Social Media, to be feared or embraced?

Many people are now using a Social Media platform of some sort, just under half the population in the UK at 31 million have a Facebook account. There is no denying that young people, who are often labelled as ‘Digital Natives’, are most likely to be using the internet to showcase parts of their lives to peers and wider social networks. Is this something we should fear or embrace?

More importantly, should Youth Workers move their work into digital arenas? When we think about social networking sites (SNS), we often think of Facebook. However, this seems to be an outdated platform that young people have moved on from in favour of Instagram and Snapchat. There are also trending apps which come in and out of fashion and just as we get to know about them, the young audiences have moved on to the next in thing.

I would be surprised to hear of a Youth Worker who does not know of the risks associated with being online and I am not going to discuss this here. I would like to know what prevents Youth Workers from using SNS to engage with young people more, there seems to be so much emphasis on educating young people on internet safety and warning them of the dangers. Am I the only one who thinks that young people are more aware of this than we are? I can only think of a few things that might prevent youth workers from using these platforms more:

Privacy – Are we invading young people’s privacy? I do not think so, if a young person is online and has invited you to join in then it is not an invasion of privacy. I can see that there could be questions around voluntary engagement but I don’t see that there is much difference to a young person engaging in a online project or a face-face one. In fact, they probably have more control as they can choose to let you see and be part of their online world or completely block you from it! I know my view is quite simplistic and of course informed choices maybe in question here as the young people we engage with may not feel like they can ignore you, have a private account and many other factors.

However, for many young people, communicating online is the norm and it is this that I think is the biggest challenge for youth workers. Many of us are clinging on to our views that the old way of youth work is the best but I wonder around the streets and do not see young people often anymore because they are all indoors! Can we effectively communicate online, can we be person-centred and use holistic methods online? I do not know the answer but I do think that we need to be aboard the fast moving digital train if we want to keep youth work alive because it can bring about creativity and open up opportunities for young people. YouTube for example, love it or hate it, has the ability to teach, inspire and change lives and can be used as a positive platform for young people. However, Instagram has been shown to have a negative impact on young people’s wellbeing but how can we tackle this issue if we are not a part of it or do not understand it?

More research is being done on how young people use SNS and the internet but I think there is a missing gap, we need to know where Youth Workers can fit into this and a good framework of using SNS and online projects to work with young people in a way that adheres to our values.

Please let me know of any projects you have online and how they work!

Exploring Self – Youth Activity Sheet

Who am I? How do others see me?

I am sure that most Youth Workers have carried out the activity of writing how you see yourself inside a picture of yourself or unrecognisable figure. Then writing how others perceive you on the outside. I like this activity but on its own it doesn’t seem enough, you need to have a dialogue with the young people, encourage deeper thought and challenge their perceptions and feelings about themselves. You need to be there to support them through the process, I have seen some awful examples of this activity being carried out!

On the outside it looks like a general fluffy activity but actually you are asking a lot of young people, even just thinking about different descriptive words can be a challenge and a lot of issues can arise when they really start thinking about how they feel about themselves or what they think other people think of them. I am quite fed up of having to justify why I think that ‘not just anybody’ can carry out this activity. You need to have a safe space, have a good relationship with the young people and have a safe environment for them to be able to open up. You could be opening a can of worms or you could be challenging their arrogance!

The picture below shows the version I have made and used, which is slightly extended. You are free to use it if you like, the link is below the picture. Let me know how it goes!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Download the activity sheet here About-ME-sheet-activity

I don’t know if these kind of activities would be of interest for people to use, I have plenty more that I can share and may do weekly. All of them will have been tried and tested and where possible will include the users views as well.

WHO IS QUALIFIED?

CAMHS

Slightly more serious topic today as I am studying an MA and in full procrastination mode. Thinking I should do something proactive to justify my reluctance to read anything with big words. Why I  am doing an MA will be a story for another time but today I want to share my thoughts about Youth Work and young peoples mental health.

Most people working with children and young people will be aware of CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service for those of you who do not know). Whatever your experience; positive or negative, we cannot deny that the service is stretched to capacity.

So here is what bugs me. The well know figure that is thrown about that we have all probably seen at some point.

1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem

What do you think about that? There are many campaigns about like ‘Heads Together’ and ‘Time to Talk’ which are excellent BUT they are increasing the need for services that are not there! Why is this bothering me so much? I have a received a phone call from a desperate parent EVERYDAY this week asking (begging!) me to help their child because they have been trying for weeks to get support from CAMHS or the GP. I want to help and we do help as much as we can but we are consistently told that Youth Workers are not qualified to support young people with mental health issues.

I have had Teachers, GP’s and Social Workers advising me not to talk about certain ‘issues’ as I am not qualified but they are, they know best. HOLD ON! Last time I checked, teachers are at breaking point trying to keep grades up, GP’s are mainly prescribing anti-depressants and Social Worker’s priorities are not mental health.

So what am I doing with my person-centred, holistic methods daring to talk to young people about their well-being and LOOKING OUTSIDE of their head? Surely they are allowed to take control of what is going on for them and not just be checked against the DSM-5 for symptoms of conditions that can be diagnosed.

Why can I not encourage and support young people to find their voice to challenge the systems that maybe causing poor well-being? I say I am qualified to support young people with their mental health, not alone but in partnership with the specialists. Sometimes people need a space to ‘just be’ but young people are often not given the opportunities to find out who that person is that they can ‘just be’. I am not looking to ‘cure’. I am hoping to educate, support and empower young people to be able to help themselves and chose what they need. Yes a lot of people do not know what they need until someone gives it to them but that is where the education comes in to broaden options and choice.

Example

I work with young people who have poor well-being or diagnosed mental health conditions daily. I do not want you to think that I do not take this issue seriously but there are just some days that take the biscuit and shows that youth work can save money and time by preventing need for further intervention.

It goes like this. A couple of years ago a young person, aged 15, came to see one of our youth workers. She was a tall lass (she might not be that tall but I am short so everyone towers over me). Her mum had sent her to see us armed with a long list of what she deemed was ‘wrong’ with her teenage daughter. The list went something like this:

1. Hangs out with friends all the time rather than being with family
2. The rest of the time she is in her room
3. Doesn’t get up in the mornings
4. Skips school every now and again
5. Grunts as communication
6. Has been referred to CAMHS by the GP

So my first question was, Why had she come here? What did she think about the list? She thought that she was definitely depressed because she was finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning and is tired all the time.

Look, lets just skip to the end. This young lady was up all night playing on her PS4, drinking energy drinks all day and everything else was NORMAL TEENAGE BEHAVIOUR!! Yet I had to support her to realise this herself but after a few weeks she was miraculously feeling much better. We even helped her to communicate with a few different types of grunts so her family is a bit happier too.

No I am not claiming that we solved her life problems and it is not this easy or simple working with young people who have well-being or mental health issues but that is the point. We spend the time to get to know that individual but also about all the other things affecting them that they could change themselves, with support if they need it. I am tired of having to defend my occupation, I am tired of watching young people not getting the support they need and I am frustrated that I cannot do more.

So I just read through this and realise I have really gone off on a rant. Hey, I could always write a piece using theory and academic content next time to make up for it but it just wouldn’t be as fun………

NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED

What is Youth Work anyway?

I am not going to pretend that I will use this blog to share airy fairy stories. I am fed up of people thinking that Youth Work is a career that anyone can do. Really!? Sometimes I wish it was easy, sometimes I wonder why I am so fond of young people when they can so often be complete self-centred, pain in the backsides!

I have been involved in a range of projects and have even completed the Youth Work Degree (which will probably no longer exist soon) and what is apparent to me is that Youth Workers seem to share a few of the same qualities. Feel free to disagree but this is what I have personally experienced:

• We have often had a challenging upbringing ourselves which drives the passion for working with young people. We probably have negative views about the educational system too
• Youth Workers are often the most passionate about their jobs and will often identify as a Youth Worker, even when they are no longer in the field
• The skills to be a Youth Worker are broad and transferable to a wide range of roles
• We are often ignorant of the wider issues i.e. policy, funding and ask us to measure the impact of Youth Work and we all roll our eyes or imply that is an impossible task
• Youth Workers have a lot of patience and the ability to see the potential in the toughest of young people. Even the ones who call us a C*** for saying “Hello”
• The ones who are desperately fighting for what is left of Youth Work are not trying to cling on to a lost cause. We fill in the gaps, we genuinely provide person-centred support for young people, we care and we need to be getting better at backing up the argument that Youth Work is important!

Let me start with one of the stories I like to share if someone says, “I could do your job”. In all honesty, yes, anyone could call themselves a Youth Worker if they wanted to BUT I fail to understand why they would want to!

Story One – The Shock Factor

It is not unusual for young people to want to try and shock us. I think I am relatively unshockable since being a Youth Worker for ten years but there are still some that manage to get a reaction out of me if they are lucky.

So on a usual night at our weekly youth club, there was a large group of young people attending. It was a warm and light evening and we were milling about playing a consequences to action game. I knew this group very well, they had been coming for about a year and I would like to think that they had gone past the point of trying to shock me after many failed attempts. But of course, there is always one. One young person who takes it as a challenge and will never give up. This is our relationship now, I made a rod for my own back by not shutting down her attempts earlier but instead I thought I would allow her to ‘shock’ me on a couple of occasions and to feign ignorance so she could teach me about the subject she was trying to shock me with. This is it now, no going back.

So back to that evening, I was thinking how well the session is going. Multiple different friendship groups managing to be in the same room as each and maybe even throwing the odd fond insult to each other until I bore them with the appropriateness of their language. Then at the door, there she is. Grinning from ear to ear and a slight mischievous look in her eye. I know that look and I am prepared for anything she has in store for me……….

I start first, “Hello, how are you? How has your day been?” whilst eyeballing her to see what she is up to. She is good at this game, you can never let your guard down whilst she is around! She goes straight in for the kill as her smile fades, “I am really upset, I have just had a row with my boyfriend………..” My guard is down, instantly wanting to console and let her vent what has happened. In the my head I am stamping down the thought that he was no good for her anyway but of course I do not say this, she needs to realise this herself. Ok ok she has every right to be who she wants to be with.

She moves closer to me and asks me to hold something of her boyfriends as she doesn’t know what to do with it. I nearly took it, my fingers were millimetres away before a recoiled in horror at the sight of a cock ring. A used cock ring she delightfully told me, just now, up the road and you could see that.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        This isn’t in my job description, this isn’t in anyone’s job description! I calmly ask her to go wash it and put it away. Why I don’t know, it was all I could think of and I needed a few minutes to think of a tactical plan of action.

I was ready for her on her return, my plan was to bore her to death with discussions around safe sex, the law, STI’s and appropriate times and places to hand people sex aids………

The moral of the story is: Would a teacher hold these kind of open conversations with young people? Maybe she wouldn’t dare do that to them anyway but due to this incident the good but tough outcome was that she disclosed the controlling nature of her relationship with her boyfriend and was supported to do what was right for her. In a safe environment with a person she trusted enough to hand a used cock ring too.

Let me know what you would have done!