building democracy - international resource

Building Democracywith Young People inContested SpacesA Handbook for Critically ReflectivePractice that challenges cultures ofviolence

Building Democracy with Young People in Contested SpacesA Handbook for Critically Reflective Practice that challenges cultures of violence

Foreword

Paul SmythDirector – Public Achievement

In the now more than thirty years that I have been involved in youth work, as a participant,volunteer, practitioner, manager and theorist, one abiding thread has been and remains ofenormous importance. This is the perspective that comes from visiting other places thathave experienced violent conflict, and working with others who are called to work foralternatives to violence and avoidance as responses to conflict in its many forms.

One colleague in this process talks about how the intermittent visits to Northern Irelandand the hosting of visitors in his country help to keep his ‘head above water’.

Northern Ireland benefited enormously from the involvement, support and quietencouragement of many people from other places during its dark and turbulent past –including from people whose own reality was often much worse than the horrors we faced.

In a time of great change and still precarious progress for our little region, it is an honour tobe involved in work that helps to support and sustain those courageous individuals (toonumerous to mention here) who work against the norms, demands and even the‘commonsense’ of the contexts in which they live their lives in order to build a differentfuture for current and future generations of young people.

It is our hope that this resource is a helpful tool for practitioners, and for the development ofmore reflective models of youth work in conflicted societies. We also hope to continue tosupport a network of courageous people doing extraordinary work co-creatively with youngpeople which is filled with the promise of more democratic, vibrant andcreativecommunities.

This handbook adopts and important approach. Many organizations have internationalizedtheir work by developing a kind of franchise approach – taking something that works in oneplace and dropping it into other contexts where it may or may not fit. No such approach issuggested here. The stakes are too high for youth workers in violently contested societies.We adopt the interrogatory position – suggesting a series of questions that come frommany years of deliberating together that help to shape programmes and evaluation logicmodels that support the development of critically reflective practice. We hope you will findthe approach refreshing and valuable – and would love to hear your feedback.


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Some thanks:Special thanks should go to the funders of this publication; The European Union through thePeace ll extension Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by theNorthern Ireland Community Relations Council.

AuthorsThe production of this resource has been very much a collaborative effort and PublicAchievement would like to thank the following for their authorship and contributions:

Primary Authors:Dr Ross Velure RoholtLaura McFallProfessor Michael BaizermanPaul Smyth

Editorial and Content Support:Miri ArbivNashira DeJonghOfir GermanicBrenda LeonardSean PettisThuqan QishawiLisa Rea-Currie

Contributor Contacts:Miri Arbiv [email protected] Baizerman [email protected] De Jongh [email protected] Germanic [email protected] Leonard [email protected] McFall [email protected] VeLure Roholt [email protected] Smyth [email protected] Pettis [email protected] Qishawi [email protected] Rea-Currie [email protected]


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Contents

1. How we began…

2. What we have learned

3. Using this handbook

4. Understanding yourself as a youth worker in a contested society

5. Exploring the contested space you work in

6. Understanding young people in contested spaces

7. Programme planning and evaluation

8. Activities – exploring violence with young people


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1. How we began

Since its inception in Northern Ireland in 1999, Public Achievement has been working withpartners in conflict and post-conflict regions around the world to attempt to betterunderstand the work we do with young people, and to improve our practice in spite of themany challenges we face. This work led to the ‘YouthWork in Contested Spaces’ process,which started with a project funded under the EU Peace II programme (Measure 4.1 –Northern Ireland as an Outward and Forward Looking Region) by the Office of the FirstMinister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) in partnership with the Youth Council forNorthern Ireland and the Community YouthWork Team in the University of Ulster,Jordanstown (2003 – 2006). That project brought together youth workers, youth policymakers and researchers from across the world (in particular the Middle East, the Balkans andSouth Africa) through a series of exchanges and seminars. Three products came from thatproject – a book entitled ‘Work with Youth in Divided and Contested Societies’ (Magnussonand Baizerman eds.), a series of practice stories and a draft curriculum.

Parallel to that project Public Achievement ran a similar project aimed at young emergentleaders, entitled ‘Young Citizens in Contested Societies’ (also funded under the samemeasure by OFMDFM) which resulted in an evaluation guide for young people and a set ofpractice guidelines. A third project ‘Training Educators for Change’ focused on NorthernIreland, and resulted in the publication of Public Achievement’s ‘Civic YouthWork’ model(Velure Roholt, 2006 ‘Democratic Civic Practice – A Curriculum’ available onwww.publicachievement.com/publications.aspx )

This latest project – ‘YouthWork in Contested Spaces II’ was funded by the CommunityRelations Council (CRC) under Peace II extension Programme (2006 – 2008) with the aim ofcreating and testing a training of trainers curriculum for youth programme managers andlead youth workers, who would then train, in turn, youth workers and volunteers in theirown region. The project lasted 19 months, from January 2007 to July 2008 and includedparticipants from Northern Ireland, South Africa, Palestine, Israel, Bosnia, Serbia, Jordan,South Korea and the Basque Country. Training and follow-up were held at the Corrymeelacentre, Northern Ireland, and involved colleagues from that organisation.

The project further developed the ‘Civic YouthWork’ model, and considered the implicationsof using it in a range of widely different contexts, based on the experiences and perspectivesof the project participants – all of whom were youth workers or were involved in supportingyouth work practice.

During the course of our work in Northern Ireland, Public Achievement has becomeincreasingly concerned about the many ways in which violence impacts on the lives ofyoung people, the ways in which violence is normalised into the everyday lives of teenagers,and the relative absence of programmes to address this impact. In particular, there is a lackof significant initiatives to help young people to develop the skills, knowledge and strategiesto develop alternatives to violence and avoidance as responses to conflict. We found thatour international colleagues had similar concerns – and were often driven by the motivation


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to provide an environment that provided alternatives to self-destructive behaviour, and/orviolent radicalisation. This project has sought to focus specifically on the theme of violenceto support young people to identify the ways in which violence has affected their lives andto develop creative responses within their communities.Whilst many models of youth workfocus on youth development largely in isolation from the rest of a community, this workfocuses on building relationships between young people, their community and thecommunities around them to explore together how problems can be addressed and tocreate a collective response.

Feedback from a number of activities held as part of the YouthWork in Contested Spacesproject has shown the great benefit of connecting with youth workers in other societieswhich are experiencing or have a legacy of conflict. Participants have drawn learning andsupport from the international network and adapted best practice to fit with the particularsituation they are working in. During the course of this project, civic youth work, with afocus on violence, has been field tested in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Israel and Palestine.Practice examples listed in this resource have been recorded during the 10 month actionresearch project.

BackgroundRegional Co-ordinators of this project:

Northern Ireland Palestine Israel IsraelLaura McFall Thuqan Qishawi Ofir Germanic Miri Arviv

South Africa South AfricaBrenda Leonard Nashira DeJongh

Please see: www.publicachievement.com/Programmes/Youth-Work-in-Contested-Spaces.aspx


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South AfricaSince the end of Apartheid, violent crimehas replaced politically motivated violence.Prison gangs that were once organizedaround political resistance have replacedtheir activities with criminal violence andgangsterism. Many communities continueto be racially segregated.

There is a strong media focus on this typeof violence, especially crimes against youngpeople. The reality that these young peoplelive in is one where 50% of women will be raped at least once in their lives and babies asyoung as two months have been raped, possibly due to the folk-lore that having sex with avirgin is a cure for HIV/AIDS. To some extent, these crimes have been normalized and noteveryone who is a victim will report the offense to the police.

As well as sexual violence, there is also a concern with physical violence and bullying whichis often economically motivated. Young people will often be attacked and have their mobilephones and other possessions stolen from them. Often they experience violence withinenvironments that ought to be safe such as in school.

The work in South Africa is coordinated byBush Radio, as its name might suggest theorganization’s focus is on media. The use ofmedia presents the possibility of youngpeople making their work public throughradio or television. Because the Away fromViolence project met the existing aims ofthe organization, it was easy to justifyusing existing resources to develop and runit. These resources mostly included stafftime and skills and the use of recordingstudios and equipment. Due to the use ofmedia as a tool to deliver the project andthe level of awareness of issues surrounding

violence, the young people involved in the project grasped the context very quickly.

The young people named many of these issues when asked to identify forms of violence,through discussions it also became clear that participants themselves had been victims ofvarious forms of violence including sexual assault. Despite this, the young people often namedforms of violence that surprised the trainers. Rather than focusing on the personal andimmediate, some groups chose issues such as global warming and the dissapearance of children.Website: www.bushradio.co.zaYou can also view some of the videos created by the groups on www.wimps.org.uk


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IsraelIn Israel, the Away fromViolence projectwas organized by the Israeli Institute forDemocratic Education. The IDE promotesthe notion of democratic education andschools around Israel. They work in tendifferent cities and about twentydemocratic schools. Democratic schoolsdiffer from standard schools because thestudents have the right to be a part ofthe decision making process and haveinput into how the school is run. Theyoung people who took part in thisproject to date were not in groupsorganized by the IDE but were part ofother organizations.


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The initial training aimed to introduce the project to the coaches and to help them discoverthe tools to build a democratic group. Through this, the coaches should be prepared to helpthe young people explore the meaning of violence. The young people who took part in thisproject initially didn’t know how to work within a democratic system as the traditionaleducation system does not teach young people to think for themselves, this resulted in theyoung people looking for instruction from the facilitators on more than one occasion.

During the project, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict had some impact on progress, as youngpeople could not attend meetings for two weeks because of rocket-attacks. The conflict hasalso had the effect that there is not as much recognition for domestic projects that theremight be for those that deal with issues surrounding the national conflict.Website: http://www.democratic-edu.org/

Palestine and JordanThe Quaker Youth Program in the MiddleEast co-ordinates work based on theprinciples of Peace Building, conflictresolution and responds to humanitariancrises in areas of conflict. Although theyare based in Amman, Jordan, they startedworking in Palestine in 1995 with themain aim of promoting youthempowerment and encouraging civicengagement.


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During the life of this project, we have seen a seen a rapid escalation of internal fighting inPalestine. This impacted on the lives of the young people in many ways. There is asignificant rise in the rate of poverty and unemployment. Weakened institutions are unableto provide basic services. The situation means it can be difficult for young people to attendany after school clubs as movement is limited due to curfews and checkpoints. As a resultof this, young people have limited options to talk about their interests. Youth Civicengagement programmes were a method of creating space for young people to identify theimportant issues they face, to talk, criticise, plan, deliver and evaluate their action projects.

Popular Achievement is a youth civicengagement initiative (based closely onthe Public Achievement model), focusedon the most basic concepts ofcitizenship, democracy and public work.PA draws on the talents and desires ofordinary people to build a better worldand to create a different kind of politicsaround them. Twenty four groups ofyoung people participated in the projectand they worked on issues such as;internal violence, violence inside schools,infrastructure in the communities,cultural issues, heritage, social issues,sports, environmental issues, and so on.Some groups that were not directlyinvolved in the Away fromViolenceproject also tackled related issues.websites: www.afsc.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/4234#qpyp

AFSC works closely in Palestine with ‘Pal Vision’ – who were involved directly in the pilotproject. You can find out more about their work here:www.palestinianvision.org/projects.html#y


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2. What we have learned

1. The reality of contested space.In this project contested space came to be understood as more than a physical location ofconflict and violence. For us it is not simply background or context - it is both and more. Itis the totality of the way life is organized and works day-to-day in a particular political andphysical geography. It is more than a surrounding; it is what it is like to live here and behere, it is all that is the history and the sociology and the anthropology, the politics,economy and psychology of these people in this geography, now, in the past and emergent.The tasks are to notice, name, trace and understand how all of this works and then to set-out, with young people and others, to do something about young people, the space andthose who live and work within it.

2.The realities brought about by this space for young people and thosewho respond to them.To us, contested space is a given, but it is also an active, live presence with everydayconsequences on the very fibre of person and community. It impacts on what it means to bea “young person”, on who young people are, how they live, how they make sense ofthemselves, and how their society and community make sense of them and respond (or not)to them and to the violence and other realities of their contested space(s).

Young person’s comments– South Africa“It is important to deal with the concerns of the youth, to handle localproblems, real issues, and solve problems.We do not usually have the forumto do this, but during this project learners and teachers haveworkedtogether to discuss and tackle issueswe are concerned about.”(Siphumulele High School)

3.The possibilities of co-creating youth organizations and programmesthat address and respond to the ways young people understand howviolence is uniquely embedded in these spaces.Programmes, projects and services should respond to young people’s realities, wants andneeds, not vice versa. This approach encourages bringing general notions, values and beliefsto a specific group of young people and then creating the particularities of the worktogether with the young people who choose to be involved.


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4.Youth work as an integral part of the contested space, with realconstraints and at times possibilities.This is not simply youth work in contested spaces; instead, it is a family of youth workresponses shaped in part by how the contested space, impacts youth, others andcommunity. Practice is often determined by the cultural, political and social constraints,which are set by both the place and the nature of inter-personal relations within that place.

5.The challenge of evaluating youth work, youth organizations,programmes and services in contested spaces.Just as the contested space has presence and consequence on young people, it alsoinfluences what local organizational responses are acceptable. Paramilitary groups, youthgroups, social agencies are categories of options, with the particulars based on your context.This organizational context in turn shapes programmes, projects and services, which in turnare the home spaces of youth work, directly with and on behalf of young people. Often theimportance of evaluation and of reflective practice is lost in the tough realities ofattempting to continue work in the most difficult of circumstances. The work can often becounter-cultural in the context and either not understood, regarded as irrelevant, or activelyworked against by agencies (official and otherwise) within the place. We have rarely foundthat the work is adequately resourced and supported, and in this reality, the need to respondto immediate needs often takes priority over reflection and planning.

6. The importance of international networks and mechanisms of support.This project has demonstrated again and again the importance of international networkingand the collegial environment to the participants in the project. As one put it – ‘This workkeeps my head above water’. There is vital learning (as demonstrated in this resource) fromnetworking and reflecting together on the realities facing those determined to dodemocratic work with young people in what are often highly un-democratic contexts. Suchnetworking helps prevent burnout, provides reflective space and important emotional,psychological and collegial support.

YouthWorker story – Palestine and Israel”Wehaveparticipated in theYouthWork inContestedSpaces network for anumberof years.This has beenagreat opportunity for us tomeet together andbegin tounderstandeachother.Thiswouldnever havebeenpossible in ourcountry.Wecouldnothaveachieved somuch. It is not easy,wehavehadmanydiscussions andmisunderstandings.But theopportunitieswehavehadmakeall of thisworthwhile.Wehope in future that the young peopleweworkwithcanmeet together toworkon issues of civic importance inour region.”(Thuqan Qishawi and Ofir Germanic)


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3. Using this handbookThis document is a framework and some tools for working with young people in divided andcontested spaces. The detail is worked out through the questions posed in a way which isrelevant to the context. The handbook is designed for use by programme managers andyouth workers and aims to provide a training curriculum and handbook of activities to beused by youth workers. Many of the questions that follow are useful in clarifying therealities and challenges for young people as well as volunteers and other workers. Theseactivities have been field tested during the YouthWork in Contested Spaces II project andare underpinned by practice examples from projects carried out in Northern Ireland,Palestine, South Africa and Israel. The final section also outlines activities that can be usedwith groups of young people, in particular to explore the theme of violence. The final sectioncan be used in conjunction with Public Achievement’s coaching Guidebook, Citizens Now.

Our approach is unconventionalThis resource will not provide you with a set programme or method of working with youngpeople in contested societies - you will be presented with a set of questions to ask yourselfbased on the context you work in. We don’t tell you what to do or how to do it. Rather, weask you questions which you answer based on local facts on-the-ground where you workand live. Your answers become the basis for what you do. In this model of youthengagement, you discuss these questions with young people and together use the answersto build projects and do the work. In this way, the resource provides a framework forlearning this youth work practice and at the same time supports the ethos and practices ofcivic youth work. In the same way, programme managers and lead youth workers can usethese activities with their staff and trainees, co-creating with them democratic space forlearning. When done in this way, democratic civic engagement is brought to learning,teaching and training, and learning spaces open the possibilities of becoming democratic.

Youth worker story – South Africa“CapeTown can be a difficult place for children and young people to live.Often adults take advantage rather than supporting them.These youngpeople didn’t sit back andwait for someone to change things, they took onthe challenge themselves.The Community Policing Forumwas pleased tosupport the initiatives of these young people.” (Rhoda Bazier, Community PolicingForum Director)

We firmly believe that no international curriculum can fully meet the wants and needs oflocal youth workers, managers of youth programmes, projects and services. There is no onesize fits all solution to the complex issues faced by those who chose, or are called, to do thiswork. The strategy employed here takes on this belief directly - we present concepts andprinciples we believe to be relevant in the general context but is expected that theseconcepts and principles will be tested and modified accordingly; by using real, local andteachable examples.


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This resource should be implemented in the very same way we ask you to train others: Co-assessing and co-creating a base for youth work practice grounded in learning from youthworkers in Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine and South Africa, and made unique and specificto your context. The basic idea here is that you will be asked questions which you willreflect on and respond to. These responses can then become youth work practice. How doideas become actions? How do questions form the basis of training in youth work? Thisresource has been created with the following in mind:

Questions are the strategy• Questions are a way of orienting to, looking at, and thinking about something. We want

you to become even more adept at thinking in several different ways about conflictand contested spaces, about young people, about youth organizations, and anythingelse which may be relevant to your work.

• Questions are a good way to make planning explicit and conscious. By asking, youinvite response and this can be explicit thought about what future you envision andhow you want to go about trying to make this happen. In civic youth work, this isoften done with young people and in groups.

• Questions are a superb way to keep you self-reflective about your thoughts and practice.If you ask yourself, you are likely to wonder, to reflect, to respond. This helps makeyour thoughts and practices explicit and in that way available to you for reflection anddiscussion.


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• Questions are a basic way of wondering about whether your programme works andwhether your practice is effective. We wonder through questions, because these openthe world to our imagination and to other ways of thinking. Personal and programmeevaluation are both based in questions which should be answered (or used to elicitfurther questions) by those involved.

• Questions can work to keep you from burning out intellectually, physically andemotionally. Burn-out—existential (loss of meaning) and psychosocial (physical andemotional) - often results from being closed down or isolated from others; possibilitiesmuch more likely in contested spaces. This process of questioning your work andmotivation has proven to be useful, particularly in an international or regional networkof practitioners working in similar circumstances.

• Questions are a good way to keep you from getting blinded by your opinions and beliefs.Questions invite analysis and reflection, invite you to look at things from other(sometimes new) perspectives and in these ways keep you open to the world and itsrealities, and to those of young people and others.

• Questions can facilitate communication and true dialogue, with oneself and with others.Asking others can be a way of asking oneself, a way to develop the skill of effectivelistening and understanding of the other and of oneself.

Young person’s story – Palestine“Our groupmeets in a village near Jenin.Many young peoplewanted to jointhe group to promote peace in our village.Thenwe learned that the Imamwas preaching against us at themosque.We askedwhy hewould do this andwe learned that peoplewere not happywith boys and girlsmeeting togetherin a group. Sowewent to themosque and asked for permission tomeet andstill they said no.Wewent again and showed thework the young people hadbeen doing.The Imam sawhowmotivated and committed the young peoplewere to achieve their goals and that theywanted to support others in thevillage.Now the popular achievement group is a placewhere young peoplecanmeet together towork for thewhole community.”

• Questions can invite others to learn from themselves. Questions can motivate youngpeople to learn for themselves and think for themselves; the latter may be neededespecially under conditions of contested space, where community or political viewsare particularly dogmatic, detailing and requiring youth to think in a certain way.From the responses to these questions we can learn a lot from the young people wework with.

• Questions are learned, responses are discovered, figured-out and offered each time theyare called for. Training (at least in this model) leaves behind questions for use by youeveryday. This is much of what you take away and reflect on for yourself. Each timeyou are asked, how you respond depends on; the situation, your beliefs, yourbiography, and so on. When you become more skilled at this, you will invite and revisethese questions and use your own.


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• Questions invite participation. To ask someone something is to invite them to beinvolved in doing something together, to join in and be(come) a member. It is to ask fortheir input and opinion and to demonstrate through your actions that what they sayis important to hear. It is a basic strategy of civic youth work. Including participationfrom young people in programme planning may also help to reduce tension orsuspicion where this work is seen as different or risky.

• Questions can help keep your work democratic. You are more likely to practicedemocratic youth work when you question others as a way of encouraging andenhancing their participation and invite them to question you. Provided that you (andothers) listen to them and take what they say into account.

Youth worker story – Northern Ireland“I was often frustratedwith trying to organize programmes that youngpeople could get involved in only to find they didn’t turn up orweren’t veryinterested inwhat theywere doing.When I startedworkingwith this group,theywere in control ofwhat towork on.Therewere places near their homesthat they didn’t feel safe, but at first, they didn’t think therewas anythingthey could do about it.They developed a presentation for local communityleaders and Police and asked them to bemore vigilant about keeping youngpeople safe especially at nightwhen theywere outwith friends. If I haddeveloped such a project itmight have been boring for the young people, butwhen they couldmake decisions aboutwhatwas important to themand sawhow they could change things for the better for themselves theyweremotivated towork together and felt proud of their achievements.”

• Questions can facilitate youth development. Questions can invite individuals andgroups to go beyond where they imagined or where they were able to get to before.Healthy youth development is in part about this invitation. It is embodied in theyouth worker as her orientation to herself, her work, young people, the contestedspace, and to the worlds beyond this violence, madness and conflict. Asking morecomplex questions is also an indicator or more complex thinking and this fits withsome conceptions and practices of democracy, healthy development and personalsurvival in contested spaces. As the youth worker, it is important that you embodyalternatives to violence and avoidance as responses to conflict – that you present away of being in the world that encourages more democratic ways of working andrelating. By asking questions about difficult and controversial issues, participants havethe opportunity to challenge accepted norms and attitudes.

In these and similar ways, questions can transform ideas and concepts into “something tothink about” and “something to do something about.” Questions ask us to put our feet in acertain place and look at the world from that perspective, that angle. This is why and howquestions can become practical training in civic youth work in contested spaces.


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By the end of the process, you are expected to understand and discuss, at least a beginninglevel, for your particular context:• The notion of contested spaces; how it is context and environment for how young

people live and make sense of their lives. How do communities respond to suchconflict?What are the consequences of this on young people?

• What it is like for and what it means to be a youth/young person/teenager/adolescentliving in a contested space. How “young person” is performed and accomplished inparticular contested spaces.What “healthy development” and “fully flourishing youth”(and similar local notions) mean in this context.

• What are youth programmes, projects, and services in your context and what effectthis has on what actually is available locally to youth in your area?

• In general, how a contested space works to shape organizations and what affect thishas on what work can be done directly with and on behalf of young people inprogrammes, projects and services.

• In general, what types of direct youth work are carried-out by whom, where, and how.In your specific context: “Who is doing what to whom, when, where, how and why?”In general and in your context, what theories or models of “ways of working” aretypical? How do these ways of working respond to the realities of your contestedspace (and violence) and with your local organizational forms, with local programmes,projects and services?

• In general, what are effective, practical, low-cost, reasonable and replicable strategiesand practices for the evaluation of youth programmes, projects and services incontested spaces? And in your context? What have such evaluations shown: (1) to beeffective work and (2) what is effective evaluation? What are effective local strategiesof “evaluation capacity building,” especially concerning using evaluation findings forprogramme improvement?

As you well know, you cannot simplytake work done in other contestedspaces and put it to work in yourcontext. You must craft it to fit. Whenyou do action-research based youthwork, you will have the frame andsome tools for checking whether themodified approach works, and thenyou can decide to refine, implementand retest (evaluate), over and overagain.


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4. Understanding yourself as a youth workerin a contested society

This curriculum suggests that we look at youth work as a craft. It is a praxis between whatmotivated you to do the work and what you know which enables you to do the work. Youthwork praxis is about a more or less integrated craft orientation and craft knowledge.

Craft OrientationCraft orientation refers to how, in general, you look at the world of youth work with youngpeople in contested spaces. This is your point-of-view, your perspective - where you putyour feet and stand and look at your world. All of this helps answer questions such as:• How do you see your work world?• How do you make sense of you, the youth worker?• What do you stand for in your work?• What is your self-conception as a youth worker?• What is youth work to you?• Why do you do this work?• Are you more than you the youth worker?

YouthWorker Story – South Africa“It is important toworkwith young people on their violence they experiencein their everyday lives.This was very important in our context aswhatwefound one of themain problems to be in our often very violent communities,is that young people are not able to identify violence because they acts theywitness have become so ‘normal’. Being able toworkwith young people andhave themexamine the facts around violence in their everyday lives gavethem the skills to be able to identify violence and to impart those skills toothers too.The young people taughtme that they know they are able tomake a difference and becausewe letTHEMdo it –THEYCAN!”(Nashira DeJongh)

Craft KnowledgeThe second element of a youth work praxis is craft knowledge – how to think and act as a youthworker. Of course there are problems here; youth work is a family of practices and not all mightdescribe themselves as craft knowledge. So when we ask the question:What is youth work?Wereally are asking: what are the families of youth work theory and direct and indirect work withyoung people, and the rest? If there is not one “youth work”, then what is the standard againstwhich we decide what the knowledge of youth work is and what a youth worker must knowabout and must know how to do? This is a real issue and in many places a dilemma since asthere is no formal certification or formal training. In other places the role of youth worker hasbeen highly ‘professionalized’ and constrained. In either case there will be tensions between theway you wish/choose to work and the ways in which others expect you to work.


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For the purposes of this document we deal with general principles, processes and practiceswhich are given local specificity and particularities in local contexts.

What is the craft knowledge within the family of youth work practices?

ReflectiveIt is a stance that honours and requires self-reflective work to allow for responsible andsituated/contextual practice and life-long learning. It is always an action-research process,not just an application of technique, nor replicating activities which have always beenperformed. It is instead a live, organic, emergent openness to the space, youth and moment– drawing on knowledge and learning from previous youth work experiences to respond in aunique way to that young person at that time.

EthicalIt is ethical practice, especially so and explicitly so, in contested spaces because of thenature and character of these contexts: the worker and the work must be above reproach.This can create personal challenges, as there needs to be congruence between how we liveour lives and what we expect of the young people we are working with.

Context – specificIt is always context-specific work in its particularities — the worker must take and craft thegeneral to and for the moment, and be able to tell for what reasons she did this as she did –and also why she might react differently in another context.

Young person’s story – IsraelOne group of young people living in a kibbutz explored how language can be used as a formof violence against others. For four days the young people only used pleasant andconstructive language with each other and followed this with four days of using only harsh,negative language and cursing. They group reflected on what effect this had on theiremotions and on their relationships with one another and realized the extent to whichnegative language can harm both the person using it and the person it is directed towards.(Askelon youth group)

AccountableIt is accountable practice in that it is carried-out in the name of and responsible to an ethos;a set of beliefs about violence, social tension, civic society, power, young people, youth workand the like. This is true whether or not the worker is employed or is a volunteer and - thisis difficult - whether or not one’s personal ethos fits perfectly with the agency or group. Youhave to know where you stand, what you stand on and what you stand for. This can work asa moral and ethical guide to your everyday work and to deciding whether or not to keepyour position when differences come up—as they always will.


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Substantive knowledgeIt is vital that the worker strives to expand and deepen their knowledge of their context andthe factors that influence it. Those leading programmes should have and continue todevelop substantive knowledge about contested spaces, youth and young people, and “waysof working with them” that meet general and local guidelines for ethical and responsiblepractice, and are carried out in an action-research process. This means that this knowledgeis constantly tested and refined in everyday work directly with young people. Thisknowledge is both the questions we ask throughout and your response to these: that is youryouth work knowledge.


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5. Exploring the contested space you work in

For those working and living in Contested Spaces it is important to reflect on our ownbiography and how this shapes our understanding of this place. This is equally true ofworkers who are not members of the local community.We are all influenced, to somedegree, by stories, media and personal perception. The YWICS network has had the benefit ofreflecting on their own situation with others who have had little or no prior information onthe space they come from, therefore providing new questions and perspectives on theanswers given.We ask that you use this section for yourself and your colleagues to questionyourself and understand how others might answer these questions.

Contested SpacesAbout Contested Spaces: General• The space is a definite and active player, contributing to what happens (or doesn’t

happen) and how it happens, for youth and others.• The space is always incipient, emergent as violent, somewhere, somehow.• The space lives as memory, as well as present.• The contested space impacts everything in it, but often beyond conscious awareness.

YouthWorker story – South Africa“The discussions, exercises and sharingwith colleagues fromContestedSpaces around theworld shaped our understanding ofwhat violence is, andhow it affects communities.Themost insightfulmoment formewas torealize that people coming from contested spaces are experiencing the sameproblems after this conflict, irrespective of race, colour, or religious beliefs.Listening to other participants reflect on their experiences and the currentsituation and challenges coming from conflict, I recognized a lot thatreflected the current situation in SouthAfrica.” (Brenda Leonard)

About Contested Spaces: Specific to Your Place and TimeWhat does your local contested space teach you about:

A: What is contested space, in general.1. How does it work to shape everyday life for everyone, in exact ways?2. How does your contested space shape what it is to be a young person?3. How does it work to shape youth organizations?4. How does it work to shape youth programmes, projects and services?5. How does it work to shape youth work and civic youth work?6. How does it work to shape youth policy?7. How does it work to shape the ability to reflect on youth programmes?8. What are the histories of your contested space?9. How are these histories precisely relevant to your youth work with young people?10. How are this space and the people who inhabit it (and in particular the young

people in this space), viewed by others?


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B: What is violence, in general.1. How does it work to shape everyday life for everyone?2. How does the violence in your contested space work to shape what it is to be

a young person?3. How does the violence in your contested space work to shape what it is to be

a youth organization?4. How does the violence in your contested space work to shape what it means

to be a youth programme, project and service?5. How does the violence in your contested space work to shape youth policy?6. How does the violence in your contested space work to shape youth work and

civic youth work?7. How does the violence in your contested space work to shape evaluation of

youth programmes and the ability to reflect on them?

C: What other specifics must you know about violence in contested spaces to go aboutdoing civic youth work in that context?

D: How do you think young people world answer each of these questions?

E: How would you answer these questions, both privately and in your public persona?

F: And when answering as a (civic) youth worker?

G: What value was there when you used these questions to think about, plan and carry-out your work?

What questions need to be asked to reflect of the specifics of your space?


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Activity: Mapping your community (Inside Out – Outside In)Objectives• To help youth workers understand how the local area where they work lives as acontested space.

• To facilitate a discussion about the context of youth work and how it shapes whatactivities and practice are present.

Steps1. On a single sheet of paper (the larger the better) draw a rough outline of what you

take to be your local community. Leave enough space inside and outside of theboundary to write.

2. Now, focus on the inside of the boundary.• Where are the major landmarks? What institutions exist (churches, schools, etc.)?What types of businesses are in the community and where are they located?Whatyouth organizations exist?What associations or community clubs exist? Place all ofthese on your map.• What groups of people are located in the community? Do they frequent or occupya particular location? How do they move within the community?• Where are young people in the community? What space is available to them?What youth programmes, initiatives, opportunities exist? Where? Given what isavailable, what space is safe/ dangerous/ open and safe only some times during theday/ etc. for young people?• What space is off-limits to young people?• Where does violence take place? Where can young people go to be protected, orfeel safe?• How does the space change at night?• How does the space change at particular times of the year / around specific events /when certain things happen?

3. Now focus on the outside. What are the perceived threats to the local community?Where do these threats come from? Who are the outsiders who come into thecommunity regularly? Where do they come from?Why?Who decided the shape ofyour community? For what reasons?What changes might affect it’s future shape andboundaries?

4. Now think about the map from your own perspective:Where are the places that youfrequent? Why these places? What places are safe for you to visit? Which are not?Can you go into some of these places with others? Who? What do you have toconstantly watch for as you walk in these places? How has this place changed overtime for you?

5. Now consider the questions above, how does the information you gathered and listedprovide an answer to the questions? What questions does it not answer? Why?Whatnew questions emerge?


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Activity: Understanding inter-group tensionsObjectives• To better understand how contested space(s) shape what work takes place, where,when and by whom.

• To facilitate a discussion on contested space(s) and how they are created andmaintained in your local area.

Steps1. Draw a large circle on a piece of paper. Leave enough space both inside and outside of

the circle for writing.2. Inside the circle draw smaller circles or other shapes, each representing a group that is

present where you work.3. Inside the shapes, put both the name and the characteristics of the group members.

How do you know that someone belongs to this group? Do they wear certainclothing? Listen to certain music? Hold certain opinions?

4. Are there groups or people that may not be present where you work but still have animpact on your work (are there groups that are perceived as threatening and may“invade” at any moment, etc.?)

5. Draw a solid line between groups that get along.6. Now draw dashed lines between those groups that often do not agree or get along.7. Draw an x line between the groups that do not interact with each other.8. What other relationships between the groups exist? How can you represent this?9. How many connections exist between different groups?10. Now consider the questions above, how does the information you gathered and listed

provide an answer to the questions? What questions does it not answer? Why?

Youth Organizations, Programmes, Projects and ServicesMost work with youth is structured, located, and supported within organizations. Whileoften described in ways that they support or develop young people, they also construct, attimes, the worlds young people can live in. If we do not offer opportunities for youngpeople to engage in improving their communities, we cannot complain that young peopleare not civically engaged. It can be more accurate to say that the community does not wantyoung people to be engaged. What we co-create with them is indeed the world they live in.The activities, programmes, projects, services and organizations all shape the possibilities ofwhat is available to young people in addition to the choices and commitments they make.

About Organizations, Programmes, Projects and Services: General• All organizations embody the contested space and may themselves be contested.• All organizations and groups in contested spaces to some degree exist in relation to

the violence and tension; including formal bureaucratic-type agencies, paramilitaries,criminal gangs and youth groups.

• All organizations are shaped in structure, mission, resources and practices by thesesame realities and every type shows it differently, more or less.

• Inter-organizational networks are highly politicized and can be more and less thanthey seem.


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• Coalitions between organizations are a fact of political and social life, however oftenthese may shift due to violence and related realities.

• All responses to young people in contested spaces and to the space itself embody thetensions and are at times contested themselves.

• In contested spaces, “youth programme” can be read through that lens and respondedto as “political programmes.”

• Adults contest youth over control of these forms of response.• Membership is highly contested, with potentially grave penalties for youth and close

others for joining and participation, or not.

About Organizations, Programmes, Projects and Services: Specific toYour Place and Time1. What types of organizations and groups are allowed?2. How does your contested space allow and prevent, support, and discourage certain types

of formal and informal groups and organizations, for example programmes, agencies,associations, and the like? (Please be exact, specific, and use precise particulars).

3. Are citizen groups (voluntary organizations) permitted?4. Is there more than one political/religious group with a variety of different positions?5. Are there organized paramilitaries? What are their names?What do they do?What is

their presence in everyday life? How is this experienced?Who is each affiliated withpolitically, religiously, socially, economically?

6. Who is active? (age, gender and so on)7. Are these youth-specific groups (not service organizations)?8. Are there youth-serving programmes?9. Are there youth services?10. Where does funding for these come from?11. Are there international donors who have a particular interest in funding for young

people? What is the agenda of these donors?12. Are there governmental ministries that have youth as their focus?13. Who are the “major players” on local youth issues and what organizations do they

work for/ represent?14. What are youth programmes, projects, and services in contested spaces (along with

other local formations and terms)?15. Given the context, what are their purposes, how are they organized, by whom, under

what auspices and with what funds?16. What effect has all of these on what actually is available locally to youth in your area?

You will have your own questions, about youth services, organisations and projects, shapedby your context and circumstances and those of the young people you work with.


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Activity:Activities available to young peopleObjectives• To explore what opportunities are available for young people in the local area.• To consider how this list of opportunities shapes both young people and the local area.• To facilitate a reflection on the questions above and consider how all of this impacts

on youth work where we live.StepsIn small groups brainstorm a list of programmes, projects, and services for young people inyour local area.

Once you have an exhaustive list, consider:• How could you group these activities? Which have similar focus (e.g. sports, arts,

academic-focus)?What have a similar strategy (e.g. adult-led, skill training, youthempowerment)?

• What of these activities were designed with, rather than for, young people?• What of these activities did/ do young people have a powerful say in what goes on,

when, and how?

Take the list you createdand the analysis youconducted and use it tohelp answer thequestions above.

A mapping exercise ofyouth provision in thearea can be found in theappendix


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6. Understandingyoung people incontested spaces

In this section, we look at some of thetheoretical understanding of youth,and youth in contested space. Whilstsome of these ideas can appearabstract, it is important to understandwhere we stand – our orientation toyoung people and our work with them.

Our conception of youth/young people is called social constructionist, developmental,existential and phenomenological. What these things mean is that we conceive of youngpeople as biological beings whose bodies and minds mature in clear ways towards increasingcomplexity. They are driven by a genetic-chemical unfolding of a genetic “blueprint”(developmental). This takes place within socio-cultural, political, economic, religiouscontexts which contribute content to the substance and shape of all persons and uniquelyto each as she learns and lives the sociocultural expectations locally appropriate for her/hischronological age (social constructionist). Making sense out of self and body-in-her-world(phenomenology) and choosing and acting on these meanings, thus crafting herself in hereveryday life-worlds (existentialism). All of this is only one take on youth.

There are others, for example developmental deterministic in which the social is given only aminor role and the genetic, neurochemical is given larger roles. Others believe that it is“fate” or “destiny” which shapes the individual; to others it is their all-knowing being whichshapes the individual, while to others it is in answering God’s call that we are shaped by ourvocation. All of these understandings of young person stand on a deeper ground.

This deeper ground (in one conception) is philosophical: what is human being? What isyouth human being? Such questions guide us to the conceptions, beliefs and taken-for-granted assumptions, on top of which are built the scientific — the sociological,anthropological, political, economic, psychological, and religious conceptions, images andmodels of human being, young person, youth. Debates over different conceptions of youngperson are often deeper differences over these deeper and unsaid or in-articulated images ofyouth — over philosophical anthropology — in the notions of which stand otherconceptions.


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Young person’s story – Palestine“I don’t knowhow to start, but I knowwhat difference PublicAchievementmade forme.This year i was involved in this project through an organizationcalledQuakerswhich is in Ramallah city. I like to shout very loudly to let allthe people hearmy voicewhen am speaking about PA.Themain goal for PAin Palestine is to help teenagers andmake them creative, skilled participantsin the society. I notice the change inmy group and how they have becomemore creative and skilled, I feel proud forwhat I did formy society, and soglad because every newmeeting I have newparticipants askme if they canjoin us in themeetings.Also I am changed, I feel like a leader or someonewho canmake a change in this society.”(Anas Alsarabta, Coach with Public Achievement,West Bank)

The same is true of contested spaces and youth work:• What deep ground does each stand on?• What conceptions of person, the social context, the nature of conflict, evil, the moral

and the ethical, and so on?

All of this matters deeply in contested spaces because it may be precisely here thatdifferences are intuited or known and become set, resulting in us versus them, good versusevil, the right and the wrong, and the rest. This is surely not the whole of it, for there ishistory, place/time, persons, power and more.We do not claim that something cannecessarily be changed for the better if we examine its deep sources, roots and grounding;however, we are trying to understand our world of youth, contested space and youth workand thus have to engage these questions and ourselves and each other around thesequestions.

Making Sense of ‘Youth’Youth is thought of and treated in several ways; firstly - youth is an idea that is social andcultural, political and economic. It is a societal way of organizing age and time and eachsociety (and group) does it slightly differently.

Secondly, youth is a symbol or representation - a cultural meaning about chronological age.Countries and companies are said to be adolescent-like, while some older persons are seenas youthful. In this sense, youth is used as a metaphor of future or energy. Movies,television, and music often caricature young people in ways which are said to be “typical ofthat age,” (e.g. rebellious or moody). What makes this so challenging is that there are reallychanges in body shape and chemistry and neurology and much else during this period ofphysical development. The deep and crucial question is whether these changes are likely tobring about or are likely to be brought about by observable changes in how young peopleperform the social role “youth”.


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Young person’s story – Northern Ireland“Violence isn’t just about hitting and fighting, lots of different things areviolence, like bullying and calling names. Sometimes you think that’s justraking but it can harm the people so it is violence to them. I understandmorenowabout howpeople feel when they experience violence. I learnt that itwas better towork together because even if you think people are different toyou theymight be having the same problems as you at it’s better if you canwork on things together to get the best results.We all got on reallywellbecausewewereworking on thingswhichwere important to us.There areother peoplewho can help you to get things done, not just young people butpeople in the community and politicians and other organisationswho canhelp you if you ask them” (Jackie Spence, Belfast)

Thirdly youth is a set of social expectations about how to act, think and feel at certainchronological/biological ages. These expectations are used to assess whether a particularindividual or a group of them is acting appropriately for their age. Related to this is the ideathat youth is a performance, an accomplishment of the social role and of social expectationswhich make-up the role. In demographic terms, youth is the population of all personsmeeting local age definitions (which can be anything between 5 and 35 years old).

Finally, youth is an actual individual, as in a young person.

This position is called social constructionism, meaning that we attend to how the actualhuman body and persons mature in socio-cultural, political, economic and spiritual context;how each age-group in a population contributes to making this happen and the results ofthis for the people themselves, for others and for the community and society.

In contrast is naturalism, which holds that young person is primarily a biologicalphenomenon that matures in the same contexts. We (from our position) put moreemphasis on the context being in effect an active player in the maturation process.

Youth workers and scholars increasingly frame individual maturation in terms ofdevelopment. Remember - maturation occurs naturally; development is the human framingof maturation, and, as such, may be imbued and laced with more than biology, neurologyand physiology—social and religious values and beliefs can be used to place differentmeanings and worth on maturation, leading to one individual or group being seen as more(or less) advanced, good, right, or better than another based on different rates ofdevelopment and different developmental outcomes, for example. The adolescent is theacademic and scientific young person. Youth is the everyday person—they live in aparticular context and both shape and are shaped by this context. In the experience ofyouth workers in the YouthWork in Contested Spaces network, violence forces young peopleto grow up too quickly, or it prevents people from maturing naturally. It hinders their abilityto learn, and narrows their world, their perspective and their opportunities.


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Every young person as a self makes sense out of their world and situation and is seen asacting based on these meanings. Certainly, there is neurology and chemistry, and there is aworld of everyday life that each person is a part of; my life is not out there or over there, it isme and mine, here and now (along with my memory of then/there and my dreams ofwhen/where). This must be remembered when we think about youth and working withthem directly and on their behalf.

This notion of the existential self-in-the-world is basic to a youth work that embodies theinvitation to young person to co-create new realities in the community and group, for eachof them and for others. Individuals live in life-worlds and go about doing themselves on theground of everyday life. Direct youth work is practiced in, on and through this everydayness.

Why does all this academic stuff matter? Because youth work is about helping, aboutenhancing the life-possibilities of young people, about working with them to make thiscurrent life-work and community a better place. We must be very clear about who we wantto help, why, how, and for what results. For example, we may have greater impact of acertain kind if we work successfully to change the social expectations making-up the role ofyoung women - allowing her to work outside the home or to be involved in a youth civicaction group - than by counseling every young person who we think needs this (regardlessof what they want).

What was left-out when thinking about youth and youth work is one important point.Along with who/what/why/with what legitimacy, how and with what results, are who isusing what theory of young people and what theory of intervention or personal, group orcommunal change. These questions are basic to youth work and how it is practiced. Thereare many models and forms of youth work, and we need to be explicit about ourphilosophical positions, the kinds of outputs and outcomes we seek to achieve and why.

Everyday LifeEveryday life is a fact of life, as well as a concept which gets at this life-fact. It is both theeverydayness of mundane, ordinary life and what is called pre-reflective consciousness —our awareness of being a part of the world that comes before thinking about ourselves inthe world. For youth work to be effective, it may have to change several things, including:• Local ways of doing everyday life• Young person’s understanding of her/his everyday life• How each youth goes about doing and being herself/himself as part of her/his

everyday life.• Sense of what is normal and acceptable

This is one direction for evaluating youth programmes, for answering youth policy and forexamining the effects of youth work as an intervention. Youth work is always inconversation with local youth policy, actual young people (not theorized young people) inthe local area, and the norms of the place based on history, culture, society, and group.


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About Young People: General• Young people themselves are contested bodies and beings.• The contested space is found within and around each youth and adult; they embody

and live it.• They live in and through the violence and plan for it and for how to avoid it; and at

times, how to engage in it, exacerbate it, prevent it.• Violence and contested space are ordinary and are calculable in figuring-out one’s day

and dreaming of one’s possibilities.• Being a youth, performing the social role “youth” and being oneself as a youth are all

grounded in local particularities of the conflict.• The conflict is both current and present, and remote, depending on a range of factors,

perspectives and circumstances.• This shapes the realities and experiences of school, work, play, friendships, and so on in

ways tiny to huge.• Young people must (and do) learn to read their own (and larger) worlds using political,

ethnic and related frames in ways, which have great and often immediateconsequence for them and those they are close to, both consciously andunconsciously.

• Young people may see themselves as “old for their age,” as “having seen too muchalready,” as potent in small and impotent in other, larger affairs.

• In spite of the circumstances of young people’s lives, they repeatedly demonstrate thepersistence of hope, the embodiment of promise, vibrant creativity and thepossibilities of being efficacious on issues.

• Young people are available—to be recruited by both “good” people and “bad” people.The bad are often more skillful, with more “youth workers” and more other resources:they often win allegiance because of fear, lack of choice and by having exciting thingsto offer such as power, status and physical resources.

• Young people amaze others regularly and even themselves, occasionally, when theyact collectively and are effective in small to large ways.

• Young people may not be seen as complete persons or citizens, but rather as grown-children or emergent adults.

• outh are seen in biological and political terms and also in developmental terms. Eachperspective opens some and closes other perceptions and actual possibilities in theireveryday lives in these spaces.

Questions about Young People: Specific to Your Place and TimeA: How does age as such work to shape lives and opportunities in your local contested

space?1. How does age work when family, sex, race/ethnicity, religion, social class,

capacity, sexual orientation are added in, one at a time and then taken intotal?

2. In your context, what are the words that are used for young people, in yourlanguage and in English (e.g. youth, young person, teenager, adolescent,student, worker, etc.)? Can you match the words with ages, e.g. 14-16 years,and if appropriate, with sex, family, race and the other social factors?


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3. What are the essential features of each term; and of each way ofunderstanding youth?

4. Does each word in your context refer to a distinct way of doing and being ayouth? What are these specifics?

5. What are the local ways that young people show how they are “mature,”“good,” and “responsible,” “immature,” “bad,” and “irresponsible;” as well asother relevant notions of youth development (e.g. physical capacity, mentalability, friendships, family relations, work, civic duty, and so on)?

Young person’s story – South Africa

“Weplanned a campaign against violence on young people. Lots of childrenare being abused and nothing is done to stop it.Wemade announcementsand posters in our community andmade a radio broadcast.We also plannedamarch through the township.We are voicing our opinions – all people haveto listen.Wewanted to convey amessage – child abusemust stop.To do thiswewanted to learnmore and see others views andwhowas there to help.Themarchwas very powerful –we all stood together and even old peoplecame out to support us. It was important for the young people to know thatthe community supported themon stamping out violence against youngpeople.We couldn’t have knownwe couldmake such a difference in society.It reallymade a difference on other kids.This is an important lesson for us.”(Gugulethu, Cape Town)

B: What is everyday, ordinary life like for young people, in your contested space?1. What is this like for young people in each age-grouping? How do you

categorise these groupings and why?2. What is this like for young people of each gender?3. What are everyday friendships like?4. What is everyday life schooling like?5. What is everyday family life like?6. How and when does the everyday get disrupted?7. Can young people stay together in groups? Where?What types and size?8. What public space can young people use safely?9. What are the different youth worlds which exist in your area?10. What opportunities are there for young people to engage these youth worlds?11. What are the ways young people use their time?12. How does this differ by age, sex, and other social factors?

C: What are the particular ways young people in your area are involved in the violence?1. Are there age-specific forms of participation in the violence?2. Are there age/sex specific roles?3. What are the particular ways young people avoid active involvement in the

violence?


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4. Can young people actually avoid being touched by the violence and thecontested space which they are a part of?

5. Are there ways for young people to be citizens (e.g. take on citizen roles, doingcivic work, for school or community, etc.)?

6. How can young people be involved “politically” in your area?7. Can young people contribute to public debate on their issues and/or on

community issues? In what ways?

You will have your own questions, shaped by your context and circumstances and those ofthe young people you work with.

Activity: Images of young peopleObjectives• To describe the implicit and explicit ways different community groups and individuals

see and make sense of young people.• To gain understanding of how contested spaces shapes the lives of young people.

Steps• For a week or more collect the daily paper in your area.• Together in a group, read through the paper and circle or cut out any article that

focuses or talks about (to) young people.• Take all the articles you found and read them keeping these questions in mind:

- What is the theme of the articles?-What situations are the young people in?-What is the tone of the article—positive, negative?- How young people are described or portrayed—victims, dangerous, saints, thefuture? List the words and terms used to describe young people/youth. What arethe headlines and how do they portray young people?

Using the insights and information that you have just gathered, how can it be used toanswer the questions asked above?


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7. Programme planning and evaluationAction-ResearchWe do action research all the time in our everyday lives, using recipes for repetitive acts(don’t have to think about that; I just know what to do and how to do it), like posting aletter or making a phone call. It is when we come up against something new that we stopto figure it out. One way of sorting it out is to think about what it is like that we alreadyknow, e.g. turning on a new house gadget or work tool is like turning on a phone. A secondway is to read the instructions, if there are these. A third way is to work it out using thetotality of our general stock of knowledge — such as recipe knowledge, analogy, and all thestuff we know — practical and theoretical.

When we do this, we become in effect action-researchers; examining, defining, collectingmore information, analyzing (using theories, practice wisdom), making an action-hypothesis— this is likely to happen if I do that — doing it, collecting information to see if it worked(evaluation); if it worked—GREAT! If it does not work, we typically try again, starting theaction-research process from another point, farther along, because we now know whatdidn’t work that time.

Youth work as Action-ResearchYouth work can be done like this — as action-research— with attentiveness to what is,what we want to get done, some options, action, checking-out to see if we got it right.

It is also important to take time to check out, in this action research way, the things wealready know about and how to do well — our recipe knowledge. We don’t want to getstuck doing something a certain way when that way may no longer work or make sensebecause of a certain change in context, for example the need to respond to something thathas happened in the community, or the need to adjust a project because new members havejoined. We don’t want to rely on technique, but want technique to be part of the larger wayof working— what is called praxis.

EvaluationFor many researchers, funders and donors, the rule and the mantra is - empirically-basedpractice, by which is meant that best practice(s) is/are those which have empirical, scientificsupport, that is those which are proven or demonstrated effective through rigorous researchin theWestern Positivist tradition.

For example:If rigorous empirical research has shown a causal/direct positive relationship between aparticular infant diet and the infant’s growth and development, caritas paribus (all thingsbeing equal), then using that diet is best practice.If there is a technique for teaching children to ride a bicycle that has been proven inempirical research to reduce learning time by half in comparison to other techniques, allthings being equal, using that technique is best practice.


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If young women are taught in gender-segregated classrooms because (1) elders say it mustbe done this way and (2) it has always been done this way, this is NOT best practice in theWestern scientific sense. However, it may be best practice in that local context, and even animprovement in the rights of girls because they are being offered an education.

Under conditions of active violence, with homes and streets being bombed and civilians beingshot at, the first and smartest thing to do is to find and protect children and teenagers. Thisis commonsense, the right thing to do and very good practice! But since it is not proven in aWestern scientific sense, it does not meet that specific test of empirically-based practice.

Why does this stuff matter?Because governments, donor agencies and other funders are increasingly requiring youthprogrammes, projects and services to show that what they propose to do is to implementempirically-proven approaches/models, methods and techniques. In everyday terms, theywant proof that what you propose to do is the likely most effective, likely the best (and theywould like it also to be least costly!).

And even if you can show that what you want to do meets that test of empirically-provenpractice, you will also have to evaluate your programme, project or service. A great startingpoint for an action research approach, is the development of an evaluation logic model.

A test -What are the local best practices (in your area) for the following:• Paramilitary recruitment of children and youth as soldiers?• Responding to former child and adolescent soldiers who have moved back to

neighborhoods/villages where you work?• Crisis response to teenagers who have experienced violence or some other trauma?• Adolescents who have been moved out of their neighborhoods after threats by

paramilitaries?• Teenagers who won’t go to school because they are attacked by other teenagers (and

sometimes adults) when they see by their school uniforms that they come from aneighborhood where mostly “they” live?

• Local religious leaders, allied with a local paramilitary forbade adolescent girls fromattending school?

• Children in your contested space bully each other with increasing violence?• Planning to bring young people from one community/tradition to meet those from

another (‘opposing’) tradition?

The ethos of civic youth work requires that young people be involved in all possible aspectsof the work, including recruiting, selecting, training, supervising, assessing and evaluatingAway fromViolence efforts. Involving young people in authentic, meaningful, viable,practical and necessary ways of evaluating their own work and the work of adults doingAway FromViolence projects means adopting this ethos and adapting practice to localconditions. It can also mean giving away some of your authority as a worker, taking risks,and having to sit on your hands when you feel like intervening.


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Programme Evaluation: General• There is almost no formal, scientific programme evaluation or evaluation research.• The exception is when it is required by international donors and NGO’s.• There is much work which is “action-research” like, with youth practitioners reflecting

on their work using data collected while doing the work from young people,themselves and colleagues.

• Some may experience evaluation as an imposition or threat – something the funderinsists on, that might result in funding being cut or stopped. It is important to realisethe value that evaluation has for you as a practitioner, for the young people involvedin the project and for the development and improvement of the work in which youand others are engaged. Good evaluation helps us to be better and more effectiveyouth workers.

Programme Evaluation: Specific to Your Place and Time• What are the goals for your work and/or youth programmes in the organization you

work in, the local area you serve, the larger context?• What approaches are seen to be effective? What evidence is used to support their

effectiveness?• What have we learned from what we have done in the past?• As a result of what we have learned, what will we do differently?

You will have your own questions about evaluation, shaped by your context andcircumstances and those of the young people you work with.

Activity:Articulating how the programme/practice operatesObjective• To understand more clearly how youth workers think their programme works to

achieve its goals and objectives.• To describe how programmes work, the result of the work, and over time their desired

impacts.• To develop a straightforward way of planning and evaluating the work.

StepsHand out three sheets of paper to each individual or team. Ask each team or individual todevelop a story about how a young person might move through a programme.

On the first sheet ask each individual or team to draw a picture of young people cominginto the programme. Who are they? What are their issues, challenges, needs, and wants?Why do they come? How did they hear about the programme?

On the second sheet ask each individual or team to draw a picture of what happens to theyoung person when they enter the programme. What is the experience when they firstarrive? What activities do they participate in? How do they change (do they learnsomething new, have unique experiences, etc.)?


38

On the third sheet ask each individual or team to draw a picture of what happens to theyoung person when they leave the programme. Who are they now? What challenges mightthey now face? What choices do they make as a result of the programme?

When the drawings are complete have each individual or team present their story to thelarger group. Have someone take notes, usually on flip charts — label the sheets as: prior to;during; and after.

As the individuals or teams present their stories write down what each says about each ofthe different moments in the overall story. Especially pay attention to who they say isserved by the programme, what activities they participate in, what kind of immediate thingshappen to the participants in the programme, and how they see the participants changingafter being in the programme. Have the individual and teams talk about the similarities ordifferences in their drawings.Introduce the idea of logic model. A logic model is a descriptive way of describing aprogramme, and includes four components: inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes. (see theexample on the next page)

Inputs: resources a programme uses to carry out its activities, for example, staff, supplies,volunteers, money or expertise.Activities: the actual work or service of a programme. Things that volunteers, staff do andthe things that young people participate in. This includes, for example: counseling, high-adventure trips, international exchanges, training, video production, and so on.Outputs: The accomplishments, products, or services of a programme. What can becounted. For example, 10 hours of service to the community by eight young people, 10sessions of training on work skills, 2 videos created.Outcomes: Changes that occur in people as a result of participating in the activities andreaching the accomplishments. These can be described as short, intermediate, or long term.Indicators: Logic models sometimes also include indicators. These are helpful as they areways of knowing that an outcome has been reached.

Have the individuals or teams now take their story boards and what the group discussedand describe their programme in a logic model.

Example of a logic model is on the next page:


39

logicmodel

Thistoolcanbeusefulbothtoyouthworkersplanningsessionsandalsoforyoungpeopletoplananactionprojecteffectively.Outcome

drivenplanningcanbeveryattractivetofundersandalsoensuresthatactivitiesandresourcesputintotheprojectareappropriateto

achievethedesiredoutcomes.

INPUTS

(resourcesputintothe

project)

Coffee

Water

Electricity

Kettle

Cup

Spoon

(milkandsugar)

Timeandskillofperson

makinganddrinkingthe

coffee

ACTIVITIES

-aspoonfulofcoffeeis

placedinacup

-waterisboiledinan

electrickettle

-boiledwaterispoured

onthecoffee

-thecoffeeisstirred

withaspoon

-someonedrinksthe

coffee

OUTPUTS(how

canwe

measurethattaskshave

beencompleted)

Ahotcupofcoffeeis

produced

OUTCOMES

Thedrinkerenjoysthe

coffee

Thedrinkerismorealert

INDICATORS

Thewholecuphasbeen

drunk

Thedrinkerexpresses

satisfaction

Thedrinkerhasabetter

abilitytoconcentrateand

feelylessdrowsythan

beforethecoffeewas

consumed


40

YOUTHWORKINCONTESTED

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Youngpeople

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41

8. Activities: exploring violence withyoung people.

Sweetie game

Purpose – to simulate the creation of a conflict and to help young people to understand thedynamics and emotions involved in conflict.

Group size – between 8 and 20

Resources – one baton, sweets or other prizes, two or more facilitators.

Participants are divided into two teams of equal numbers and asked to form two lines,facing each other with their eyes closed. One facilitator stands at each end of the lines. Atone end the facilitator holds the baton. Groups are told that when they feel their arm beingsqueezed at the other end of the line they should, silently, pass the squeeze down the lineand when it reaches the person at the end they should grab the baton. The winning teamshould be given excessive praise by the facilitators and sweets or other prizes. The otherteam should be heavily criticized for losing the game. At this point the losing team is askedto leave the room and the winning team are told that they can make up a new rule for thegame, which will prevent the other team winning. The other team is then invited back andthe cycle is repeated several times more.

Feedback - The facilitators should stop the game before the losing team becomes too irateor discouraged. A conversation should follow on how it felt to be part of each team.Typically the winning team will feel excited to have won and feel very positive about thegame, whereas the other team will feel that they didn’t have a chance and nothing they didcould have helped their situation; some may even have wanted to opt out of the gameentirely. Ask the young people about the emotions they felt during the game. When didthey feel the same or similar emotions in their lives and why?

Facilitators should then ask how this could relate to conflict; is it human nature to want tolook after your own team even at the expense of others? Were the winning team aware ofthe affect their success was having on others? Did the losing team feel frustrated or eveninclined to resort to violence because they felt their situation was hopeless?


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Four Corners debateGroup size – up to 10 - 30 participants, two facilitators.

Resources - large sized room with four printed signs in the corners reading: AGREE, AGREESTRONGLY, DISAGREE, NOT SURE

Explain to participants that a number of statements will be read out and for eachparticipants should stand under the sign which relates to their feeling of the subject andthat they will be asked to discuss why they chose this position:AGREE – definitely agree with this statementDISAGREE – definitely disagree with this statementSTRONGLY AGREE – feel strongly (passionate) about the statementNOT SURE – haven’t decided yet whether or not I agree or disagree with this

After statements are read out, participants are asked to move to a corner corresponding totheir view and share with the group why they chose to stand where they are and given theopportunity to present a case for their argument. Be sure to interview a number of theparticipants as there may be a variety of reasons why they chose that position. Participantsare then given the opportunity to change their opinion and explain why.

Statements:Start with some quite benign or fun questions such as “raspberry jam is nicer thanstrawberry jam”, “girls are not good at playing football”. This will make the activity clearerand also give people the opportunity to talk to each other and practice debating aboutissues that are not of such great significance. Then move on to make statements aboutcurrent political, social or community events which are relevant to that group and whichparticipants may have difference of opinions on. Try to frame the questions in ways whichencourage opposing positions – for example ‘women should have the right to choose tohave an abortion’ (this is a very strong example and may not be appropriate in everycontext).Warning!:This exercise requires great skill on the part of the facilitators. We recommendthat you use it with a group of your peers before using it with young people.

Feedback - It is better to have two facilitators, as one can be ‘interviewing’ the corners andthe other can watch the body language of the other participants. Facilitators should beprepared to contribute to the debate – in particular to present arguments that have notbeen heard (not necessarily their own), and to support those in a minority position whenthey are feeling ‘attacked’. Emotions may run high, and you should take time to debriefafter the exercise. It is important to emphasize for example that people take differentpositions on different arguments, and that people may feel passionate about some difficultor controversial issues, but not others. Explore how individuals hold different opinions andhow this can lead to conflict if these are not expressed, discussed and debated. Discussagain how people felt during the exercise, and how this relates to conflict.

Motto


43

Community Shields

Purpose - For individuals to look at and begin to think about their community surroundings.Group size – anyResources - Card with shield drawn on and markers

Description

The group go away by themselves and think about their shields. This gives them a chance towrite down their own personal feelings about their community and then as a whole groupthey can share these.

Feedback - It may bring about some discussion about the community. You may need to asksome questions to get young people to discuss things they might be reluctant to put ontheir shields – for example, where do young people go to get away from adults, to drink andso on. In addition, they may be reluctant to talk about some influences such as paramilitarygroups or gangs.

What I like in my Community What I dislike in my Community

What I would change aboutmy community

Influences in my community...(Teachers, youth workers, polititions)


44

Your Space

Purpose - For the group to have something visual to look at when drawing up map of area,and to get them thinking about what is important to them in their community. To get thegroup to look at their communities together and map out places where they feelsafe/unsafe.

Group size - any

Resources - Cameras, computer, printer, large card, markers, photos, glue.

Description - In groups of 2-4, let the young people walk around their area to take photosof places that stand out to them and help them to describe their community and the peoplein their area. Ask the group to draw up a rough map of their area. When they havecompleted their map ask them to highlight places where they feel safe, and others whereunsafe or threatened.

Feedback - Ask the group to talk about what they have marked. Do these labels changedepending on the time of day, or the local circumstances at a particular time of the year?Are these places different for males and females and for different members of the group?You might also ask young people how they feel they are seen (perceived) by others in thecommunity, and why.

It is often useful to keep thesemaps, and to go back to themafter time to seewhat haschanged. This is a useful way of evaluatingwith the group, and gives you evidence ofchange.


45

Appendix

Activity: Survey of youth organisationsObjectives• To describe the array of youth organizations at work in the local or regional area.• To examine what organizations are supported in the local area and which ones are

not?• To discuss how youth organizations often shape the everyday lives of young people?

StepsList the youth organizations in your areaComplete the survey belowNow, how might the completed survey answer some of the questions above?

Question None 1-2 3-4 5+

How many organizations provide sport orathletic activities for young people?

How many organizations provide artistic(art, theater, music, dance, etc.) activitiesfor young people?

How many organizations provide leadershipopportunities? (on the back list which ones)

How many organizations provideopportunities for young people to learnabout technology and how to use it (videodevelopment, web design, etc.)?

How many organizations provideopportunities for academic support?

How many organizations support youngpeople to design, develop, and conductcommunity improvement projects?

How many organizations work to lessenviolence in the community?

How many organizations employ youngpeople on staff?


46

Question None 1-2 3-4 5+

How many organizations have youngpeople on their managing boards (or havea Youth Advisory Council or somethingsimilar)?

How many organizations have adjustedwhat they do and when based on feedbackfrom young people?

How many organizations conduct a yearlyevaluation of their programmes or practice?

How many organizations partner withsomeone else?

How many organizations have publicdisplays of young people’s work and/oraccomplishments?

What youth programmes would havedifficulty getting funding in your localcontext?

What youth programmes, projects orservices would have not problem gettingfunding?

What projects or programmes are easy torecruit young people for?

What projects or programmes are difficultto recruit young people for?

building democracy - international resource

Documents

network of courageous

internationalizedtheir

reflective practice

extraordinary work co

important approach

findthe approach

special thanks

youth workers