the reality of young refugees in today’s Europe, where tolerance levels for negative phenomena, such as human rights violations, hate speech and discrimination, are on the rise. However, there is also an underlying message of hope for those willing to engage in a human rights-based youth work practice that ensures safe spaces for being young, no matter who, no matter where. Practices and reflections deal with democracy, activism, participation, formal and non-formal education and learning, employment, trauma, “waitinghood” and negotiating identities.

We hope this book as a whole, and each individual contribution, will inspire youth policy makers and practitioners to take on board the complex realities of unfinished transitions and borderland experiences and create a positive environment for an enriched and transformed youth work for the inclusion of young refugees in their host communities.

This paper argues that if higher education institutions are going to place students at risk of sexual harassment by requiring they complete a component of their formal study on work-place based placements, then university educators have a responsibility to adequately equip and appropriately support students so they can effectively identify and respond to sexual harassment. A model from youth work field education is presented that aims to prepare graduates, agency supervisors and university-based field education staff who are capable and motivated to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in the practicum. The systemic and integrated framework recognises student’s fundamental right to safety in the workplace and attends to the constraints on students disclosing, the deleterious effects of experiencing unwanted sexual conduct, and the importance of good practices in care and support. The various components of the approach also take account of the influence of environmental factors as well as issues of educational merit. The model has general applicability to other professional practice domains and can be adapted for use by educators who appreciate the value of equipping students to effectively deal with unwelcome sexual conduct while on placement.

Die neo-salafistische Bewegung in Deutschland ist heterogen und nicht alle Gruppen vertreten eine gewaltbefürwortende und politische Ideologie. Gemeinsam ist ihnen die Ablehnung der demokratischen Grundordnung. Als Eindeutigkeitsangebot richtet sich der Neo-Salafismus vor allem an Jugendliche, die sich desintegriert fühlen und auf der Suche nach Anerkennung und Identität sind. Hier setzt der lebensweltorientierte Handlungsansatz der akzeptierenden Jugendarbeit an, der sich auf gemeinsame Begegnungen, den Aufbau von Beziehung, daraus resultierendes Vertrauen sowie die Erweiterung von sozialräumlichen Handlungsoptionen stützt.

This critique of some of the prevailing approaches to youth work argues that theories of practice offer better ways of understanding and achieving good practice. A significant body of literature suggests good youth work involves engaging young people in education and training, implementing a practice model, or acting upon young people’s feedback. However, criticisms of these accounts suggest they are inadequate. This article makes the case that we need to think about the problems youth work is trying to address as “wicked problems” that call for “wicked solutions” and argues that practice theories missing from the youth work literature provide more in the way of wicked solutions compared to the conventional approaches to youth work.

This qualitative study explores the effects of social justice– oriented youth programming on racial and ethnic identities and social justice action for Asian American youth. Study participants were 5 male and 3 female Asian American high school students, ages 15–17, whose ethnicities included Chinese, Vietnamese, and Chinese-Vietnamese. Data sources included multiple in-depth interviews with the 8 participants, both pre- and post-programming, as well as research observations of all programming.
Analysis was based in a critical ideological constructivist philosophy utilizing a grounded theory approach. Constant comparative analysis began with open coding during the data collection process, which continued after all data were collected. Open coding was followed by axial and theoretical coding, which were audited by the research team. Results indicated that before program participation, participants generally had superficial understandings of race and ethnicity and little awareness of racism, as well as limited engagement in social justice action. After program participation, they reported more sophisticated understandings of race and ethnicity as well as development of their own racial and ethnic identities. They also reported an increased sense of empowerment and social justice responsibility and greaternengagement in social justice action. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

As is the practice in many professional degree programs now, students spend time on placement as part of their learning experience, and while doing so are required to engage in reflective practice. The case study presented here details the experience of youth work students at a university in Australia who have been writing reflective online journals while on field education. The journals provide a space in which students document events which include those that have been both positive and harmful and distressing. This study provides a snapshot of their encounters of incidents which include violence, sexual harassment, malpractice and absent supervisors. I consider the implications of these revelations for field education and make recommendations about how we can secure the delivery of good work integrated learning (WIL) in universities. This article will be of interest to educators of human service practitioners, applied ethics, the law and student well-being.

Young People, Nature Connection and Spiritual Development
Helen Bradley
July 2015

This study sets out to understand the current discussion around spirituality and its place in youth work. Further to this it considers whether nature connection activities are a setting where spiritual development occurs and how we can respond to this as practitioners. The empirical study used a survey with young people building on previous research to observe young people’s reaction to nature and conducted interviews with practitioners to explore the themes.
The study showed that through nature connection activities many young people were able to reflect deeply on their experiences and gain a deeper understanding of themselves. Some young people equated nature activities to exploration and utilised the outdoors as emotional coping strategies. The practitioner’s interviews highlighted the need for reflective practice in relation to spirituality in order to further understand its place in youth work.
The study concluded that youth work in the outdoors is an ideal setting for human development and that in a safe environment, spiritual development is part of this. Moreover we need to establish an ethical basis for practitioners to integrate spiritual development into youth work practice.
Recommendations for further work are centred on reflective practice for youth workers and to encourage more reflective work with young people on the subject of spirituality in order to familiarise the concept. This will lead to further work with young people to unpack the terms relevance with a wider vocabulary and understanding. Finally, to utilise nature connection activities as an identified ideal setting for spiritual development work.

This research explores the impact of social media use on young people within First Holywood Presbyterian Church. The spread of social media into many areas of life has outrun the research carried into its impact on users. The drive behind this research is to examine the impact that social media has on young people, so that youth work practitioners can be informed and equipped to support young people in a digital world. The literature review highlights the impact social media has on mental health which is particularly apparent through the themes of identity; body image; sleep deprivation; FOMO; and support networks.
The research piece consists of qualitative and quantitative responses from questionnaires and focus groups with young people, as well as semi-structured interviews with youth work practitioners to analyse the impact. The young people taking part in the research are 13+; social media users; and part of the First Holywood Presbyterian Church community. While the youth work practitioners involved are from the local council area. Analysing the data through the themes of identity; body image; sleep deprivation; FOMO; and support networks means that implications for practice are informed directly from the research carried out in First Holywood Presbyterian Church and secondary evidence.
Data shows that young people’s mental health is negatively impacted in terms of identity, body image, sleep deprivation and FOMO. However, the findings also show that social media can impact young people’s mental health positively due to the connections to networks of friends from which they can obtain support and advice.
The research highlights implications youth work practice in supporting young people in light of findings. It also suggests areas for future development when studying the impact of social media on young people, and new bodies of research that should be conducted to improve youth work practice.

In che modo promuovere centri giovanili intesi come spazi dove i giovani possano vivere la loro età quale condizione esistenziale specifica? Spazi, quindi, in cui fare esperienza dell’essere giovani e della tensione sempre presente tra le proprie spinte verso il nuovo e la resistenza delle istituzioni verso il cambiamento. A partire da questo interrogativo, il libro presenta una ricerca sui centri giovanili e si propone come strumento per responsabili di politiche pubbliche, professionisti e operatori sociali su come costruire spazi educativi dove i giovani abbiano un ruolo attivo, propositivo e decisionale: rinviare questa possibilità all’età adulta, infatti, appare una forma di chiusura verso il cambiamento, se si considera la crescente fluidità e indeterminatezza delle soglie di passaggio verso lo status di adulti. Ponendosi nel dibattito internazionale, si osservano i centri giovanili come spazi di youth work, espressione ormai d’uso comune anche a livello europeo nel tentativo di creare una base professionale condivisa all’interno del variegato universo di chi opera in attività educative al di fuori della scuola. Tenendo conto dei risultati del lavoro svolto in merito dal Consiglio d’Europa e dalla Commissione Europea, il volume offre uno spaccato comparativo con il caso dell’Inghilterra dove gli youth workers sono professionisti provenienti da specifici percorsi formativi e regolamentati da sistemi di accreditamento pubblici.

In the contemporary political and socio-economic context the future of open access youth work remains uncertain. Since the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government came to power in 2010 substantial funding cuts seem to have been coupled with increasing, often misguided expectations for the youth work sector. Emerging from this context are distinctions between youth work in principle, as espoused by contemporary youth policy, and youth work in practice, as experienced by practitioners. This article draws on empirical data to explore these distinctions. Presenting ethnographic material from three years of research with casually paid youth workers, volunteers and young people, the article illustrates some of the contradictions embedded within the Coalition government’s youth policy. In this endeavour the discussion also demonstrates respondents’ commitment to the principles of child centred, open access youth work.

La intención de esta pequeña y breve reflexión es  aproximarse a realidades distintas (Gergen), conciliar multiplicidades, desde la mirada del construccionismo social. Descubrir y contemplar realidades distintas permite distintos planteamientos, multiplicidades que abarcan de manera más completa todos los aspectos alrededor de un proceso o fenómeno, siendo todas ellas válidas y considerando que cada una de ellas deja de lado otras tantas. Hacer visible lo invisible, o encontrar otras miradas, permite recoger nuevas maneras de hacer, permite a las personas tener elementos y espacio para solucionar problemas en su vida y recuperar el control, permite la diferencia como enriquecimiento, respeto y tolerancia, permite poner de relieve las relaciones de poder y su asimetría, permite la justicia social. En palabras de Garbiñe Delgado (s/f): “de manera que la persona que lo lea no sienta necesidad de defender su opinión o postura ante las mismas, posibilitando así que estas ideas generen en ella algún sentido nuevo”. Ése es, ni más ni menos, el sentido de este texto, que fue elaborado por primera vez en el marco de un trabajo de final de curso de introducción al construccionismo social, dentro de la formación para el Certificado Internacional en Prácticas Colaborativas y Dialógicas. (Umans en Red, septiembre 2013).

The unfailing role of the old generation is to advise and orient the youth to avoid taking immature decisions. In this respect, the current paper aims to show how the old generation raises in the youth the interest to stay in their countries and stop the brain drain to the Western countries, which affects the development of the African nations. In effect, the study has been conducted through Tunji Ogundimu's Pensioners and Prisoners where Pa Joshua, the round protagonist has strongly opposed and rejected the inordinate ambition of his son Bola to migrate to USA so as to work and make fortune to reduce the plight of the family. For him there is no better place than home. It is on this way that he invites the youth of his country to stand up for the fight and not give up the fight and face the reality of unemployment and precariousness of living conditions. This paper makes it clear that the youth are immature and inexperienced. As argued here the elders must serve as model that the youth have to consult. Further, the paper has proved that the labour force must stop fleeing the African countries to the Western ones. Eventually, the study has revealed that the passive and active masses have to unite to stop bad governance.

This thesis investigates the relations between the literacy practices used in two community-based organisations and those of the young people in a situation of precarity (aged 16 to 30) who attended their activities in Québec (Canada). These organisations supported them to find work, housing, return to education, improve their social relationships, and integrate in society, which I refer to as social and professional insertion. Drawing on the New Literacy Studies (NLS), in this study literacies are considered as social practices rather than technical skills. The thesis brings together NLS and francophone studies on literacy, and uses terms originating in French and which have no precise equivalents in English. Examples are ‘rapport à l’écrit’ and ‘situation of precarity’.
The methodological approach is ethnographic, critical, and participatory. The study had two phases of data collection. In the first phase, the chosen techniques were participant observation and semi-structured interviews, and the second phase involved participatory workshops.
The findings indicate that the young people had extremely rich and complex literacy practices. The literacy practices used as part of the organisations’ activities and workshops for young people were hybrid; combining school-related, digital and vernacular literacies with practices associated with counselling, work, social relationships, and relations with the state. Some young people whose education got interrupted reconciled themselves with education and school-related literacy through their participation at Le Bercail and L’Envol. With the support of the youth workers, the young people were encouraged to learn by doing, a form of learning that can be identified as apprenticeship.
The literacy practices used in the organisations were not exclusively controlled by the research participants. Some sponsors of literacy (e.g. the state and institutions) were imposing various literacy demands they had to respond to. The youth workers acted as literacy mediators with regards to some of these. Literacy mediation at Le Bercail and L’Envol can be qualified as a form of ‘powerful literacies’ since it can offer an alternative to counter dominant literacies and it can support learning. A new term―literacy intermediates―is suggested to describe the kind of literacy mediation that the youth workers were doing.

It is widely assumed that most Africans reside in rural areas, that African cities make little economic sense and are unusually violent because so many unemployed young men live there, and that urban migrant youth can be drawn back to their former rural homes. This paper challenges all of these assumptions. In the process, it reviews dominant trends in Africa’s rapid urban expansion and examines what life is like for urban youth. I will argue that African cities are underserved and fiercely competitive economic environments that are negatively impacted by neoliberal development policies. Urban youth life tends to take place in worlds that are largely separate from the rest of society. The pressures and dangers facing male and female youth can be extreme, yet at the same time African cities are exceptionally stimulating places that provide opportunities for re-invention for many urban youth. The paper ends with recommendations for addressing the needs of the marginalized majority of Africa’s urban youth more effectively. Its primary focus is urban areas in the region of sub-Saharan Africa.

In this chapter, we address the conditions for creating spaces to foster youth's sense of agency as citizens in a democracy, particularly as youth learn to take on varied community, familial, and economic roles as we describe on our work with youth in a community-based research project of almost five years.

In the contemporary political and socioeconomic context the future of open access youth work remains uncertain. Since the Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition government came to power in 2010 substantial funding cuts seem to have been coupled with increasing, often misguided expectations for the youth work sector. Emerging from this context are distinctions between youth work in principle, as espoused by contemporary youth policy, and youth work in practice, as experienced by practitioners. This article draws on empirical data to explore these distinctions. Presenting ethnographic material from three years of research with casually paid youth workers, volunteers and young people, the article illustrates some of the contradictions embedded within the Coalition government's youth policy. In this endeavour the discussion also demonstrates respondents' commitment to the principles of child centred, open access youth work.

This article is the result of a consultation with one hundred and ten practitioners involved in Christian work with young people in Scotland. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches in the form of questionnaires and interviews, it creates a window onto this area of work undertaken by the Christian Community. Using people's own responses and words, it explores the breadth of purposes, methodologies and approaches found in this field. The resultant findings enable movement beyond the common characterisation and often one-dimensional descriptions of practice that exist which frequently hide the fully textured and nuanced practice found in Christian faith-based (CFB) work. This uncovering aims to avoid these popular stereotypes and creates a more three dimensional, inclusive image: an image enabling workers within the Christian field to define their vocation, while at the same time allowing practitioners from more mainstream youth work to better interpret the work carried out by Churches and Christian organisations which they may encounter.

This article was first published in, A Journal Of Youth Work: Research and Positive Practices in Work with Young People in October 2012, published by The University of Strathclyde and Youthlink Scotland. It is no longer available at its original location

1st Rotaract Global ModelUN edition in 2013 organized by Rotaract Club of Baia Mare TEAM. the audience was delighted to hear the advice, the encouragements and congratulations from our speakers: the Governor of Rotary District 2241- Marian Liviu Mocan, ambassador of the Netherlands to Romania - H.E. Mr. Matthijs van Bonzel, Former Romanian ambassador to Russian Federation - Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, Mayor of Baia Mare - Catalin Chereches, Founder and Director of PatRIR
- Kai Frithjof Brand-Jacobsen, President of Rotary Baia Mare 2005 - Cristian Anghel, President of Rotary Baia Mare - Mircea Mecea

Currently, it appears that Victorian education sectors are uncertain about what to do in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (lgbt) teachers and students. Recent research in Victoria and Australia has reported on issues affecting lgbt teachers and students and found that people who are homosexual, bisexual or transgender within the education sector experience disproportionate levels of discrimination and abuse.

An introduction to basic principles of advocacy, political management and policy impact strategies for local and regional youth workers. Based on a keynote address in Cascais, Portugal, at the kickoff conference for the 2019-20 Erasmus+ pilot project that brought together practitioners from across Europe in a series of workshops on political capacity-building coordinated by the "Jugend für Europa" agency in Bonn.