Strengths-based youth work when working with young people who live with Autism Spectrum Conditions. 

by Aoileann Conway, Elaine Lavery and Sarah McGennity

This article was born from a conversation between youth workers, who expressed that they ‘didn’t know how’ to work with young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), and the fear of the unknown was crippling their confidence and inhibiting their abilities to engage with young people with ASC. This article sets out to engage youth workers in a reflection of the underlying values and purpose of youth work and how it compliments Strengths-based approaches in practice with young people with ASC. It seeks to support workers with a more detailed understanding of the micro-skills involved when building personal and social development. These skills are often subliminally developed during the early years, a concept referred to as the ‘Hidden Curriculum’. It considers and gives some insights into the difficulties faced by young people with ASC, however, further work is required by the professional to translate this into practice or toolkits/ resources. It hopes to bring awareness to and challenge the deficit mindset that the medical model perpetrates and has aspirations that the ripple effect of the message will change the environment and society that young people with ASC live in. The values underpinning this article are equity, inclusion and embracing of diversity. Read the full article here

The importance of early intervention for children and young people regarding their mental health

by Tove Lappin

Early intervention is not a new concept, however some may not fully comprehend the meaning and benefits behind the practice. This article explores the role that early intervention could play in the growing levels of mental ill-health among children and young people in Northern Ireland. An increase has been observed in poor youth mental health cases in the last three years, notably in anxiety behaviours (Lappin, 2020, p. 20). This coincides with findings of NHS Digital (2018, p. 7) in their 2017 survey where it identified, ‘one in twelve (8.1%) 5 to 19 year olds had an emotional disorder, with rates higher in girls (10.0%) than boys (6.2%)’. Emotional disorders including anxiety disorders, characterised by fear and worry made up 7.2% of the most widespread, whilst depressive disorders characterised by sadness and low self-esteem made up 2.1% (NHS Digital, 2018, p. 7). Mental health has become a prevalent topic in Western society; it is increasingly promoted through social media, schools, adverts etc highlighting that ‘it is okay not to be okay’ and to ‘talk about it’. This message has never been more poignant in a time of isolation, lockdowns and social distancing; professionals, influencers, teachers, parents are all urging young people to speak to those around them. However, young people need and deserve more support and in order to combat this rapid increase in poor mental health cases and deaths by suicide in our young people, the issue needs to be dealt with from an early stage. This article will highlight the importance of early intervention, what it is, why it is needed and methods that can be used for effective early intervention. For the purpose of this article, the main context for early intervention is within a school setting, with both mentoring and Nurture Groups explored as early intervention methods. This is due to my own personal experience of facilitating and observed these methods in my own practice. Read the full article here

COVID UNDER 19 - representations of CHILDREN and young people 

All children have rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). #CovidUnder19 is a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together children, civil society organisations, academia and other partners to work together in understanding children’s experiences of their rights during the COVID19 pandemic. A goal of #CovidUnder19 is to create a space for children across the globe to be meaningfully involved in the discussions around issues triggered by the COVID19 pandemic and contribute towards shaping the post-COVID19 world.

You can access the latest briefing here  

COVID under 19 - Children's Rights during Coronavirus 

All children have rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). #CovidUnder19 is a multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together children, civil society organisations, academia and other partners to work together in understanding children’s experiences of their rights during the COVID19 pandemic. A goal of #CovidUnder19 is to create a space for children across the globe to be meaningfully involved in the discussions around issues triggered by the COVID19 pandemic and contribute towards shaping the post-COVID19 world. 

On 28 May 2020, the initiative launched a global consultation survey to understand children's experiences of their rights under the coronavirus pandemic and their views on how their rights could be better realised. The survey applied the Centre for Children's Rights' innovative approach to rights-based research directly involving children and young people as advisors from the outset. The survey has been designed by child rights experts and 270 children from 26 countries. The survey was open until 31 July 2020. It was made available in 27 languages as well as an Easy Read version for children and young people with intellectual disabilities. Children and young people contributed to data analysis and interpretation. Each thematic paper presents key findings. Data is disaggregated as far as possible and where findings are significant. Please note that the survey is not intended to be representative of the global child population. Findings are presented on a global basis. 

The Centre for Children's Rights at Queen's University Belfast designed and conducted the survey and developed the thematic briefings in collaboration with Initiative partners and a team of child advisors. This was supported by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account award through Queen’s University Belfast. 

You can access the headline findings briefing by clicking on the link below. 

'Understanding groupwork for individual and social learning'

by Leighann McConville, Ulster University (2021)

Some learning can only be achieved within a group – in relation to others.   

There are moments that we learn about ourselves when faced with challenges to who we are and what we think. We can build a clearer sense of self.  We experience association and belonging, through being joined with others in the companionship of a group and discovering learning through playing one’s part in a group.   

This short paper identifies the outcomes that can be achieved for and by the young person being part of a group - accessed here

Young people and paramilitary violence 

by Siobhan McAlister, QUB

While likely the tip of the iceberg, police statistics reveal there have been almost 3,000 ‘paramilitary style attacks’ – assaults and shootings – in the twenty years following the signing of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. Young people have traditionally been, and remain, one of the main groups subject to such violence and abuse, yet their views and experiences are rarely sought. In 2016, a group of researchers at Queen’s University Belfast completed research with young people living in communities impacted by paramilitaries. They explored: young people’s attitude towards paramilitaries; their knowledge and experiences of paramilitaries; barriers to reporting violence; and perceptions on why young people may be drawn to paramilitarism. The research calls for the reframing of paramilitary violence against children as a children’s rights issue (http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/paramilitary-violence-as-childrens-rights-issue/). You can read a summary of the research findings here.

Understanding, Inclusion and Participation:  A Manifesto for policy and practice with young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions

 by Dr Breda Friel & Jane Hickey

Inclusion is belonging, inclusion begins with you

Dylan Clarke, SONAS Youth Club: 2019

 Introduction and Rationale

Emerging trends and developments across the Community Youth work sector resulted in the organising of Community Youth Work Practice and Autism Spectrum Conditions - Understanding, Inclusion and Participation.  This conference, convened on January 25th 2019, was a partnership between the Community Youth Work Department at Ulster University, Youthpact and YWelp (www.youthworkandyou.org) and aimed to facilitate the sharing of best practice in the area of ASC and to develop a manifesto to support policy and practice in CYW with young people. The key aim of the conference was to provide information, tools, and strategies to support young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions across the community youth work sector. This paper represents the distillation of themes from the conference and a manifesto for policy and practice that includes and engages young people with autism spectrum conditions.

Autism: Defining and Understanding

A strengths-based approach challenges the established definitions, the nomenclature and description of autism, which traditionally derived from a medical model and deficit approach to describing human behaviour.   An example was the term “disorder” implying malady, sickness or disarrangement from the “norm” (Friel 2020), a commonly used word to define the spectrum of presentations and individual characteristics associated with Autism. Such definitions include Sicile-Kira (2006) who describes autism as the outcome of a neurological disorder that impinges on the functioning of the brain. The word derives from the Greek word “autos” or “self” and the term autism was articulated by psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler (1911) in describing patient behaviour as the presentation of an isolated self.  Sicile-Kira (2006) states that ‘The acuity of autism, as a label, was introduced by psychiatrist Leo Kanner (1943) who termed ‘early infantile autism’ in portraying patterns of behaviour in children, most notably impairment in social interaction or communication, and robust opposition to change. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) emerged as the prevalent clinical term used in describing what was called “specific developmental disorders”. Generally, it is accepted that those experiencing autism exhibit social communication and interaction uniqueness, and there is a vast variability in those who may be non-verbal and highly withdrawn to those with less complex presentations.

Challenging the Deficit

The medical perspectives of autism have shifted over the last century, from early assumption of autism as the childhood onset of schizophrenia, to the blame-based belief that mothers displayed a lack of empathy, were referred to as ‘refrigerated mothers’ – and were to blame for their child’s condition (Waltz 2015). These early clinical understandings of Autism as a collection of deficits are indicative of the previously described medical model which locates disability as a problem within the individual, and hence places emphasis on diagnosis and on treating or curing the individual (Oliver 2013).

Developments in later perspectives depicted autism as a linear spectrum, described as a “vertical length of string” (Hickey 2019), with high functioning at the top and low functioning at the bottom, thereby assigning a perception of lower social value to those at the bottom of the spectrum. Hickey describes this as associated with an individual’s perceived contribution to the economic life, the focus of this linear view of autism being to move people ‘up the line’ and increase their functioning. Like the medical model, this ontological view of autism depicts a limited and static understanding of autism and leads to a focus on fixing individuals for them to ‘fit’ within society.

The significant influence of disability activists transformed the assumptions about autism in the 1980’s. The social model (Shakespeare 2018) identifies disability as a social construct whereby people with impairments are faced with disabling barriers created by an environment which excludes them. This shift from the medical to the social model has had a profound impact on interventions across a range of disciplines, including CYW. The social model tasks society to create an inclusive community which enables all people, rather than some. (Miller & Katz 2002).

Hickey’s perspective (2019) contends that the current understanding of autism rejects the notion of a linear and static spectrum and proposes that a sphere of inter-related elements is a more helpful representation. The dimensions of the sphere indicate the non-static, diverse and complex nature of autism. She highlighted Jacquiline Den Houting’s view of neurodiversity, which says that the autistic brain is neurologically different and so autism should be accepted as a “way of being” – as a diversity rather than a deficit (Den Houting 2018).

Overwhelmed: Living in an Intense World

A more intricate community youth work practice considers the emotional, psychological and mental health of young people with autism, the gifted Asperger (AS) young people who wish for social communication yet struggle with social processes to achieve the same.  The intensity experienced by young people with autism as they navigate difficult environments and deficit approaches across a range of contexts, challenges CYW to critically reflect on practice themes of inclusion, participation and diversity in real-world practice.  The intensity of masking and trying to fit in can result in emotional damage for those negotiating neurotypical social world.  This is a particularly acute stress for those labelled Asperger or High Functioning who sense the misfit between the mode of being and their social world (Rutter 2005; Hodge and Rutter 2017). 

For young adults, overwhelmed and living in an intense world, negative coping strategies can develop.  The result can lead to exhaustion, anxiety, and even selective mutism. Worryingly, statistics show that young people with Asperger have a higher risk of suicide in comparison to other clinical groups (Cassidy et al, 2014). Young people who feel overwhelmed believe that ‘being me’ is not enough, they may feel incongruent and that they ‘don’t fit’. These young people face emotional damage when trying to negotiate a neurotypical world, in which there is a mis-fit in how the social world interacts with them. Issues of social context and understanding of social roles can lead people with autism to struggle in many ways, this can manifest in depression, loneliness, fear, social isolation, underachievement and unemployment.

The deficit approach to mental health is challenged and increasingly CYW recognises the benefits of positive psychology strengths-based approaches.  As youth workers our role is to trouble against,  to challenge the terminology surrounding concepts of ‘normal’, and to modify our understanding of aspects of autism (e.g. when talking about repetitive behaviour, we should appreciate that this can be a learning approach by young people rather than a problem behaviour).  Young people can mask their difficulties very well and therefore drift, or go under the radar, experiencing years of isolation, bullying, feeling different and overwhelmed in the environment. Practitioners within education and social and youth work should be cognisant that crisis points can occur particularly at times of transition such as school change and employment.

The ‘gifted’ are often very misunderstood, too often perceived as excessive, troublesome and over-excited. Persistent curiosity may be misconstrued as aggression, the tendency to question considered as undermining, traits of deep sensitivity may be misinterpreted as immaturity, self-directness may be viewed and labelled oppositional.

Normal or Optimal

Close scrutiny of the concept of ‘normal’ suggests this as an inappropriate measure within the life sciences. A more appropriate focus is ‘optimal’ or well-developed, rather than what is normal or average. Regardless of professional discipline, we need to realise the experience of intensity felt by young people with autism, the intensified pain, overstimulation and conflict, described by Kazimierz Dabrowski (1902-80) as ‘over- excitabilities’.

Therapeutic Presentations

Case study practice of clinical therapeutic interventions with young adults, (Friel 2019)   reveals high levels of critical and negative thinking, frustration and feeling inferior in the self.  Young adults have high levels of self-blame, consider themselves at fault and believe themselves to be social failures. The question for youth work practice is how to support young people.  A constructive approach, (Dabrowski 1967), describes a positive disintegration, asserting that ‘inner fragmentation’ is part of human development and in response Friel points to core elements for therapeutic and youth work interventions:

1.    Confirmation that I am not flawed (human excellence)

2.    Affirmation of self as I am (allowing immediacy)

3.    Work to the individual’s capacity (optimal functioning without impediment)

4.    New Knowing (sensing and experiencing emotion)

To consider these aspects of human development, inclusive community youth work practice must go beyond traditional approaches to strive for opportunities that aim towards optimal well-being. The case studies of SONAS and ICARE tease out micro-skills that build engagement and a sense of belonging.

Participation and Inclusion – Lessons from SONAS and Project SPARKS

SONAS is a youth club for young people with autism in Inishowen.  The very different characteristics and interests of three individuals attending SONAS were outlined by Liam Gill (2019).  The variation between them illustrates the width of the spectrum and diversity of young people with autism.  Sharing the same core aspirations as any young people, participants aspire to be happy, healthy, have good mental health and enjoy a sense of autonomy.  Sonas supports the achievement of the aspirations by creating a supportive environment, using positive reinforcements, realistic goals, schedules and structure and negotiated care plans.  Workers mitigate environmental barriers which may trigger behaviours (such as lighting, high-pitched sounds, open doors etc).

The Lundy Models of Participation (2007) offers a foundation for practice and Gill (2019) describe four elements that enable young people’s right to participate:

•      Space - young people must have safe opportunities to express themselves

•      Voice - they must be facilitated to express their views

•      Audience - they must be listened to

•      Influence - their views must be acted upon, as appropriate

Building voice and influence would be a lonely place without building connectedness. 

Dylan Clark describes just this.  Dylan, a member of SONAS for seven years, spoke of his childhood, his late assessment with ASC, his passions and his difficulties.  Having graduated from their Leadership for Life programme (2018), he spoke movingly about the positive impact of his participation in youth work: 

         “It has helped me to see things differently but allows me to be myself’’. 

Youth work is a key feature of his social life, a space where he has made friends and has developed a support network:

         ‘For me, inclusion is about belonging. Inclusion begins with you’

Darragh Fullerton’s experiences echoed those of Dylan. Darragh, been a member of SONAS for the past six years, he spoke passionately about the importance of friendships, of feeling included, and having shared interests and common experiences. He reflected that the Leadership course facilitated self-reflection which helped him to

         ‘appreciate who I am and what I can do’.

Project Sparks is a pilot project in music education, training young people with disabilities who are gifted in the arts, to teach music to children in schools. Although the structure and format of Project Sparks differs greatly from SONAS, both employ a similar approach – in engaging and evolving the strengths of young people with ASC. 

Owen Coyle, Erica Curran and Eamon McCarron highlighted empathy as a latent strength for their young leaders, having navigated failure and barriers persistently throughout their young lives. Project Sparks works with the young leaders to build facilitation and teaching skills on existing foundations of empathic understanding. The skills acquired and cultivated for and by the young leaders are ranked in a hierarchy as follows:

•       Resilience

•       Charisma

•       Making connections

•       Correcting mistakes

•       Feedback

•       Listening skills

•       Structure

This approach to upskilling gives trainee leaders ‘a focus outside of themselves’, and the shared mantra is ‘Leader looks different for everyone’.  To build these leadership skills, Project Sparks uses specific approaches to boost personal cognitive and emotional development:

1.     Developing meta-cognition – which means identifying our own thoughts, how we regulate these and the ability to alter thoughts and behaviours that are self-limiting.

2.     Exposure to failure – the young leaders are deliberately challenged and are given time and support to fail and to rise again. 

3.     Persistence – each young leader has had to face their fears. Ultimately, this programme is not suited to all young people with autism spectrum conditions, as it requires going out of personal comfort zones and coping with challenge.

4.     Adapting their role – there is a weekly reflection of progress with the young leaders, with a shared appreciation of the value that ‘Leader looks different’

5.     Dismantling limiting beliefs – the training process requires young people to ‘dismantle their own chains’ and to free themselves from limiting self-perceptions

Eamonn and Erica concluded that evaluation data has been extremely positive, not only in terms of the social impact on young leaders, but also in providing evidence that the programme has promoted a significantly more affirmative perspective of disability among school children.

 A Manifesto for policy and practice with young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions

This manifesto is a distillation of themes and proposals arising from this multi-disciplinary conference.  Training, practice and policy form three core areas of considerable improvement if transition from the medical model to the social model is to be fully realised:

Training

• Agencies should be mindful of the support needs of staff in this area of work to avoid ‘burn-out’.

• There should be a focus on self-care and self- awareness, supervision, support and staff- wellness.

• There is a need for more training in the sensitive area of work in mental health and well-being.

• Specific and targeted training is needed to equip workers beyond basic care and intervention.

• Workers need to be upskilled and have increased awareness of issues surrounding autism spectrum conditions - key pieces of training should enable the worker to deliver a more supportive role.

• The training of young people should also be a matter of priority. This would enable them to support their peers with autism spectrum conditions in everyday settings.

 Practice

• Our practice must go beyond traditional approaches to strive for opportunities that aim towards optimal well-being. We must challenge the deficit approach, the myth of ‘the normal’ - the average- in our understanding of inclusion and participation.

• Direct engagement with young people is crucial – there is a need for practice to be based on young people’s experience and allow young people to take control. Models of participation such as the Lundy model offer guidelines for meaningful participation.

• The youth service in its broadest sense should look more holistically in terms of actively reaching out to and engaging the diversity of young people in their communities.

• The youth service should adopt the Finnish model which formally links human rights with youth work, in such a way that human rights are interwoven and strategic.

• There is a responsibility for everyone to be inclusive.

• There should be increased opportunities for practitioners to come together outside of frontline delivery to test out new ideas and methods (where necessary) and refine skills in advance of using them with groups.

• There is a need for increased ‘normalisation’ of inclusive practice – this would look like a more integrated approach to practice.

• Where it is possible within budget and staffing confines, youth workers should adopt the proven model of also working closely with the parents of young people with autism spectrum conditions.

• As practitioners, we need to think much harder about the youth work environments we create to ensure these are accessible and inclusive for all young people.

Policy

• We should consider disability inclusion more broadly, acknowledging the social model of disability and the rights-based requirements to involve and accommodate people with disability in all aspects of community life.

• This type of work needs significantly more resources due to its concentrated nature, slowness of pace and the labour intensiveness (with small groups and individual work). Funding allocation and resources should be distributed on an equitable basis to support the intensity of this type of youth work.

• Waiting lists for the assessment of young people with autism spectrum conditions, mental health, and learning disability/additional learning needs must be addressed. With over 2000 young people currently on waiting lists, the knock-on effect in terms of access to support services is potentially life limiting and only exacerbates the sense of crisis.

• More research is needed to support young women with autism, as there are disproportionately fewer females being diagnosed than males.

• The development of strong partnerships across sectors is essential, and this should also include the provision of holistic services for 18+ year olds.

• There should be a universal design for learning, reflecting the view that education is focused ‘on the all’ and not the few, and that learning is supported in a variety of creative ways.

• Youth service policy and programmes which concern diversity need to take a broader focus, e.g. extending beyond ethnicity and religion to include autism spectrum conditions.

• The media should more accurately depict the lived experiences of those with autistic spectrum conditions.

Conclusion

The youth sector has witnessed a recent proliferation in work with young people with ASC -  increased provision, growing numbers of programmes, and research development on the experiences of young people with ASC.  The development of this provision has been framed in a strengths-based approach building on the social model of understanding ASC.  For these initiatives and approaches to become well established, training, research and policy must develop in parallel with therapeutic and youth work practice.

This manifesto lays out a roadmap to inform teaching, course developments, policy directions to support inclusive practice across the sector.

References

Australian Local Government Association (2016), Disability Inclusion Planning – A Guide for Local Government, Australian Local Government Association, viewed 29th December 2018,<https://alga.asn.au/site/misc/alga/downloads/publications/Disability-Inclusion-Planning-v2.pdf>.

Attwood, T. (2008) The complete guide to Asperger’s syndrome. Philadelphia: Kingsley, Jessica Publishers.

Banks, S., Butcher, H.L., Orton, A. and Robertson, J. (eds.) (2013) Managing community practice: Principles, policies and programmes - Second edition. 2nd edn. Bristol: Policy Press.

Batsleer, J. and Popple, K. (2010) Using theory in youth and community work practice (empowering youth and community work practice). Edited by Ilona / Buchroth and Christine Parkin. Exeter, United Kingdom: Learning Matters.

Beck, D. and Purcell, R. (2010) Popular education practice for youth and community development work (empowering youth and community work practice). Southernhay East, Exeter: Learning Matters.

Bogdashina, O. (2016) Sensory perceptual issues in autism and Asperger syndrome: Different sensory experiences - different perceptual worlds. United Kingdom: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Booth, J. (2016) Autism equality in the workplace: Removing barriers and challenging discrimination. United Kingdom: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Cassidy, S,, Bradley, P., Robinson, J., Allison, C., McHugh, M. Baron-Cohen, S. (2014) Suicidal ideation and suicide plans or attempts in adults with Asperger’ syndrome attending a specialist diagnostic clinic: a clinical cohort study.  Lancet Psychiatry; pub. Online June 25, 2014

Dabrowski, K., (1967) Personality-shaping through positive disintegration.  Boston: Little, Brown & Company.

Daniels, S. Piechowski, M.M (2008) Living with Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults. Great Potential Press. U.S.

Den Houting, J (2018), An introduction to the Neurodiversity Movement, Amaze, viewed 1st January, 2019<http://www.amaze.org.au/uploads/2016/09/1115-2.-Jacqueline-den-Houting-An-introduction-to-the- Neurodiversity-Movement.pdf>.

Grandin, T. and Panek, R. (2014) The autistic brain. London, United Kingdom: Ebury Australia.

Handy, C.B. and H, C. (1990) Understanding voluntary organizations: How to make them function effectively. London: Penguin Books.

Ingram, G and Harris, J.C. (2001) Delivering good youth work. London, United Kingdom: Russell House Publishing

Jeffs, T. and Smith, M.K. (2005) Informal education: Conversation, democracy and learning. 3rd edn. London, United Kingdom: Educational Heretics Press.

Lundy, L. (2007) “Voice” is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. British Educational Research Journal. 33:6, 927-942.

McCashen, W (2010). The Strengths Approach, Innovative Resource, Bendigo.

Miller, F A. and Katz, J H (2002). The Inclusion Breakthrough: Unleashing the Real Power of Diversity. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Oliver, M (2013). ‘The social model of disability: thirty years on’, Journal of Disability & Society, vol. 28, issue 7, pp 1024-1026.

PDA (2015), The Social Model of Disability, People with a Disability Association Australia, viewed 29th December 2018, <http://www.pwd.org.au/student-section/the-social-model-of-disability.html>

Purkis, J., Goodall, E. and Nugent, J. (2016) The guide to good mental health on the autism spectrum. United Kingdom: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Ravet, J. (2015) Supporting change in autism services: Bridging the gap between theory and practice. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Sapin, K. (2013) Essential skills for youth work practice. 2nd edn. London: SAGE Publications.

Shakespeare, T (2018). Disability: The basics, Routledge, London

Sicile-Kira, C. (2007) Adolescents on the autism spectrum: Foreword by Charlotte Moore. London: Vermilion.

University of Leicester (2019), The social and medical model of Disability, University of Leicester, viewed 1st January 2019, <https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/accessability/staff/accessabilitytutors/information-for- accessability-tutors/the-social-and-medical-model-of-disability>

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Charting Attitudinal Change in Northern Ireland: The Importance of Eliciting the Views of Young People

by Martina McKnight, Dirk Schubotz, Paula Devine and Katrina Lloyd

Introduction

The increasingly visible presence online and on our streets of young people demanding action on, for example, environmental issues challenges the notion that young people are disinterested or disengaged with ‘politics’ or the ‘big issues’ of the day.  Rather, what this groundswell of activities demonstrates is that while young people may be disillusioned with formal political processes, from which they are, generally, excluded, they want to be involved in (re)shaping the societies in which they live. Giving children and young people opportunities to have their views heard and considered when decisions are being made in matters that affect them is not optional; it is a basic human right that is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

One opportunity for young people in Northern Ireland to make their opinions known is ARK’s Young Life and Times (YLT) survey. Set up in 2003 to record the views of 16 year olds in Northern Ireland, YLT is now the longest running annual large-scale cross-sectional survey of young people in Britain and Ireland. It is one of three surveys run by ARK; the others are the Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) and the Kids’ Life and Times (KLT) which are completed by adults and 10/11 year olds respectively.  An important feature of the surveys is the inclusion of both one-off questions that reflect specific social or political change or areas of interest and questions asked annually or regularly.  In the case of Northern Ireland, the inclusion of these time-series questions is of particular significance. With the emergence of a more peaceful society, getting a sense of how/if the strategies to improve good relations and create a more ‘shared society’ are resulting in attitudinal change is crucial. As such, questions on community/good relations and aspects of identity and belonging have been asked annually or regularly in YLT and (NILT) since their inception. It is, primarily, the findings from these that are now discussed with a particular focus on the views of YLT respondents (Read the full article by clicking link).

Psychological First Aid: A Youth Work Response to Crisis Management

Drawing on the World Health Organisation’s Psychological First Aid model, Dr Breda Friel (Ulster University), presents a crisis-management response that can support youth workers as they engage with children, young people and families during this time of distress and uncertainty.  You can access this free 30 minute online tutorial, from the Centre for Youth Research and Dialogue, here

Our Stories, Our Selves: Fractured Life Narratives, New Economies and Creative Living.

Dr. Patricia Malone (Northern Ireland Archive) and Dr. Martin Mc Mullan (YouthAction NI) attempt to provide some understanding from an economic interpretation and invite us to consider our responses through youth work interventions.

‘Happiness surveys’ show Northern Ireland to be the most content region within the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2014), and yet ironically figures for suicide, self-harm and mental health suggest that, for some, the reality is quite different. The notion, then, that Northern Ireland is one of the happiest places may be surprising as its capital city Belfast scores as the place with the highest anxiety levels (Mc Mullan, 2018). 

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Squeezed Out: The Value of Stories in Youth Work’s Growing Measurement Landscape

Collaborative piece by Gareth Beattie, Debs Erwin, Jonathan Luke, Mark McFeeters, Eliz McArdle and Gail Neill as part of the Critical Writers Group

Since the inception of the Good Friday Agreement (1998) there have been many twists and turns for ‘the New Northern Ireland’ in social, political and economic terms.  Within this context youth work has experienced unprecedented change.  These changes have unsettled and somewhat de-stabilised youth work structures across Northern Ireland and as a result youth work practice has experienced a period of flux.   This article explores the ways in which political, funding and statutory systems are increasingly dictating how youth work is measured and as a consequence, how it is delivered. Fundamentally, this article argues that within a growing measurement landscape those features that make youth work so unique are in danger of being squeezed out of this narrative.  Additionally, in the drive to prove outcome and impact through various measurement tools, the stories of change, development and growth get overlooked in favour of more ‘scientific’, quantifiable approaches.

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