Tag: intentions

5 tips for Detached Youthwork, from Street Photography.

On By JamesIn Context, Detached youthwork, Youthwork2 Comments

Over the last few months ive been intentionally out and back on the streets again.

But not as a detached youth worker, instead going out with a camera and learning, slowly the art of street photography.

And I love it.

I love the interaction with people. I love the sense of the in between space. The context. I love what it brings out in me.

I love observing.

I love also how its given me a new way of seeing the world – or should I say, its given me an avenue to develop what I loved so much about doing detached youthwork.

I want to share with you a few themes that are beginning to emerge for me, some of the lessons im learning at the moment, which might be useful for you if you’re out doing street based youthwork.

  • Know your Intention

With a Camera, I have to be sure of why I am there. It would sinister to try and hide what I am doing, it would arouse suspicion. I may be able to say this in a few ways, and I am genuine with folks when I say I am learning, trying new skills. I have had people already ask me if im surveying for film locations..

You are going to be asked why you are there. Whether a street photographer or detached youthorker.

Be confident in what you are doing. If you’re not confident, then ask why.

I liked this video by George Holden explaining this, you might like it too.

For detached youthwork.. know why you are there, and ensure that all of your team are there for the same reason. Its important…

  • Smile and be light

Especially when there’s any confrontation. For me, there is no photo in the world that I could take thats more important than damaging someone else’s day by taking a photo that they didn’t want me to do so. It’s important to be a good human. To look as though I am enjoying myself, smiling and having fun. Im one of the performers on the street as the stage. Today I was asked by some security guards about my photos, they have every right to ask, they are doing their role in the streets too.

Also, Smile and give feedback, ive told people that they make a nice photo, and thank them. Most people so far enjoy this.

I can look back and realise quite how much I wasn’t in a smiling place during much of my detached work…. it was a job, it was a profession, it meant a lot to me, and it was an escape.. not the best I know.. Im so enjoying smiling and interacting with people in this way.

  • Mindfulness.

Yup. I have noticed that when I make judgements of situations with a camera I am less ‘in the moment’ to take a photo – my mind has made up stories of situations. A classic example was a few weeks ago, there was a black gospel choir singing – and a white man preaching in Newcastle. My mind had gone to all sort of places in terms of making judgements on this in terms of power and race. Some or none might be valid, but all took me away from my actual intention, and away from being present.

The street, and people are what they are. It is a place full of colour, activity, noise, drama, unpredictability, and none of it needs to be judged, it can be enjoyed.

Im reminded of how easy it was to ‘make up stories’ about groups of young people on the streets – what they might be doing, activities, previous experiences, and not be able to stay in the present, in the moment. Mindfulness. The present is the important place. Thats where the interaction happens.

  • Bursts may be better than Exhaustion.

Ive found that I can walk and take photos for hours without realising it, I used to walk the streets around a city doing detached youthwork for 2-3 hours without a break. What im finding is that im more concentrated and present in shorter bursts, so grabbing a coffee or a break helps. Often in a city I seem to naturally find a space away from people for a while, today I found Manors railway station and took some photos there for a while, a few weeks ago in Whitby I walked down the harbour, away from the crowds for an hour. Leaving to come back can give fresh eyes. refocus the mind.

  • The Context plays a Part.

Today I practiced taking photos with the context in the frame. A lamppost, bin, bollard, edge of building, railing, as part of the frame and photo, giving the context a part in the photo. I talked about context a lot previously – do look up those pieces on the categories tab. The day of the Kings coronation brought some crowds to Newcastle , on a bank holiday the tourist were in force in Whitby… these all shape the context – and the streets, city, suburb, rural all have a different effect on communities of young people.

Just a short piece, on What im learning from the Streets… as a street photographer, and how this might be useful in detached youthwork too. There is probably a few more other things too.

What if churches signed up to be ‘Young people Friendly’?

On By JamesIn Discipleship, Mission, Youth ministry, Youthwork managementLeave a comment

Fresh from my last post on the 16 statements of intent from IDYW (please give it a look) to re-imagine a new youthwork provision for young people in the UK, it crossed my mind that there might be a necessity for churches to have or create a similar statement of intent for its involvement with young people. Call it a charter or statement of purpose, or a set of common principles, that help young people to know not only how they might be treated, but also what might be expected of and on them. One of the ongoing discussions, both north and south of the border is whether youthworkers themselves should be registered into some kind of professional standard, equivalent to the kind that teachers and doctors do. I wonder whether, instead of the person of the youthworker, if the faith sector adopts it, being registered, that the settings or churches which are in reality individual organisations should be encouraged to make some kind of pledge, or commitment that begins a process of culture change within them, rather than have the youthworker be responsible for being the catalyst of that change.

So, there are many charters, red kites and certificates, but I am yet to find one that doesnt instill confidence in the viewer of it, whether its the hygiene certificate at the restaurant or the first aid registered persons on the wall of the church kitchen. There, at least is something of confidence that is created when persons or an organisations signs up to something. It gives credibility, to a point. The same could be of a church or organisation that goes out of its way to sign up to a pledge, a charter for young people. It shows that an organisation is for young people as a whole. A statement of intent to be a young person friendly? Image result for youth charter

It might mean that parents, or young people themselves have that same confidence, either of a group of volunteers or ‘paid’ group of people who are facilitating the youth provision, confidence in being treated well, confidence in being listened to. Confidence too in terms of safety. Interestingly, that ‘base’ line has often been met, as a reaction to culture and controversy, the base line of ‘safety’ in terms of policies, disclosure (DBS) checks and risk assessments is usually the first on the ‘basic’ list of any youth provision. So that is why I think its should just be lumped together in ‘safety policies’ – there needs to be space in the 10 points in the charter for other, maybe more productive, positive aspects of what a young person might want to expect from a church or faith organisation.

If a church is really keen and committed to developing a welcoming culture for young people- then there wouldnt be any reason not to publicise a commitment to do these things.

So- What might be in such a Youth Charter for churches or faith organisations? I am sure many of you will be able to articulate these things better than me, and add or want to change things, but as a start- what about a commitment to do these things? Importantly – how might it be worded so that young people themselves are the hearers and readers of it, and they have confidence in the church?

 

  1. We believe that you are made perfect and we will accept you as treasured and part of Gods ongoing plan- and nothing you do will change this.

  2. This Organisation has done everything possible to ensure that the setting and people are safe for you, and we will listen to you if you think that we could do better, or we let you or your friends down.

  3. We want you to be involved in this provision and contribute to it – create it with us, we pledge to give you space to make decisions, lead and for your voice to be heard at all levels of the organisation.

  4. We want this to be a place where you feel at home, where you can make a cup of tea, find a space and be yourself.

  5. Please do not be afraid to ask difficult questions, provoke and challenge us – we want to hear your voice, even if it makes us uncomfortable.

  6. We promise not to make changes to the youth provision without consulting you

  7. It is our dream to help you grow, to be more fully human in the process of exploring faith within this faith community.

  8. We might fail together in trying new challenges together, but we commit to create risks so that we are all challenged in discipleship.

  9. We want to create spaces for you to use your imagination, ideas, and dreams for church, worship and serving the local community

  10.  We believe that you deserve better from churches who have let you, or others in the community down, please accept that we want to do better.

  11. We promise that this is a space where you can talk to anyone about anything.

  12. As an organisation we pledge to use positive language about young people – even young people we dont know yet, and who we want to get to know, you deserve much better than what the media say about you.

It might be that some of these things are a ‘given’- but so should be having a food hygiene certificate in a kitchen. What would happen if churches and faith organisations singed up to something like this kind of 12 point charter, which recognised to young people either in or outside the church that it was committed to creating a young people friendly culture, not just ‘appoint a youthworker’. A church that reimagined its youth provision as part of its whole ministry and organisation, a church that saw young people differently.

Maybe I have taken too many hopeful pills – but what might be the dream for every church that began to work with young people? What might young people like to know as soon as they walked in..?

Relationship building youthwork?

On By JamesIn Detached youthwork, Mission, Theology, YouthworkLeave a comment

Several different conversations over the last few weeks, and a little bit of reading has prompted me to start to think about the purposes of youthwork, no seriously I mean it, what do we do youthwork for? in the grand scheme of things?  what is it that we are trying to affect in the moments that we have with young people, young adults.. people in fact?

Kevin Vanhoozer in the Drama of Doctrine discusses that we are in the midst of a redemptive drama, in which to be a participant it to be participating in the pursuit of human flourishing – “Following Jesus way promotes human flourishing (shalom) and leads to the summum bonum; life, eternal and abundant” he goes on to say, “Christian theology (and i would add the mission of God)  seeks to continue the way of truth and life, not admiring it from afar, but by following and embodying it” (Vanhoozer 2005)

Should youthwork pursue a Human flourishing intention? we may already think so but if so, does this lead to other questions like:

What might human happiness/contentment involve? what might it mean to be distinctively human? what constitutes flourishing?

And so, what would it mean, after all, its not that the John 10:10 (life and all its fullness) verse isnt often a mantra for the youthworker, but what would it actually mean for youthwork to have within it a sense that its greater purpose is for Human flourishing?

Of course, there are facets to what would be perceived as Human Flourishing, but what if every encounter we had with a young person was for their sake, their growth, their moment of change, an awakening of new perception to be someone different- what would it mean to (as a youthworker) enable  a young person as a social being to flourish in the relationships they already have? with parents, schools, and others.

Maybe theres something there too: back in 1969: The much overlooked community based christian youthworkers, Goetschius & Tash wrote this:

“The role of the worker, and the agency, is that of an outside resource person who helps to create a situation in which learning can take place, and who can pass on skills and help them to take effect in the life and work of those who are learning to use them. This kind of social education can take place in any circumstances, at any time….In all the examples the common factor is the attempt to help individuals, groups and social institutions understand, accept or reject, use and affect, their social environment.”(Goetschius 1969: 184-5, taken from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/george_goetschius.htm)

Whilst the times may have changed, yet young people, and us all are involved in many ways and exist as social beings in communities, a variety of, many of which are transitory, set by geography etc etc -yet we are generally inherently social, both phychologically and theologically.

At the same time, if our role is to be a resource to enable, endorse, encourage the possibility that the relationships that a young person has socially are changed for the better. How is the youthworker helping flourishing to occur in the existing relationships that a young person has – the ones between themselves and their parents ( who after all are still the biggest influence and go to for a YP- despite narrative fears to the contrary), or the school teacher, or the church leader. Its not as Goetschius and Tash would argue to replace the existing, but to be a mirror to allow reflection of, or a facilitator, or sign poster to those existing things, and allow these to be more flourished, positive, constructive…

How often have we as a youthworker stood in the gap between the young person and the establishment ( be it school, parents, church etc), and tried to endorse our position by keeping that link far too integral? Have we over emphasised the position of youthworker, for our own ego’s sake? and got in the way?

Recent criticism in USA has focussed on the place of the youth ministry who has effectively put their ministry/activities/support as an accepted substitute for the parents of the young people. Instead of chatting with mum or dad, they ring the youth leader… tension in the home caused by the youth leaders high influence, or desire to have the young people attend their groups, and endorse their ministry… is this a healthy thing? The ministry of the youthworker vs the family life perhaps… maybe a criticism too far… but a sobering thought…

Yet, even outside of the US, i am left with the question and convicted by the thought that if the overall purpose of youthwork is for Human flourishing, surely then the youthworker/minister should one one hand be aware of their own transitory influence, and  also be encouraging , endorsing and restoring the existing relationships that a young person has with family, with friends with the community. Healing those and facilitating community might be better for Human flourishing, rather than the youth worker becoming dangerously co dependent, for the sake of their own work or ministry.

I wonder – when will it be from the pulpit, the conference or the book that a youthworker would identify that they have helped in the flourishing of the social relationships of a young person, that helped with other factors, such as resilience, cohesion and confidence, and have improved family life, or hours of time in the school, rather than how many young people attended our events, or groups or projects. Is that because we don’t see the family as valid? or the young person as anything other than ‘ours’ in ‘our’ ministry. what have we given to enable flourishing, not what have they become to us?

How many less hours do young people spend because we need them to attend our groups, events and if they attend church – even then do they spend it with parents, is this still a separate thing? for whats sake? – how much ‘seperation’ of child/young person with parents is a good thing at all?  How much time is spent by families participating in the church life together?

With the intention of developing Human flourishing, and promoting human flourishing in the lives of young people, how might restoration and reconciliation be integral tools- or just we become less of in some situations, so that young people spend more time in family- and have to work out conflict, tension and feelings, and also given the tools so that families enable spiritual/faith development of the young person…

To do something good amongst families in our communities- is that not about Human flourishing in a communal way? Is this about following the way of abundance and building kingdom?  I imagine, that there are other factors in the way of Human flourishing for youth and community work- ie what of emotional, or spiritual flourishing, or does human flourishing negate this distinction/separation,  yet being ‘relationally’ minded – might cause us to consider how we support existing relationships in the communities we are called to serve.