We will never stop saying young people need youth work. That’s a mantra that we often repeat at London Youth, where I work as head of programmes. London Youth is a 135-year-old charity on a mission to support the capital’s youth sector to improve the lives of young people. We do this with and through our members – a network of 600 youth organisations – and at our two outdoor residential centres. If young people need youth work, we want to make sure that youth workers are the best they can be. Good youth work works, as we also like to say at London Youth! That’s why Rise Up was born.
Too many young Londoners experience the devastating effects of violence and the emotional and mental trauma that accompanies it. Rise Up is a free leadership training for frontline youth practitioners working with young people vulnerable to violence. Now in its third year, it is funded by the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit and developed and delivered in partnership with Leap Confronting Conflict, Power the Fight, and Clore Social Leadership. Through specialist training, coaching, mentoring and networking, this programme builds skills in leadership and youth work.
Youth clubs are places where young people choose to go, and thus provide a unique opportunity to positively reach and impact young people, through consistent and trusted relationships. When it comes to fighting knife crime and preventing violence in London, we believe that reaching youth practitioners is vital, sustainable and transformational.
We’re really proud that 98% of participants would recommend Rise Up, and that 87% of managers noticed increased confidence in their youth workers taking part in the programme. We also think it’s really important that Rise Up gives youth workers a chance to build their network, and take time out from busy frontline work to focus on their development and share ideas with others. In the spirt of this, I thought I’d bring some Rise Up participants’ voices to this piece.
I first approached Jasmine Kahlia, an acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and youth practitioner. Jasmine has been doing youth work since 2014 with organisations such as Sound Connections, Sadlers Wells, Rich Mix, London Youth and also works in a freelance capacity.
‘From a young age, I’ve always known that I wanted to give back to the young people around me. I’ve been developing my practice within artistic and youth-led spaces, and am passionate about deepening my knowledge, skills and strategies while working with young people and youth organisations.
During the early stages of my career, I realised that I had many personal barriers from my past that I wanted to overcome within myself. To really make an impact as a youth practitioner, there was important progression and reflection I needed to first undertake. Growing up I encountered first-hand experience of crime, youth violence, gender discrimination, bereavement and was around drug misuse. I write about this a lot in my creative work, where re-learning and reframing my journey was difficult but necessary to be able to appropriately support myself and others through my practice.
I often had to detach my own traumas from the work I do, but drawing from experience has also helped me to connect with others who’ve faced similar barriers. I have a childhood friend currently serving a prison sentence, an acquaintance that became involved in heavy drugs and one friend that was killed tragically from knife violence. Dealing with this has been difficult but through a variety of youth training sessions, case study work and in depth, trauma informed courses such as Rise Up, I have been able to take my practice to the next level. I feel confident and empowered to help and inspire others, whilst remaining healthy and safe within myself.
Through my practice I’ve been faced with the inner questions: ‘Do I hide my experiences from my colleagues and service users?’ Or, where appropriate, ‘do I bring examples and life experience into my practice and use it as a catalyst for positive affirming sessions, bringing my insight to guide young people where I can?’
Through the Rise Up course I undertook the work of exploring these questions and seeing things from another light. The many discussions with my cohort and leaders around the issues of grooming, drug misuse and discrimination came up in sessions, which encouraged me to research more with regards to how I could implement my learning into the work I do with my young people. Rise Up created stable spaces that delve deep into the topics of safeguarding, online safety and conflict resolution which were all things that I wish the adults around me were knowledgeable about when I was growing up. These sessions helped me to frame my support work and enhance my practice.
As a youth worker, the most important work begins with self-development and self-progression. Having the responsibility of being a trusted adult to a young person means that I need to gain the tools to be able to positively impact the next generation and to give young people the wisdom, support and correct advice when recognising any negative influences that could lead to life changing consequences or decisions.
It was great to take part in the Rise Up course and I would recommend it for practitioners looking to upskill and connect with other youth workers around the UK and become confident and better leaders.’
I then spoke with Sherine Mccann, who has been involved in the youth sector industry for over twenty years working for Third Sector and various organisations. Sherine does a range of voluntary roles within Brent to support young people with regards to community stop and search monitoring and is on the safer neighbourhood panel. She also works as a school governor and she volunteers for organisations such as Relevant Partners and Revoseccus. She tells me:
‘I applied to the Rise Up programme, as I wanted to become a more equipped youth practitioner, and be able to better support young people around the issues of racism and identity. I wanted to broaden my knowledge with regards to tackling these issues in a positive and safe way. The programme explored the many key issues of mental health and equality and how to confidently challenge colleagues and policy makers in ways that would enable change to benefit the young people I work with and create more uplifting and healthy work environments.
The Rise Up Programme has been a great starting point for me and has complemented my existing skillset and knowledge where I feel assured that the work I do is of great use. The different informative sessions have given me the confidence to start the process of setting up my own organisation, where I support and work with young people to become more empowered in a compassionate, reflective way. I am in the early stages of developing this project, where young people can gain a deeper understanding of self-identity and an awareness of how to keep safe within their communities and online.
I also support police officers in changing their narratives and biases with and around their interactions with young people, especially regarding those who have additional needs. My role is to support police officers with understanding the impact they have when communicating with the public and encourage them to be more aware of the range of complex needs a young person may have. Situations such as negative stop and searches or bad experiences with an officer can cause trauma, resulting in the individual reacting out of fear even when they haven’t done anything wrong.
I feel a lot more equipped in my practices since taking part in the Rise Up course. The programme has signified to me that I have the skills and knowledge to develop, teach and support professionals such as the police and those in the justice system to better understand the impact their interactions have on young people. I am currently training to become a Met facilitator, where I will be delivering training to police officers on how to improve their encounters with young people and how to ensure their behaviour and contact is of a nonviolent nature and more trauma informed.
The Rise Up course motivated me to guide myself and other professionals to support young people and promote positive outcomes around preventing issues such as youth violence as we were taught how to be more aware and open when noticing the signs of impending risks, traumas and conflicts that young people face. The sessions around conflict resolution were led really well and gave me and the cohort a space to learn, discuss and collaborate.’
It's so important to learn more about the day to day experiences of people like Jasmine and Sherine, and all youth workers, because they are the people who are coming into contact with young Londoners and their realities on a day to day basis. It’s only through meaningfully supporting this underfunded yet critically important sector that we will be able to genuinely offer young people a lifeline, reduce and prevent violence, and watch a future generation of Londoners thrive.
.jpeg)
Robbie Cheyne, Head of Programmes, London Youth
