When Bruce invited me to write an article for Fighting Knife Crime UK I thought it would be a good opportunity to review and reflect on the values that Youth Futures has been operating with successfully for the past 10 years in Camberwell South London.
Our grass roots youth work organisation is based in one of the most challenging estates in London. Over the years we have had to deal with violence, complex local political and bureaucratic challenges, gangs and entrenched resentment towards formal institutions from the young people we work with. We hold a space where up to 120 young people from surrounding communities would come down each week, have fun, gain support and any issues would be able to be worked through before they spiralled. Due to funding cuts our service is currently hanging by a thread.
We have been building our youth work model over this period and find that each of the following themes are critical. They not only encourage youth participation but go a lot further to enabling us to build effective support relationships with the young people we work with. Once we have strong, trusting and authentic relationships with the young people we can then collaborate with them in sourcing the self-esteem, vision and confidence they need to grow into the person they aspire to be.
Youth Led:
This is probably the most important dynamic in our work. It involves recognising that the young people we work with are the experts when it comes to what they need and what will serve them best in their development. It involves sitting down and having conversations with the young people , getting behind their ideas and blowing wind in their sails. We also invite them to decision-making meetings and give them meaningful voting rights and opportunities to meet stake-holders and ultimately take on authoritative positions in the organisation such as trusteeship. They should be the ones who design and inform their youth service.
Interdependence - Ubuntu:
The youth worker works with the resources available to them including family, friends and community to help them move towards interdependent living. When we first start working with a young person in crisis they will likely be quite dependent on us, various institutions and others. We work with them shoulder to shoulder until they achieve independence which means they have their own positive momentum, motivated by positive goals, and capacity to move forward without systematic institutional support. The third step is interdependence which the young person achieves when they recognise the interdependence of all of us and how when they offer support and are of service to others it actually serves them as well.
Consistency, commitment and contact:
All of our staff and volunteers are asked for a minimum of a 6-month commitment to working with the organisation and most stay for much longer than this. This enables deeper, more trusting relationships to form between the young people and their staff. As we never know when an urgent need will arise for a young person we want to be contactable by them whenever they need us.
Creating a safe and nurturing family environment:
Acting as a second family and creating a caring environment for vulnerable young people creates safe and nurturing environments that can have a profound impact on healing a troubled young person’s mind. Just one effective trusting relationship can be transformative for a young person. We do this by coming together for shared meals and practising compassion and care with one another. A sense of a second family emerges naturally when the young people are related to with compassion and empathy which we encourage in our youth workers. We also have lots of fun activities where positive relationships can flourish.
Personal development:
Our staff use personal development tools and coaching and mentoring models to support young people. We help young people identify where they are at in different areas of their lives such as health, relationships and education etc. We then explore where they want to get to in these different areas of their lives and what specific actions they want to take to move themselves forward. Through this process of self-determination, we often find that the young people we work with have self-esteem and confidence issues which can prevent them from moving forward. Once these are explored and talked through, we find that the young people have more focus, clarity and energy to move forward in their goals.
Early intervention and prevention:
We build strong and honest relationships with young people which enables us to identify negative influences that together we can respond effectively to before they become worse. Almost everyone who ends up in prison started by making a small mistake. If they had had a different conversation or had a different set of relationships at the point of that destructive decision it is quite likely a different decision would have been made.
Restorative approach:
When a young person we are working with does something which has a negative or destructive impact we hold them to account. We first ensure that the young person understands what happened and the impact of their behaviour. We then move to place of reconciliation and restoring of relationships and impact. This may involve an apology and potentially reparations depending on the situation.
Authenticity and empathy:
We encourage our youth workers to see themselves as equal human beings with the young people we work with and to relate to the young people in a genuine and honest way. We recognise that we have as much to learn through being in relationship with the young person as they may have to gain from us. Being able to relate to the young people like this means that empathy comes a lot more easily and with empathy comes trust and with trust comes supportability. This then provides the foundation for developing interdependence as mentioned above.
Holistic approach:
The young people we support usually have a range of complex needs that we respond to holistically. We therefore do not only focus on one aspect with our young people such as employment or health but work with the young person and their challenges whilst considering the constellation of other factors that are at play in their lives. This gives our staff the flexibility to respond to the young person’s needs as they arise rather than demand a particular focus.
Citizenship and Leadership:
We encourage young people to step into positions of responsibility and leadership in their community so that they can increase their self-confidence and communication skills and their contribution to society. Encouraging them to speak out on issues that affect them, creating platforms for them to speak truth to power and supporting them to make genuine and meaningful change in their communities.
Sense of adventure and fun:
We make our activities deliberately fun and enjoyable and bring a sense of adventure to the young person’s development. Whether through sports, games, trips or otherwise when things are fun and adventure is present young people come to life and the best work is able to be done.
Exposure - getting outside their comfort zone:
We take the young people out of their normal environment and give them opportunities to gain new experiences, skills and perspectives. This may include going on a residential, a trip across town or even a job search day in Central London.
This is not an exhaustive list of the approaches and values that are important when working with young people. They are however stand-out themes which are important to consider when working with young people who are growing up in deprived neighbourhoods. I hope it is helpful and that youth work becomes more accessible and effective over the next few years. The need is immense.
