Learning from the Streets

 

 

The street

the place

to gather

with mask

and queue

and sit awkwardly, together apart.

The place that’s virus safer

than inside,

just.

The place that’s abuse safer

than inside

just.

The place that’s free

than inside,

just.

The place for freedom

to make and shape.

That place

between

the other places.

 

So

stop.

 

Be

in it

longer,

be between,

stand

in the place of

between and

live its moment of tension,

of freedom.

 

Youth worker

in

the

space

not parent or police

constructive creator

not monitor

or divider.

 

Youth worker

in the

space

be between

go between

in between

don’t be safe

be present.

 

(James Ballantyne, 2020)

inspired by the following:

The youthworker takes care to understand how some people adopt this place as an area to flee to, a place of protection, transition and risk taking, as a place of expression and demands, a place of learning and work, of pleasure and suffering ….The youth worker must be sensitive to the culture and way of life of those who they are rubbing shoulders with in this area of ‘the street’  (International guide to the methodology of street work throughout the world, 2008)