This week fresh from the residential, we walked straight back into life on the Teviot. On Wednesday night a young person had their face slashed because he is from a different area. Thursday night our normal club was a really fun night and we seemed to continue to develop some more strong relationships with young people, even though overall it was challenging evening. We had a fight in which one boy was really hurt, apparently he was owed ‘some beats’ and we lost half our register because one of the girls likes to cause a scene.

On Monday night we restarted our Spoken Word sessions (to find out what what Spoken Word is click here) we invited the group that did an 8 week Spoken Word course 6 months ago. After working hard to secure money for the artist to come back (Shane) some of them decided they were not  ’on’ Spoken Word any longer, one particular young person that was involved in the original sessions came at the start and started a conversation with the artist running the session.

Sometimes when working with young people day in day out, you can miss the subtle changes (and sometimes the big changes!) – after 2 minutes of conversation with Shane this particular young person walked off, claiming that he no longer wanted to do spoken word (not because of what Shane said – i might add) but just ‘because’. In growing up (and i am sure you can reflect on your own experience) young people face a multitude of new feelings, experience let alone all the chemicals rushing around your system, this is the challenge of working with young people, 6 months can be a lifetime…

I thought that I would also post this video, there are several lines in this poem, that resonate with me about the young people we work with:

We are going on a Residential Trip next week for 3 days. It is very exciting for us as workers as well as for the young people. It is often a golden time to build relationship with young people. Sharing experiences, fears and tribulations together connects people in special ways.

In preparation for this trip, we invited a number of young people to come based on attendance and behaviour at our sessions throughout the last year. We picked the final group and spoke to them. Several of them expressed that they would not come unless we invite one of the young people that has had poor behaviour and poor attendance. Having explained that this would not be fair and is not going to happen they have all decided to abstain from the trip.

This has saddened me. I think these young people are missing out due to misplaced loyalty. If the roles were reversed I have a suspicion they would be dropped in a second. This loyalty is to be admired in so many cases but is often the base of so many issues. Whether it be hiding a knife or lying to parents or police on behalf of a ‘friend’, these feelings are so strong and very real. The other day a young person referred to me as ‘fam’ – short for family. These relationships are more than friendship, they are felt as family. The shared experiences, fears and tribulations build these family ties even stronger. The challenge for the Canaan Project is to work in the midst of these relationships and challenge when appropriate, but also to affirm.

Here is an interesting article dangerous-dogs-as-weapons it has to be said that i think the Guardian is a little slow on the up take this has been a concern for a number of years but was recently brought to my attention again. We have seen a few young people with dogs in the last couple of weeks – last week one 14 year old male was walking his ‘Staff’ whilst we were on detached it was after school, he was still in his school uniform, I wish I would have taken a picture.

I have several concerns with this situation firstly for the dog. Often the dogs are teased and tormented in such a way as to stir them up and make them more agressive. This i am sure all this teasing is tantamount to animal cruelty (I would also like to make it clear I have challenged young people on the treatment of their dogs – whilst hoping and praying they don’t release it on me!). Secondly I have concerns for the people that come in to contact with these dogs, I have also had conversations were young people that have trained there dogs to be aggressive toward certain ethnic groups. I have never personally seen a dog attack but i have seen the potential for it happening, with aggressive dogs, barking and pulling at their chain ready to bite the nearest person! I can also imagine it happening on the street, in other circumstances, like with the knife crime situation, if you carry a dangerous weapon (be it a dog, knife or gun) then you are more likely to use it than if you don’t. We have an informal rule, at our sessions at the Canaan Project…humans only!

Sometimes when working with young people we can jump to the wrong conclusions especially in the cloud of negative media that surrounds them. Potentially it is easier and arguably safer to have lower expectations of the young people we see, but at Canaan Project we try to approach young people with the opposite attitude, that of high expectation. The attitude which says, they can achieve and they have the potential. Sometimes young people rise to the challenge and in the process understand more about themselves and their lives. Take a look at this clip…

Hi people. I’m Fiona and work for the Canaan Project. You can read a bit about me below. James and I have been reflecting this week on the violence between local young people, which seems to be becoming more and more frequent or at least we’re more aware of it. The use of weapons such as knives and even machetes is now common and the age of those using them getting increasingly younger. At least two young people have been seriously injured in the last week alone in separate incidents.

It seems that an event as small as a look or throw away comment can escalate to extreme acts of violence as “justice” is sought through bigger and bigger reactions. The original offence is forgotten and it becomes about maintaining reputation and respect and not being seen to be weak. Status is everything and to be seen as weak is social suicide.

Post codes or areas are also the cause of larger scale, longer-term feuds. The Teviot Estate where we work often finds itself on the frontline of area related disputes as it lies between two areas that have a notorious and long-standing rift. Many of the young people we encounter are afraid to go to other local estates as anyone who isn’t recognised can become a target. One of our young helpers who has never been involved in such disputes himself was recently attacked by some young people from another area that he’d never seen before. It seems that the young peoples search for identity, significance and belonging leads them to develop strong allegiances to the areas that they are from which they will defend at any cost.

Myself and James are left wondering what our role is in the face of such widespread and deeply ingrained issues and cycles. As people that are working for the wholeness of the young people and their communities we must do something…