Youth Work - Theory & Practice

Youth Work is not accidental. It is planned, structured, monitored and evaluated. It has a history, it is constantly changing and adapting to new realities. The world we live in now is very different, though connected, to the world of 50, 25, 10 years ago. Youth workers have the challenge of ensuring their practice meets the emerging needs of young people affected by changing society.

The following are some of the dominant models taught in Youth Work Studies in Ireland.

1.       Character Building – This was probably the foundation of youth work which came from the church groups like YMCA and around the same time, Scouts. That there was a moral obligation on those with education in society to help form the character of Young People. As Young People, especially men, moved from country to city during industrial revolution, they needed something to do other than drink and covort.

2.       Personal Development – Realising that Young People are individuals and need to have their needs met, a move from only building the character of the person, which was coming from the institutions of the day, to working with them to realize their potential. Which is different for each person, this model is still a dominant practice today.

3.       Critical Social Education – Young People are not, or at least should not, be mindless consumers who do what they are told and are seen but not heard. To encourage an independent mentality, I’ll break down the three words in my understanding. Critical = Thinking for themselves,  Social = Pro society & Community but carrying and asking questions about how it operates, Education = The first time Youth Work is seen as an Educational Process and not just a ‘Keep them off the streets’ facility.

4.       Radical Social Change – Where does power lay in society and how is it used? Does everyone benefit equally from the system we live in? What needs to change and how? This model of Youth Work is based on the belief that sections of society are deliberately oppressed to maintain a status quo and this is wrong. It promotes change in the way our systems operate to reflect a more fair distribution of resources.

In Ireland Youth Work Organisations are engaging with the National Quality Standards Framework (NQSF) and are having to articulate just how they carry out their work. It is imperative that youth workers are able to explain to people who may never have taken part in youth work activities, just what it is that they do. These models are a good starting point. To read about one organisation in Dublin and how they identify with the models click here http://www.thebase.ie/whatwedo/yth_workmodel.htm

To read more on the NQSF, see here http://www.dcya.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/Publications/NQSF_Summary_ENGLISH_270710.pdf

Fiscal Compact Referendum

I am starting to understand how the economics of this referendum are quite different to the politics of it.

I agree that our state should be keeping its debt to GDP ratio as low as possible, I'm bemused that we need to change our constitution to do it and enter into an agreement to be fined by the European Court of Justice should we fail to do it. Can't we manage our own home?

My reservations about a Yes vote, which I think will be the result, are compounded by what I have been reading and listening to, including the following:

Only 4 countries have so far ratified the treaty. I'm led to believe that there is a meeting of EU ministers in June, at which, changes may be made to the compact as it currently stands. We will have already ratified it.

Signing up to the Fiscal Pact does not guarantee bailout funds. Any other signatory to it can block an attempt to borrow from it.

We are still paying bondholders who invested in banks, lost in their gamble but get paid back anyway. On Monday 28th May, AIB paid out 2.25 Billion. In my opinion, it's not their cash to splash, we own them and shouldn't be rewarding bad gambles. As long as we are willing to pay back the failed investors, we will always need bailouts. I'm told not paying them will mean they won't invest in Ireland again. I say that unless we allow investors to fail they will continue to make bad investments and corrupt capitalism, as Freedman intends it.

This international agreement is here to stay, should we decided in the future that it's not in our interest to be in it, we can't get out of it.

We are being asked to do something (reduce debt to gdp @ maximum of 0.5% ) which is something we havent been able to do in the past. Since 1980 its averaged at 4%. So when the NO side says it is leading to more austerity, I can see why.

Yes, the question still remains, what's the alternative? We vote yes, we will need a bailout. We vote NO we will need a bailout. Maybe we should learn Chinese?

A Paddys Pondering on Poland

The train stopped with a jolt and one of my companions made an observation between the style of the train driver and the car drivers we’d previously experienced. We sat in the cabin of six seats and never thought about why we were stopped for longer than a few minutes. Stuck in our books and immersed in the world of another. The present is lived by me but belongs to someone else.

Two men are walking the track outside the window. An inspector marches past our cabin, in his oration to anybody who could listen as fast as he walked I only understand the word ‘Police’. I’m outside the cabin now, straining to reach above the lowered window for a good view of what’s happening outside, the men on the track are to my right, to my left three women in their twenties begin walking in the same direction.
Cabin doors slide open and more people emerge to look outside, they begin talking in Polish and we are told that the train will be here for at least three hours. There has been a suicide on the track.

People’s reactions differ. A man in our cabin thinks about his flight leaving at 7pm. Another wells with tears. More people on the track, myself included. I can see medics in a huddle, 300 metres behind the train. The inspector marches the tracks yelling that the line we’re standing on is still active, all but those who chose to walk to the next station board the train and await further instruction.

Torun

This is the Poland I want to see. Warsaw is fine, it’s a city with noise, cars, trams, offices and history, But Torun is culture, history, crumbling, red and beautiful. The old town is small, each street has a story, an eclectic mix of old and new. The astronomer Copernicus is without doubt the biggest attraction. I chuckle as I read the plaques on the walls of two houses claiming to be his birth place, probably. Visit the museum, his family home. Ginger bread comes from here, one story says that a housewife making her daily bread consumed a little too much tipple and added honey instead of something else, the result was ginger bread, but don’t expect it to look or taste like what you might know as such.

Continue walking to find the Spanish Donkey, a bronzed sculpture saddled by a two inch high metal strip running the length of the spine. This was the punishment for soldiers who refused to follow orders. Sat on the then wooden donkey with weights attached to their legs to ensure an excruciating medieval wedgy.

The Vistula River flows fast and wide. The promenade entices couples to walk its banks and into the sunset. Rowers power upstream, café boats await your custom overlooked by the city gates.

It’s believed that over 1500 Irish football fans intend to set up base in Torun during the UEFA championship 2012. The weather will be warm, the terraces in full swing and the Pivo on tap. You’re only a few hours train journey to Irelands match venues and you won’t suffer the wallet lashings being prepared in the bigger cities. You won’t be disappointed with your choice of home base. 

Warsaw
My second trip to Warsaw, last time with snow, this time without. It’s an interesting city, over 85% was destroyed in the bombings of WWII. The only surviving buildings being those used by the Gestapo. The history of freedom fighting is honoured in the Warsaw Uprising Museum, the best museum in the capital city. Take a virtual flight over the post war city, the destruction will astound you. Filmed by pilots in Allied planes you will recognise the river, that is all.
The ‘Old Town’ is beautiful. Dominated by the Palace and the square that will try to convince you you’re in Brussels, until you experience it. A tour of the Palace is a good choice as you step back into the Kingdom of Poland, represented by the crown on the head of the Eagle, Polands national crest. The coffee shops and restaurants wait patiently for the summer to arrive and with it, the thousands of visitors and locals alike who come to enjoy the pleasures of these surroundings.

The entire old town, including the Palace have been rebuilt from the rubble left behind by Nazi occupation. Constructed between the 50’s to 80’s from paintings and drawings housed in the libraries of Dresden, you won’t know that you are older than the current buildiongs until you read about it. The reconstruction is immense and the attention to detail a triumph. Citizens of the city began reconstruction of the Palace without the consent of the Communist regime who aspired to achieve the Socialist Realism which in no way, includes a palace, a symbol of the kingdom and freedom of old Poland.

I enjoyed my five days in Poland. I will visit again. Krakow & Gdansk are on the list, but I will wait until after the football and the peak season so that I can really enjoy the hidden beauties this country has to offer. 

Peace

Alan

Influential People

It occured to me today that Influence is a curious thing. I don't quite know why it didnt occur to me before with such clarity. I have dwelled a little on the influence others have had on my life, but never focussing on the negatives. A fortunate thing I suppose, because what use are they to me?
The TIME 100 most influential people poll is open for another week, closing April 6th (View Full List Here). It's the first time I paid any attention to who was in it. I admit to being a poor reader and rarely make the time to sit with magazines or other literature beyond what appears on the Twitter timeline (@jeditraining). but when I saw the list of candidates it hit like a brick, a relatively small one, more like a stone, but it did hit me that these are a right mix of people.
Considering the impact that some of these people have, for good or bad, it challenges me to accept the reality that Influence is not always the positives that I have been focussing on.

One person who caight my eye was John Prendergast. He works for the Enough! Project; focussing on conflict in Congo, Africa. I came across a short video a couple of years ago and I use it frequently in my Global Justice in Youth Work course to begin a conversation around the impact of peoples purchasing power on other peoples lives. You can watch it here if you're interested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF-sJgcoY20 
I like the video because it is short and to the point. If you have watched the KONY 2012 video you might also remember him as he makes a brief appearance. I compare him to lets say, Daniel Craig whom you might know better as James Bond with a 6 pack tummy. No doubting he has influence, but is in the same paradigm as John Prengergast? What about Kim Jong Un, the new beloved leader of North Korea? Yes he's there too and yes he is influential. I recal a photo I saw in the international media the other day of Obama (also on the list) viewing North Korea through binoculers from the deminlitarised zone, I would say that if you can make the USA take notice of you, there is a big enough reason for that.
You have the link, so if you'd like to vote, click away.

Influence on a personal scale. Today I make the journey to Kilcranny House, a small peace centre in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. A man I know, respect and deeply admire passed away early this month, his name is Conn Mulvenna. I know Conn since his time as a facilitator on the Glencree Youth Group back in the late 90's. My first immersion into peace work and International youth work. It would be years after that myself and Conn would meet again, in Glencree while I was facilitating similar programmes to those he inadvertantly got me addicted to. Conn never set out to influence the direction my life would take, or at least he never told me so :-) and I am sure that he never realised the impact he had on other peoples lives as he did what he loved to do, create spaces for people to meet. Conn is one of the reasons that I am now doing what I do, training youth workers. Indeed, the day I got the phone call from the National Youth Council of Ireland to inform me that I was being offered the job as Development Education Trainer, I was in a car on the way down the mountain after spending an overnight residential in the company of 15 teenagers, another facilitator and Conn Mulvenna. There is no coincidence for me that the offer came while I was surrounded by a place and its people who gave so much to me in terms of my development as a person.

I miss you Conn and I honour you as a being through my lifes work. Thank you for everything you gave me, and others.

Peace
Alan

We didn't have the 'Green Thing' back in our day.

I received a joke email recently that made me think about the origins of certain things. Just like my recent visit to Haiti, a local guide told me how the history books talk about Columbus 'Discovering' the Americas. Only what did he discover when he landed there? People, who had been there for hundreds maybe thousands of years already.
So when i got this email it made me think about the 'Green Thing' and whether or not it belongs to one generation over another?
Take a read for yourself.  and if you really feel like it, leave a comment or question and see where the discussion takes us?

The Green Thing

I was at the Check-out in the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days, old habits die hard" I said. The cashier responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation didn’t care enough to save our environment for future generations".

It’s strange because back then, we returned milk bottles, plastic bottles and glass bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the factory to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator or lift in every store and office building. We walked to the shops and didn't climb into a fuel guzzling machine every time we had to go down the road. But she was right, We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away kind made out of plastics. We dried clothes on a washing line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning electricity that comes from coal, peat, oil & gas -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.

Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing brought in from all over the world. We ate fruits that were in season, not food that had to be flown half way round the world just so I could have an Orange in January. But that young lady is right. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen big enough for all the family to see, not a screen the size of the wall. In the kitchen, we blended & stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post, we used crumpled up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the grass. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to join a health club where you run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right. We didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank water from a tap when we were thirsty instead of buying a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus, and kids cycled their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their parents into a 24-hour taxi service. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza.

So I wonder, who is it that doesn’t have the ‘Green Thing’?

The Occupy Movement - Beginning or End?

They can end the camp, but can they end the movement? - I have been turning up to the Occupy Dame Street (ODS) site for the past 4 weeks, I'm curious about what it is, what it can be and also what it shouldn't be.

I went to the #ODS site at first because I wanted to see who was there, what it was like and what people were doing. I was taking some pictures of the posters and signs posted around the camp. I wanted to get closer to a sign that was "inside the camp" and I asked a man who looked like he was "in charge" of something and what followed was an awkward silence, stare, look and comment of "Yeah sure".

Might seem insignificant but this for me is the nature of the occupy movement. one that invites those who are interested enough to turn up and be "in charge" of whatever they feel compelled to take charge of.

So, last week, myself and some friends decided to offer a series of reflective conversations on the movement. We adapted the method of The World Cafe to provide an opportunity for anybody who felt the need to discuss the movement and not the camp, to do so.

I make a distinction between the camp and the movement because to me, they are seperate and not wholly interdependent. The camp would not be allowed without the movement but the movement can exist without the camp. I don't ignore the fact that the movement in ODS will suffer if the camp is removed. The campers at the site provide a focal point and a constant visual reminder to the passerby that the movement is alive in Dublin. Unfortunately it seems that the construction of the kitchen at the ODS site is now the fuel on the fire that was needed to deconstruct the camp. It is expected, as reported in todays media that the Central bank of Ireland will seek an injunction from the courts in the morning to deconstruct the camp, or at least the kitchen construction. The possibility that Dublin City Council will seek an injunction is also very possible.
Unfortunate that the safest place in Dublin once the night owls begin to crawl is the ODS camp, it's drug and alcohol free and open to conversation rather than confrontation.

I don't know who decided to construct the kitchen, I don't remember reading it in the minutes of the General Assemblies or hearing anybody talking about it until construction began last Thursday. I hope the deconstruction of the camp does not go ahead because, as I said, it provides a valuable focal point for Joe Soap on the street. But I believe that if it does get pulled down and the campers removed the movement is bigger than the camp and will be forced to reinvent itself.

Whatever people think of the camp, the campers, the occupation and its supporters, I am happy to have played a part in a non violent protest, in a way that I felt I could offer something of my skills. This is a movement of many things, the ending of capitalism is not one of my goals, changing the way we run the systems we already have is one of my goals.

I hope the camp will remain after the court action tomorrow, but if it does not, I look forward to contributing further to the movement in Ireland, which for me, is fundamentally about providing space for authentic discussion on the issues that people care the most about.

I think it's important to raise the issue of rights.  Under the Irish constitution, we have the right to public assembly and peaceful demonstration once we do not corrupt the morals of society. If the morals of society are to support the speculators to gamble, lose, gamble, lose and still come out winning, then the ODS is illegal. But it is not, it represents the views of hundreds of thousands or I speculate further and say Millions of people in Ireland who want a more transparent system, more honesty and integrity, less greed and open, direct and authentic dialogue about our current National and Global situation.

Peace
Alan

Occupy Dame Street

Saturday of the Halloween bank holiday and I was outside the central bank of Ireland on Dame St. I arrived as the protest that had begun from Gardens of rememberence turned the corner onto Dame street. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruCweuvYlAk&feature=feedu

As I was watching, a few guys in their mid 20's passed by and in an attempt to mock the camp shouted "Free the Whales" to the response of another quick witted Dubliner who was a part of the protest "No lads, the whales are already free, it's SAVE THE WHALES" to which the originators laughed out loud and carried on their way, hopefully to return again.

The reason I use this exchange as the opening to this entry is that I see a need for every person who passes the Occupy Dame Street Movement to have the chance to learn as much as they want about the movement in a way that suits them. It is not everybodys cup of tea to take the microphone and speak to the assembled public, nor is it appealing to some to stop and ask somebody to tell them what's happening (Especially when there are no apparent leaders around).

As I approached the area being used for the general assembly there was a man with a megaphone chanting "No Political Banners...No Political Banners" and urging the crowd to point at the 3 men holding a banner belonging to a campaign. These people looked just like the people on the march... Oh wait, it was them. They are the 99%. Just like me, like you, like the man with the megaphone. But if we are all the 99% why are we doing things differently? Why can't I express my opinions in a way that I want, such as a banner? (I know why, but i still think that asking the question is a fundamental responsibility of a host). This was followed by a conversation between several of the gathered public, the 3 men and their supporters and the people in yellow jackets. I turned to my companion and expressed my delight at the apparent chaos that surrounded me.

But was this really chaos? Because there were people living here and people passing through, some of whom knew what was happening around them and some who had no idea, they just stumbled upon a group of people making noise on a holiday weekend. There was a general assembley, a PA system, a food tent for the campers and generators surrounded by fire extinguishers. If I didn't know better I'd say somebody had organised this whole thing...

I had a fantastic 3 hour conversation with one of the people who had facilitated some conversations at the camp and another 2 friends/colleagues of mine. We explored the reality of life in the camp and the movement, the moods, the politics, the fears, the visions, the confusion, the conversations, the order, the chaos, the order, the chaos, the order, the chaos...

I drew on a piece of paper what I had learned at the few Art of Hosting trainings I attended and co-hosted. The Chaordic path. We could clearly see how the Occupy Dame Street movement was floating between the circles and for some people it was in the sweet spot, for some it was out in chaos alone and others there was apathy because of there was not enough order for them.

I am very clear how the practices of the Art of Hosting can serve to strenghten the Occupy Movement and I plan to make some offerings of facilitation using these methods. The freedom that I feel now, having had such a great conversation, an authentic conversation between 4 people yesterday is leaving me inspired and with a clear vision of how I can contribute to the Occupy movement. I don't need to camp out, I don't need to march, I don't need to make a banner.

If I was a baker I would bring bread. I am not a baker and the skills I bring are those of facilitation.

So, off to Belfast I go. Tomorrow I'm back in Dublin for a meeting with the Occupy facilitators group to prepesent some ideas and explore collaboration. Watch this space...