Voice of the People - Part 4

Here is a description of the approach and achievements of the Youth Project that my dad set up in Aston, Birmingham:

The Aston and Newtown Community Youth Project sought to reach out to 16-25 year old young people on the streets of the Aston and Newtown areas to steer them away from criminal and anti-social activities towards further education, training and employment.

A model for social inclusion

The approach used by the project is a model of social inclusion which can be set out under five headings:

• Outreach: project workers went out to where disaffected people were and contacted them on their own territory – the streets. In Aston and Newtown over 30% of project workers’ time was spent on outreach leading to contact with 30-40 young people on the streets during any week. Of these, approximately five in any week were be new contacts. Project workers were supported by people within existing local structures but worked outside of these structures;
• Affirmation: project workers affirmed people by going to them where they are, uncovering their interests and developing activities that reflected those interests;
• Empowerment: people learned valuable personal and social skills through the experience of setting up activities in partnership with the project workers;
• Role models: the project workers were examples of people with “street-cred” but who were also successfully integrated into the local community. They were, therefore, appropriate role models teaching social and personal development skills by example;
• Re-integration: as much as possible existing community resources and facilities were used in running project activities (the project deliberately did not use a centre-based approach where people would be expected to come to the project to use its facilities). This meant that disaffected people were re-introduced to the community from which they had felt alienated with the support of the project workers. Social skills could be discussed and developed through this process of re-integration.

Importance of relationships

In the project’s work, uncovering the interests of the people with whom they were working was the vital first step in building relationships that resulted in people re-integrating into the local community. Once known, project workers set up activities that developed the interests of these project participants. Working with them on activities that interested them developed trust and provided opportunities to discuss and address the roots of their disaffection. Programmes were individually tailored to meet the interests of each participant. Young people, for example, are no different from the rest of us and develop a sense of being valued only when they are listened to and their interests and ideas taken on board. It is this experience rather than that of working in particular settings that young people find most valuable.

Relationships are an important way in to understanding social exclusion. We all exist in relation to our local community as we access local services and facilities. However, for some people their relationships within the local community become strained and this effects their access to local services and facilities. The reasons for this are many but include unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown. A breakdown of relationships in one aspect, for example exclusion from school, impacts on all other aspects. In this way to view social exclusion in terms of relationships is a means of considering the issue as a whole rather than as a series of separate issues.

When an individual’s relationship with their local community breaks down two things tend to happen. First, the disaffected person rejects existing community structures and organisations. Second, the person views relationships formed outside of the local community as more positive than those formed within it. This is often the experience of disaffected young people who draw their role models from peers involved in crime and drug taking and then seek to win the approval of such people. To genuinely counter the effect of the negative relationships people from within the local community must go outside its existing structures and services to build positive relationships that pave the way to re-integration.

Those structures and organisations that have been rejected by disaffected people are not best placed to be able to win those same people back. The project’s work in local partnerships was, therefore, often at the recruitment end of the development spectrum, seeking to ensure that disaffected people in most need were not left out. As a result, thought should be given to targeting disaffected people specifically through organisations outside of established local and central government networks who can demonstrate success in contacting, involving and re-integrating such people.

Examples of achieving social inclusion

Kieran* was part of a gang from the South Aston area of Birmingham heavily involved in car crime. He also had a problem with solvent abuse. This led to his being charged for a number of offences. He was on probation at the time that the project workers first made contact. Kieran was out of work, so had plenty of time to get involved with the project activities. It soon became apparent that he had a real talent for climbing. This developed to the stage where he was able to lead climb up to a severe standard. Kieran came on the first project expedition to the Alps even though he was on probation at the time. He gained full time employment as a carpenter and became a voluntary leader with the project helping other young people on trips away.

Mike* was fourteen when he first became involved with the project. At the time there had been a family breakdown, which resulted in him moving into foster care. His schooling was severely disrupted and he became involved in petty crime. Soon he was a regular on all project activities being especially keen on climbing and camping. On leaving school with no qualifications he went to college and studied sports. At the same time he helped as a volunteer worker for the project. His dedication and hard work eventually paid off when, in 1997, he was taken on as a full-time sports youth worker for the project. He successfully completed his SPSA training and other courses.

* Names have been changed.

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Nanci Griffith - It's A Hard Life.