Last week at the Canaan Younger session on a Monday evening we started up cooking again. It was great fun, two groups of young people (a group of young women lead the way and then a group of young men) got involved and seemed to have a great time. It was lovely to listen to them talking and showing each other what to do. Peer support is such an important aspect of young people lives and the support of good friends and the network you build can really help in later life. Some said they had learnt new skills and developed new understanding from cooking whether that be how to chop an onion to how to cook a burger (as pictured) life skills that we really help, although they will need some variety in their diet, and not too many burgers!

It was also great fun for them to share the work of their hands, with their peers. The boys were at first suspicions of getting involved but after eating all the burgers that the young women had made and deciding that they tasted great and it maybe worth a little bit of hard work to get some more, again a golden life lesson. They all also seemed to have a great time, and having fun is such an important aspect of the work for as a Youth Worker sometimes it is too easy to ‘accredit the fun’ out of the activities that young people are doing, so that activities that once were fun become boring. Here’s to having fun!!

In the de-brief after the session the young volunteer said it was the most hectic session he had ever had, but one of the most enjoyable. Lots of the young people got involved and really got in to it. 2 or 3 of the young people really enjoyed learning about how to take pictures and about lights and shutter times etc etc but most wanted to be in front of the camera striking poses. Sometimes working with young people is hilarious and watching them striking moody poses in front of the camera making sure the light is right to ensure that they get the perfect Facebook profile picture made me chuckle!

This is why we run the Canaan Project. If it were not for the Canaan Project they would not have the opportunity to learn these new skills. But actually, more importantly (we believe), they would not have the opportunity to interact with another member of their local community and learn about what they are interested in and the skills they have developed.

I spoke to two 12 year old boys on Monday of this week from two completely different areas that had not had good relationships with their biological fathers. Subsequently they had both built relationships with step fathers but both said they were ‘sad’ about not seeing or knowing their ‘real’ dad. Both of the young men also have tendencies to push boundaries and try our patience; incidentally their behaviour is actually very different, but equally disruptive. I am NOT saying the fact that they ‘miss’ their biological fathers is a direct cause of their challenging behaviour, but what it did remind me of was that young people face diverse and difficult situations and these have knock on consequences of which we see in our sessions.

Although, as we mentioned in a previous blog, managing challenging behaviour and young people pushing boundaries is an essential part of a youth workers role, it is important to recognise the limits of that role. We are only with young people for short periods each week and actually they are going back to homes or situations that are difficult and that they find challenging. When dealing with behaviour we have to realise the bigger picture the wider context otherwise it is like us trying to put a sticking plaster on a broken leg. Saying all that those 2 hours that they are with us can be the most life changing, informative, inspirational, shaping hours of that young persons life and that is what we are aiming at.

In other news: we are excited to be heading toward the Christmas period which for the Canaan Project means the amazing Christmas Quiz night! This was a real hit last year and we are hoping for a similar reaction this year. We are also doing 2 ‘anti bullying’ workshops, looking at young peoples’ attitudes toward bullying. Exciting times!

He lead a quick quiz (with a prize) to spike interest and then gave an excellent short talk about himself, his job, and how he got to where he has got to, in his organisation. He also talked about the world economic context and all the problems we are currently facing. It was very informative. He followed the talk with another quick quiz (with another  prize!) about what he had been talking about. It was brilliant and as I said last week we do love hearing stories. These stories give young people a place to hang their aspirations – a face to aspire toward.

I found a quote that reminded me of why we believe aspirations are so important:

‘Motivation lasts for a day, inspiration lasts for a lifetime’ Nick Vujicic

We have also split our main Thursday session so on Monday’s from 18:30 – 20:30 we run a youth club session for school years 7,8,9 (ages 11 – 14) and then on a Thursday 19:00 – 21:00 for school year 10 up to the age of 19. We have split them for a range of reasons, one of the main ones being that young people have identified they wanted this themselves. We hope it will enable us to better cater for the different needs and interests of the different age groups and therefore attract more young people.

Voluntary participation, as I have also talked about, is important in this journey and if we offer an opportunity young people they do not have to participate they can voluntarily participate if they so choose. We also want to promote the ‘whole’ development of young people rather working ‘on’ specific aspects, like employment or physical health or education. So part of our role as youth workers is to understand the development and appreciate that development, so a game of football for example is not just about a game of football, but is about the physical health and physical development of young people as they exercise; it is also about working as a team and verbal communication and strategy, so their mental health and wellbeing is being thought about and considered in the football. It is about engagement with each other and peers, so knowing about supporting each other emotional health and development is reflected here, it is about having fun, there are also spiritual elements of understanding of your place in creation and community that young people experience in a team. It might look like football but as a youth worker is much much more, this is some of what it means to work ‘with’ young people rather than ‘on’.

100% of the young people accessing the Canaan Project sessions are there voluntary. They vote with their feet about our sessions!

The trouble is with this is that sometimes you want young people there, because you want them to do something, or take an opportunity that you might have for them, and they don’t turn up! This happened yesterday at Youth Club, 2 young people that were supposed to be helping me with recruiting young people for a session they were running decided not to turn up! We have subsequently had a great conversation about responsibility and as it turns out one young person had a legitimate reason but we had a conversation about communication! This does not take away from the fact that I, (James) was really frustrated on Thursday night!

‘Around 85% of young people’s waking hours are spent outside formal education, yet each year local authorities spend 55 times more on formal education than they do on providing services for young people outside the school day. We disagree with the Government that public spending of around £350 million a year on youth services in England equates to “large slugs of public money”; rather, we congratulate the sector for its long-standing dexterity in making limited resources go a long way and for continuing to support young people despite reliance on a patchwork of different funds.’

Link to the the full report:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmeduc/744/74402.htm#evidence

I was firstly reminded of a quote from Socrates:

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

Sound familiar?! This is not a new problem. It was interesting to hear Camila Batmanghelidjh (here) talking about the effect on young people and their lack of hope and aspiration, something that we have been talking about and tackling at the Canaan Project for a number of years. She felt this could have lead to some young people rioting and looting; this lack of aspiration linked to the fact that some of the main role models in their communities are involved in criminal activities. Only yesterday I was listening to a group of young people talking about the life and situation of a known local drug dealer. Their tone and persuasion was that of praise and admiration. This is very common. I am sure some the questions the young people are asking are, ‘If criminality is paying for him, why can’t it pay for me?’ Equally true of that group, only 1 of the 10 young people were involved in any rioting or looting, the rest were completely disgusted by the events of the past few days.

Swinging my argument wildly round what I firmly believe is that this is a complicated issue. I read this blog written by Penny Read and as part of her reflection on the riots she said:

‘They are not about poor parenting, or youth services being cut, or any of the other snap explanations that media pundits have been trotting out: structural inequalities, as a friend of mine remarked today, are not solved by a few pool tables.’

It is a multi layered situation highlighted by the the BBC and I wish I could say give the Canaan Project and other youth services around the country more money and we will ‘sort this out’. It is not as simple as that. I believe that we (at the Canaan Project) hold part of the solution, through our role as youth workers, helping young people develop aspirations, or training young people to develop skills in confronting conflict, or helping young people reflect on their roles in society as they transition to become interdependent adults, but we have to recognise the limits of that work and acknowledge we play  a small (but significant) role, working together with society to see young people become all they can be, living out fulfilled adult lives.

I took the picture attached to this blog on Thursday 11th August 2011. You may have thought this was strange. This young person has wrapped white gaffer tape around his broken £5 trainers, he can’t afford to replace them. He didn’t loot or riot. Like most of the young people I talked to he was disgusted at the behaviour of those looting. He is part the 99% www.99percent.org.uk.

That’s life for a young person in the digital age!

This is the amazon description of the book: ‘This book is about boyfriends and girlfriends – getting them, keeping them and moving on from them. Young people put enormous energy into these processes: they worry, they hope, they conspire and they cry because, in a sense, having a boyfriend or girlfriend is about much more than just having a boyfriend or girlfriend. Using dozens of recognisable vignettes, Luxmoore movingly describes his work with young people. In particular, he explores the dramatic conflict between young people’s loving and hating as they move from the intimacy of relationships with parents to relationships with boyfriends and girlfriends, frantically negotiating sex and sexuality, the meaning of love, faithfulness and unfaithfulness and many other issues vital to the adults these young people will become. The book will be essential reading for professionals and parents struggling with the ferocity of young people’s feelings where ‘I love you!’ and ‘I hate you!’ are never far apart.’

It reminded me that we are working with young people and as they figure our who they are and what ‘love’ is, and this is sometimes a difficult journey, but the Canaan Project is all about Working ‘with’ young people not ‘on’ young people, our duty is to walk alongside them in this journey.