The old rules still apply in the online world
Like many youth workers, I use online social networks. A while back I took the decision to use these networks as a “work profile”, that is, to treat any interactions that occur online as part of my job.
While I may sometimes comment on things that happen in my personal life, I am careful to be transparent in my dealings online and be thoughtful over what I post.

As I have a work profile, many young people have added me to be their “friend” online and I have accepted. It has become a useful tool where young people can contact me to find out about events, and I can broadcast messages to them. Of course, you also get to see a lot of personal information about the young people and this can be problematic.

A few weeks back, I saw a status update from a young person that concerned me. It read: “gunna bash Billy n hiz windows r gunna be egged hardcore”, meaning he was going to beat up Billy and throw eggs at his house.

Now I know Billy quite well, he’s a small lad who gets picked on. I also know that the young person who wrote that statement has been picking on him for some time.

I reasoned that the individual who wrote the statement had added me as a friend and had therefore given me permission to read what he posted. I also felt that as a worker I couldn’t ignore a direct threat against another person, so I tried to do what I would have done in a face-to-face environment. My response was to write a comment in reply to the statement saying: “Hi Sam. This could be classed as threatening and bullying. I’m really unhappy to see that on here and suggest you remove it.”

I’m not sure Sam took much notice, but my comment did serve to remind the young people that I could see what was written on their profiles. I got messages back saying “I liked Sam’s statement” and “He does wot he does innit”.

So what should we do as workers in an online space? Should we challenge “unacceptable” behaviour even if it means alienating ourselves? Should we have young people as our “friends” or even be there in the first place?

A good general principle seems to be to treat online work as you would detached work. First, you need to be upfront about who you are and what you do. Second, it’s the young people’s space and you are there with their permission. We may well all come to different conclusions about how we treat online work, but it’s vital that we think through our response and set clear boundaries for our interactions.

Other posts you may find interesting

• YWN Article: There is a balance to effective youth work
• YWN Article: Sometimes it’s best not to get involved
• YWN Article: Partnerships can be a pain, but they are key

Interestingly, there seems to be a strong link between faith and volunteering:

Almost 40% of the voluntary work carried out by young people takes place through churches or religious organisations.
Even 10% of those who declared themselves non-religious still volunteer through a religious organisation.

Personally I don’t find this news surprising as many of the young people I work with volunteer at other groups, but it is great to have a positive article in the national press that highlights how generous young people are!

You can read the BBC report on the publication here, and download the full document here.

Other posts you may find interesting

• Youth Work Links for 8th March to 2nd April
• Ways To Help Volunteers Plug In
• YWN Article: The old rules still apply in the online world

Share general points of learning, not specifics
Whilst I often try and use a particular story to give context to a blog post, part of my reflective blogging is about drawing out general point from the experience. If I start writing a narrative blog post, and it strays into content which could be confidential, or which I’m not sure should be immediately public, then I’ll often change the headline to one more general, and rewrite the post to draw out the point of learning – rather than the origin of that learning.

No allusions
With a few exceptions (and only for organisations) I’m either writing explicitly about someone or something, confident that I either have consent or that I am happy for the subject to know about and read the blog post in question.
Allusions to people or situations so that people could work out what something is about with enough background information are out.

Wait a while
Sometimes even a general learning point can be problematic if people involved will be able to work out the situation it is drawn from – and if this reveals information that people involved may wish is not shared widely.
In these cases, sometimes a blog post may end up in the draft folder for a while, either for the point of learning to be combined in with another post, or to be posted in the future – when sharing it isn’t such a sensitive issue.

Click through to read the rest and be sure to check out the discussion in the comments too.

Other posts you may find interesting

• Youth Work Links for 8th March to 2nd April
• Youth Work Links for 25th February to 8th March
• Regular Writing

UPDATE: After posting this, I realised that the event is now fully booked! Sorry to get your hopes up like that. Maybe try and get in earlier next year or host your own local event!

If your work involves young people, then understanding and engaging with social media and online technologies is a must. This event is an opportunity to explore big ideas, and practical realities of weaving the web into work with young people.
As an unConference, the exact programme is created on the day by the participants, who will convene conversations, provide demonstrates and share their insights. However, themes that are likely to be explored include:

• Communicating with young people online – from promoting youth services and positive activities, through to hosting two-way dialogues with young people in online spaces.
• Social networks & youth participation – how can Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and Ning be part of the participation workers toolbox? And how does social networking have the power to change the face of participation?
• Digital inclusion for young people – making sure that all young people have the access to technology and the skills they need to get on in the digital age;
• Practical action – how to make sure online engagement is based on safe-and-sound foundations; getting policies in place; and making sure the technology and staff skills are available to make the most of online engagement;
• Hands-on learning – exploring different social media tools that you can use in your work, and sharing tips with other participants about the best way to use them;

More details are available over on Tim’s Blog, or you can register here.

Unfortunately, I can’t make it this year as we’re running Safeguarding Training for our summer volunteers that morning. I will be keeping a close eye on twitter though to see what the day brings!

Other posts you may find interesting

• Youth Work Links for 25th November to 1st December
• UkYouthOnline Reflections
• Using SNS with Young People

If you have time, why not take the workers’ survey, and then pass on the young people’s survey link to any young people you are in contact with.

The youth workers’ survey is here:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB2299VXHB7S9

The young people’s survey can be found here:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB229A9CKJ6NV

Other posts you may find interesting

• Limited access to youth clubs
• No space for workers in MyPlace initiative
• YWN Article: The old rules still apply in the online world

Back in October, we set up an online text message system for communicating with the young people who attend our activities. Many schools now use these types of systems that integrate with their databases to send messages to parents of pupils, but there are also many simpler services available for smaller organisations. To see a range of options, just search for bulk sms messaging.

We’ve found using group messaging really helpful. Our Ignite group has grown from an average of 40 young people each week to nearly 80 because most of the young people now receive a text reminding them of the time, venue and activity. Where many of them would come every few weeks, their attendance has grown because they know what is happening each week.

Using the system has also been really good when we’ve had to communicate changes to the programme such as cancelling an activity due to staff shortages. One simple text and most of the group know!

Bulk SMS
When setting up our service, we chose to use Bulk SMS because they offer charity rates and you can simply buy credits as you go. Although the service is relatively simple, it offers a range of options such as setting your Sender ID (the name that says who the text is from), allowing replies to your text, sending text by email, and even text a group from your own phone.

The only drawback I’ve found is that you can’t set the sender ID and have replies at the same time. While this may seem a limitation, it’s not been a problem for us as we didn’t really want the young people sending replies to the online system as we don’t check it regularly enough.

Texts to mobile numbers in the UK cost 1 credit per message (at charity and non-profit rates). Credits cost 3.5p (exc. VAT) each so you can buy 300 credits for £10.50. This is a subsidised cost in exchange for including the message ‘bulksms.co.uk’ on the end outgoing texts. When the credits run low, we just buy some more.

To get started, you can type in individual numbers or upload a formatted spreadsheet with the name and number of each contact. You can then organise them into groups such as Juniors and Seniors so when you send a message, you simply select the group(s) you want to send it to. It even lets you know when a phone number stops working and messages aren’t being delivered, by moving that contact to a ‘failed’ folder.

So does anyone else use text messages to communicate with young people? What systems have you found that work for you?

Other posts you may find interesting

• Freezing Frenzy
• Moving On Up
• Mini Volleyball

Image courtesy of Sketched Out

One of the things I love about working with young people is the unpredictability of it all. A perfectly rational conversation can suddenly take a sharp turn and you end up in some random and amusing place with no real idea of how you got onto the subject!

At our church group the other night we were asking them if there was anything they wanted to pray about this week. A couple of individuals shared their requests, and the group were focused ready to pray when one of the youngest lads (aged about 12) said “Can I say something about school?”

Wanting to give him the opportunity to say his prayer topic, I said “Yeah, go ahead”.

He responded: “My science teacher told us to design a rat that would survive in the future, so I drew one that had a sperm gun on its back so that when it gets chased by predators it can still mate with other rats.”

Needless to say, that was the end of the prayer time as the kids lost concentration and the leaders were creasing up with laughter! You couldn’t make it up!

Other posts you may find interesting

• Christian Schools Work Conference: Schools Ministry as Mission
• Youth Work Links for 2nd April to 29th April
• Youth Work Links for 8th March to 2nd April

A dressing-up game with a great twist: ice!

Numbers: 10 or under. If you have many more, play as teams where they nominate a player.
Suitable for: Ages 12 and up due to the physical nature of the game.
Preparation time: At least a day in advance (for freezing the clothing).
Venue: A large room or small hall.
Safety First: The game can involve some physical pushing and shoving, so take care and set some clear ground rules first!
Equipment needed:

• items of clothing (e.g. T-Shirts)
• a large freezer

The game:
In advance, you need to take your items of clothing, bundle them together and place them in a freezer! It is best to have all the items the same, for example 10 T-Shirts or 10 hats. When ready, this will leave you with one large ball of frozen material.

Get your contestants to line up a few steps away from where you have placed the bundle. When you say “Go”, they must fight to be the first to separate an item from the bundle and wear it. Of course, as the clothing is frozen together, it will take much pulling, bending and effort to break them apart. This causes much amusement as the contestants struggle to thaw or break the ice and figure out which item will come free the easiest!

The winner is the person who first manages to put on the item of clothing.

Adaptation:
If you’re concerned about the physical side of this game, you could simply freeze the items separately and make it a challenge for someone to dress up in a frozen outfit. Of course, don’t let them wear it for long!

Other posts you may find interesting

• Chairball
• Extreme Musical Chairs!
• Tail Grab

Essentially, it is a round-up of links and articles from the magazine collected into one place and organised by themes such as alcohol and sexual health with more to be added soon.

Go take a look at www.cypnow.co.uk/youthworkresources

Other posts you may find interesting

• Shared Items: 24 May 2009
• Shared Items: 17 May 2009
• Youth Work Links for 2nd April to 29th April

Sometimes it’s best not to get involved
Workers need to be available to young people, even if they are not needed.

Sitting on the train on my way home recently, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation between three teenage girls aged around 16. One of them was loudly telling her friends about her recent experiences, much to the dismay of the rest of the carriage.

It transpired that she had recently fallen pregnant and had spent the past few months sofa surfing after being kicked out by her mum. In addition, she had taken the blame for an assault her friend committed and was ordered to do some community service with the youth offending team. Apparently, she had finally been given a flat by the council and had just attended the hospital for her first ultrasound. Having seen the baby scan, she had cried with joy and was excited about being a mother.

I don’t know if that particular young lady was difficult, troublesome or involved in antisocial behaviour. I have no idea if she attended any youth groups or if a youth worker was ever there to support her. My observation was that she was an articulate young woman who had been forced to cope with situations that many responsible adults struggle to deal with – and she was actually doing well for herself.

As I sat on the train trying not to listen, I was reminded of how important it is for us to simply be there for young people when they need us. For all of our positive activities, planned interventions and curriculum plans, some young people just need a safe space and a listening ear as they struggle to make sense of their circumstances.

Of course, we are all of aware of young people with similar, or worse, stories. You can’t be a youth worker for long without being affected by some of the tragic circumstances you hear about. For many of us, being able to help, support or guide young people was the reason we got into this work in the first place. The thing is, young people are often capable of working things out on their own and are generally quite resilient and resourceful, despite an assumption to the contrary.

One of the core values of youth work has always been the voluntary principle: that young people are free to enter into, and out of, relationships with workers as they see fit. But let’s celebrate those young people who achieve without our support and simply be ready to help if we’re ever needed.

Other posts you may find interesting

• YWN Article: The old rules still apply in the online world
• YWN Article: Partnerships can be a pain, but they are key
• YWN Article: There is a balance to effective youth work