Last night we had to sit down with the younger youth club and have a conversation about recent behaviour, which has been somewhat challenging! We sat down and discussed what we would wanted the environment to be like in the Youth Club, and some of the differences.

This was a journey that we walked together with the young people, to identify behaviour that they thought was acceptable, which came down to three categories; Respect for other members, respect for the leaders/workers, and respect for the club (physical building) and equipment (the photo above are the notes from the session). We then said what we would offer the young people, so it was a contract between us and them, the young people then decided sanctions for breaking the contact (so often when we do this they are harsh, more harsh than we might be as youth workers).

To be honest we did not have high hopes for the above session and as normal the young people really surprised us and engaged in the process and seemed to listen, unfortunately one of the young people broke the contract with in 5 minutes and ended up getting kicked out of the sanctions. I really believe in these processes because they are encouraging young people to develop and make decisions for themselves part of the development into adulthood, and also these kind of boundaries may only be enforced in the youth club and other times in their lives throughout the week they may have a lack of boundaries.

Youth Work and Community Work are two very closely aligned disciplines, I came to realise this a fresh last week. We were running a detached session, this is when we are on the streets, in the community, I bumped into one of the young people that is too old for the club sessions in the Community Centre but has been a long term member and actually one of the first young people I met on the estate. He actually used to cause me all kinds of head aches, with his antics! We were able to have a great conversation about another young person (one of his friends) about some of the issues that they are going through and some of his concerns for his friend.

It was also interesting how this impacted on the community and it’s other members of the community, including parents and other related adults. Also on the night i spoke to at least 4 members of the wider community about the young people, local community politics and plans for the future, including speak to a local business lady about the possibility of some work experience for young people. Just being there on the street enabled all this community working and networking to happen, all part of the wholistic work of the Canaan Project.

This week and next we are taking loads of young people on trips in and around London. We love taking young people out and about. Oftentimes we are giving young people opportunities that they would not otherwise have. On a trip to an outdoor activities centre on Monday, one of the young women said she really appreciated the opportunity to be out for the day because it was the only opportunity she was going to have all Easter break to leave the house. But this opportunity was way more than her just having the opportunity to leave the house. She was sooooo scared on the High Ropes course and wanted to turn back on several occasions but with encouragement from her peers and the youth worker she began to believe in herself and the ropes and made it further out on to the course than she imagined she could, even crossing the gap in the pictures, rumoured to be the hardest part of the course!

The learning from this experience is huge for this young woman and others like her; that if they persevere they can succeed at what might initially look like impossible or unachievable tasks and achieve what they set their minds to. We expose young people to these experiences because we believe they offer learning for life, impacting future choices that we as youth workers may never witness them make. It is such important work and makes such a difference to young people that often have limited opportunities because of the situation and area they might have been born into. The Canaan Project is about reddressing this imbalance. The pictures above and below are great metaphors for what we are trying to do at the Canaan Project; lending a hand for young people to bridge the gap!

Last night we made Pitta Pizza. We have talked in the past of the importance of food and young people learning new skills in the kitchen. There is also another reason and that we ask young people to make food and that is to help young people create something for nothing. Creation is important. To create something that before did not exist and through your intervention now does exist is so important, it gives the creator a sense of self worth and confidence, in their ability and skill.

This new creation and sense of achievement can be really important for young people to build on, learning that you are able to create even a small thing can give confidence to create larger things, like jobs or qualifications. Creativity is also important for relaxation and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit, and can lead to developing aspirations. Some young people are not very often given the space to develop creative ideas and some of them are really great at it! The Canaan Project exists to give young people space to develop these skills and the safe space to grow in confidence and self esteem through being creative. All that from a piece of unleavened bread!

So last week we made pancakes! Wow that could have been a mistake but it wasn’t after initial doubts one young person lead the way and then we could not stop them! They engaged really well with the activity learning about how to make pancakes and the process of cooking them. But as always as a youth worker it is the activities around the activity that are the most interesting, it was great to hear the conversations happening between young people and volunteers about aspirations, school and studies and family situation to name but a few.

There are was also a great little story, as they were making the pancakes we were encouraging them to flip them one young man said there was no way that he would flip one and that he could not do it. Then I watched as one of volunteers had a quiet word with him and encouraged him and said that he could do it and that he would show him how, then reluctantly he decided to go for it. Stepping back from the cooker he flips it perfectly, then the biggest smile appears and his chest puffs out. Watching young people grow in confidence and self esteem (even over flipping pancakes) is amazing, and these small acts demonstrate to the young person that trying can lead to success and that he is more than capable, from flipping a pancake to becoming the prime minister. Believing in young people is what we do at the Canaan Project.

Last Thursday we had a Sexual Health Session with young men in the Teviot Centre during the main Thursday night session. We invited a visiting professional from the NHS, with experience in Sexual Health Education. It was a great opportunity to have an adult conversation with the young men, in a safe and structured environment. It was particularly great to have an honest conversation as men together, both young people and volunteers, the subject often carries a lot of bravado and sarcastic comment! The young people seemed to engage, ask questions, and have conversations that we have never had before with these young people.

We had an anonymous box in the youth club that they could ask what ever questions they wanted, the questions were answered by the expert, he did have some rules, like not answering personal questions, which was good because the young people seemed to have taken a keen interest in the sexuality and the underwear of the workers!

It was also good to talk about associated emotional issues that go alongside Sexual Health about how they treat young women and interact with young women, i think we would like to come back to some of theses issues and look at their relationships.

I have some better photographs on the way but this is the paper store at the printing press that prints The Daily Mirror amongst other papers. They use all of this (re-cycled) paper in the course of one week!

So this week (half-term) we took some young people to visit The Trinity Mirror Group. This is the group that owns The Daily Mirror newspaper, the 8th largest newspaper in the world, as well as a variety of other media. It was an amazing opportunity for the young people involved. We started in their head office which covers several floors of One Canada Square (Canary Wharf). We had a tour of the offices and saw the news room and all the other elements that make up a national newspaper. Surrounded by incredible views over London, we had presentations from a Senior Staff Reporter, Head of Sales, Head of Product Management, Head of Legal, and Head of Training and Development. They explained their various roles and each told their story of how they had got to their current position. It was great to hear the variety of routes they had taken. Some had been very academically successful whilst some had struggled at school and had learnt through work experience. What they had all shared was an aspiration and the hard work and determination to pursue it.

After lunch we set off for Watford in a minibus, to visit the printing press. We had a guided tour of the vast building, learning about and seeing first hand, how papers are transformed from words and images on a screen through a series of surprisingly and impressively intricate processes to become the paper that we hold in our hands. It was really fascinating. Again the manager that was showing us around told us his story. He had started just working the machines and through hard work had managed to progress to his position of manager.

Listening to peoples’ stories is one of our favourite activities at the Canaan Project because we have found this to be one of the best ways to encourage aspiration; to expand the world of the young people by giving them new experiences and opening them up to new conversations with new people. It was great to hear the conversations between the young people on the way home, truly inspired and looking to develop new career paths with their new understandings and experiences and also their new network of contacts. Watch this space!

It was also interesting to come back to the Teviot and bump into one of the young people that said they would come but never turned up on the morning (for those working with young people you know what I’m talking about!). He was disappointed to miss the opportunity and I was also disappointed for him to have missed such a great opportunity. As is often the way it is those that are too lazy, or oversleep or make no effort or lie that will miss out, but it is the responsibility of the Canaan Project to keep throwing those young people opportunities in the hope that one day they take one and raise their aspirations and become all that they can be, running in to adulthood full of confidence and self esteem.