Work

So during Monday Club...
...at the youth centre where you work...
you ask a young person to guess how you came to work that day...
...and they ask you, "Where do you work?"
...and you tell them, "At Club." (hadn't they noticed?)
...and they then say, "Wot, all the time - what do you do during the day?"
...and you explain and realise that they think that you have another 'real' job....
...and you watch a whole new world unfold before their eyes of young people going to a youth centre day and night and even during school time...
...and you hardly get a reaction at all when you go back to telling them how you got to work that day...
... even though,
....unlike other days when you just take 5 minutes to walk to work,
...that day
...you got up that morning
... in Ireland
...and took a car, plane, bus and train to work!

Surprise!

We sat at Breakfast Club in the Cafe talking about University Interviews and Youth Work Comprehension tests, when we were interrupted by Patrick, his eyes shining with excitement.

"I'll have a surprise for you tomorrow" he told me,
"...a bag of la-dee-dahs."

This is one of the many perks of working where I do - bags of la-dee-dahs!

(btw for anyone who doesn't know what 'la-dee-dahs' are - they are anything Patrick decides they are or puts in place of a word he may have forgotten and on this occasion I think he meant clementines)

Youth Work Awards

Josh & Craig @ their graduation ceremony
were they were awarded by London Youth with
Level 1 Foundation in Youth Work

Conversation & Youth Work

We didn't really do anything apart from tell people a time and place and provide a few nibbles...the rest was up to who ever came for however long...it was like an open-house or drop-in kind of thing, people could come and go when they liked or just pop in, although most were there from 7-9 and some arrived at 6.40 while others left at 11. It was chilled out and people sat and talked or played games like pool or the wii or singstar - table tennis 'round the table' was popular and got alot of people mixing, but there was no plan and no pressure...

It was good to see some new faces and some old faces and to hear about what everyone is doing and relive some old stories and create links to make some new ones.

Subjects discussed included the following:

• The US Presidential Election
• The book The Art of War
• Table Tennis
• Study of Theology
• The round carpet of club being a representation of the missing round window that was the sun (and being handy for circle games)
• Fatherhood
• Pool
• SA/youth work at the training college, Poplar present & past, Clapton, Nunhead, Mile End Climbing wall, secondary schools and more
• Sign language
• Youth work training & qualifications
• Mountain Leadership Training
• Weddings
• Birthdays
• Making links across corps
• Essentialism
• Child protection training
• Wii games
• Separation
• Cheese boards and knives (seemed novel to some)
• Volunteers
• Babies
• Choice of subject of study at university & personal statements
• The rise of popularity of the pitta bread & humus in the Poplar area's young people accounting for Thomas' only vegetables in his diet apart from tomato sauce
• Poplar's facilities
• People who people would like to have seen to catch up with
• Bulbs in a building that's had them all installed at the same time having them all go around the same time
• Growing vegetables
• Working with young people with special/complex needs
• Study Support
• Young people
• Funding
• Music, songs & singstar
• Ownership
• The educational system of Germany
• Children
• Fireworks
• Meeting the needs of young people
• Racism
• The X Factor
• Skiing
• Poplar the oldest existing Salvation army Corps
• Breast feeding
• Facebook
• Playing the guitar
• The French Language
• Cooking
• Obama's autobiography
• A Levels
• Hair cuts
• Bicycles
• Art
• Studying for a PGCE
• Food
• Studying childcare at college
• Wheelchair Access
• Relationships
• Meeting up again
• Contact details
  

...and these were only the conversations I was part of or overheard.

One conversation, though especially illustrated what youth work is about. A conversation between a worker who that night returned to the centre after many years to see one of the young members he worked with now grown up and now a youth worker like he was. A conversation about relationship and all that grew from that. Youth Work.

Random Acts of Youth Work

Just in case you can't read my writing...and to explain. I presented my dissertation also on the back of a napkin and here are some of the references...

All Anne Herbert needed was a napkin to write her philosophy of life: ‘Practice random kindness and acts of senseless beauty’ (Atkinson 2004). This is where such philosophies come from, the informal settings like that of youth work where we don’t seek to begin our relationships with young people at a formal meeting with a filing cabinet of documents between us but perhaps at a meal with napkins and conversations between us.This phrase jotted down on a paper napkin in a Sausalito restaurant was seen by a man sitting nearby who liked it and copied it down and the ‘slogan began to spread, as slogans do, and eventually it appeared on bumper stickers, business cards, coffee mugs, in newspaper and magazine articles, and taped to peoples' refrigerators’ (Atkinson, 2004)

From a Sermon with Reverend Atkinson (2004)

”The word "kind" comes from the Old English "gecynde." It was a noun meaning one's ancestor or offspring, and it is related to the words "kin," "kinship" and "kindred." It eventually came to be used also as an adjective, and eventually took on the meanings "good-natured, generous, gentle, bearing good will, having consideration for others and being willing to assist others." Kindness is an act, whether it be random or not, in which we treat another as we would treat our close kin, it is an act of generosity which expands the circle of caring, recognizing that in fact we are all kin.”

Kind hearts are the gardens,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the flowers,
Kind deeds are the fruits.

Take care of your garden
And keep out the weeds,
Fill it with sunshine,
Kind words and kind deeds.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American Poet, Educator, and Linguist

Gardening

Patrick's Wonderful Gardening...he worked long and hard (its been reported) to create these artworks which will it seems help the plants grow up straight...

Patrick's gardening is a little like youthwork - it can sometimes be long and hard work creating measures, boundaries & safe areas for the young to grow within. However in reality we may not have the effect we intend but may provide support simply by being there or existing (in what ever form).

We may nurture the seedlings, meeting their needs providing them with food, water, shelter & light and some grow more than others while some don't seem to at all.

We try to remove the barriers to growing - the darkness, the hunger and the predators to give them a chance in life.

We try to be the gardeners in a sometimes wild and uncultivated garden watching the buds blossom of their own accord and grow towards the light (however haphazzardly).