If you have a negative number and you want to make it into a positive one you need to add a larger positive number to do so: -10 needs +11 to make it =1

I wonder if the same applies to other aspects of life. For example if you have a negative image of young people do you need a larger positive image to redress the balance? If so I wonder then on the wisdom of the Barnardo’s Children in Trouble Campaign.

The campaign includes a very well produced film showing hunters hunting down children while narrating comments that adults have apparently actually said about children. They’ve had a brilliant publicity launch - I heard Barnardo’s Chief Executive discussing the campaign on Radio 4 this morning, and even this lowly blog was sent pre-publicity well in advance with links to the survey findings, film and so on.

So a very impressive and well put together campaign - and one with a message I very much agree with. But somehow it doesn’t feel comfortable. Obviously its not designed to make you feel comfortable - you should feel uncomfortable thinking that adults speak so negatively about children and young people, but that’s not the cause of my unease. Instead I wonder whether actually this kind of negativity can reinforce further negative attitudes, hence my maths lesson at the start! -10 + -5 = -15, not good!

A more practical example can be heard in the short Radio 4 interview with children from Birmingham about their reaction to how adults view them having seen the film. You start to get the sense of a battle between children and adults. Undoubtedly there is a battle, and always will be, but how do you best go about bridging the divide - positive activities to bring people together? or hard hitting campaigns showing how bad the other side is?

What I think is really sad about this isn’t that some adults do feel this way (and it is only some if you consider that the 2021 people that took part in the survey accounts for 0.003% of the actual adult population in the UK), but that because of the way the media drives our society a large charity acting in the best interests of children feels the only way they can get good publicity for their cause is to try and shock.

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edit: Thanks to Debbie Long for pointing to this film to redress the balance a little…

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Tags: child rights, prejudice, Society & Issues

I posted up a load of these a year ago but never realised a load more were released a month later. You can see the full list of short animations about the various articles for the UN Rights of the Child here

There’s a simplified version of what the articles are in this post. There’s the odd one I don’t really get (if not for the title!) as the message is a bit vague (like the one with the donkeys!!?!) or its been badly produced, but the majority are brilliant. I’m not sure ‘favourites’ seems appropriate given the topic but here’s a select few that I think are well produced.

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There were some good discussions over on UKYouthOnline about developing policies for interacting with young people online.

In particular there was a debate about whether youth workers should separate their personal social networking profiles from their ‘professional’ persona’s (and profiles) that they use to interact with young people professionally.

Well over in the US theres a proposed law to make it illegal for school teachers to have ’social networking friendships’ with children and young people. CNN has an article online including an interview with a teacher who does use a Myspace page to allow students to contact him.

The proposed law has come about following fears that ’social networking sites are breeding innapropriate behaviour between teachers and students’. In the CNN article an Education Lawyer says that having clear professional boundaries are important “You’ve got to establish it from Day One and say, ‘I’m not your buddy, I’m not your friend, I’m just your teacher.”

I wrote something similar in ‘What Makes a Good Paid Youth Worker‘ - that relationships with young people need to be on the basis of what you can professionally offer them - not just ‘friendship’. But of course social networking is all about how many ‘friends’ you have and now that services offer to show how many of your email contacts are registered with them it means that any person you’ve had email contact is likely to easily find your profile.

Of course you don’t have to accept ‘friend requests’ providing you can get over the fear of causing offence! I’m not quite sure what I think about this yet - on the one hand some good clear rigid guidelines could work fairly well, on the other hand there is a point that its similar to saying if you work in an area you can’t also be seen to socialise there.

Actually that reminds me of a situation I found myself in when I first started as a ‘Youth Development Worker’ on an estate. I also played for the local cricket club and through one of the players I became friends with somebody who invited me for a meet up in their house which happened to be on the estate where I worked. I did attend, only to discover it was his parents house and his little sister was a regular member of one of my youth clubs - she wasn’t there but I did wonder about how weird it would have been if she’d been at home while I was getting drunk with her brother and his mates in the back garden!

For youth and community work the boundaries will always be a bit more blurred than teaching but it will be interesting to follow what happens in Missouri and whether or not it has any impact over here.

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Tristan Donovan wrote an interesting Opinion piece that you can see here. His original question was

• Are we getting older sooner or staying young longer?

I thought it interesting anyway because I think maybe the answer is both. Often I’ve wondered whether children “grow up” too fast, I also sometimes question if youth work may even hasten this with so much emphasis on ‘empowering’ young people.

In the rest of Tristans article he discusses how proposed restrictions on under 18 year olds seemingly contradict the campaign for 16 year olds to be able to vote. I’d agree that it would…… that is if you agree with the premise that you should reach a magic age and then all the entitlements of adulthood are yours. On the otherhand you may argue there should be a gradual transition of responsibilities - in fact perhaps there already is if you look at this post showing the different ages at which young people gain legal responsibilities.

Although reading through that list doesn’t give the impression that it was planned to be a system to support young people to take on increasing responsibility until becoming a ‘full adult’ - instead it looks more like people randomly deciding ages they think may be suitable for certain things.

Arguably this is also whats happening right now - on the one hand theres the camp that argue young people should be able to vote at 16, and then there are those saying 18 year olds are not yet capable of drinking alcohol responsibly or purchasing knives etc. Nobody though seems to have taken an overall view and said what is the best process through which we can support young people to take on all of these responsibilities, and in what order or priority are they handed over to them?

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According to ‘V’ a recent survey by them found that 70% of 16 - 25 year olds say they are “negatively perceived by the public”, and of the 3000 that took part in the survey 60% think this is unfair (which to me seems a surprisingly high amount that think it is fair?!) The survey also found that 49% of young people “believe young people do things which justify this negative opinion”.

Besides recognising the behaviour of some young people doesn’t help their image, others to get the blame include celebrities (apparently Amy Winehouse topping the bad example list which is in conflict to the findings of a poll last month when supposedly she was voted as the “ultimate heroine among the UK’s youth!), and in the words of V’s Chief Executive “This survey reveals the growing gulf of understanding between the generations which is leading to young people being unfairly tarred with a negative image.”

Over on the CYPNow Forums Neil asks “How very sad. As a Youth Worker, it is really disappointing to see that nothing has changed. What have we got to do to change this image of our YP?”

Both comments seemingly assuming that because some young people feel that they are perceived negatively by ‘the public’ they actually are. This feeling by young people of (more…)

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Tags: age, positive images, prejudice, Society & Issues

Apparently in Italy touching your bits in public is now illegal. It made me smile because I wonder what they’d make of the tendency of some lads recently to walk around with their hands stuffed down the front of their pants!

In a landmark judgement with far-reaching social implications, Italy’s highest appeals court has ruled it is a criminal offence for Italian men to touch their genitals in public.

The judges of the court of cassation stressed that the ban did not just apply to brazen crotch-scratching, but also to what might be termed superstitious pre-emption.

Link to article here

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Film from the recent training with Donegal Youth Council in Ireland

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I’ve always had a feeling that youth work in general isn’t inclusive enough. It is of course by nature exclusive as ‘youth’ work rather than maybe ‘community’ work, but despite the obvious need to focus on young people I think much more could be done to make more work with young people a more inclusive process.

Firstly with adults: Certainly in relation to youth participation the involvement and relationships with adults are critical. Besides the participation angle it’s also important to support young people and adults to build relationships and understanding within their communities. And then add to this the role model aspect. When I was designing the Young Movers programme this was something I especially wanted to encourage. Having been a slightly out of control

(more…)

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