This network is for anyone involved in or interested in work with young people in Scotland. We hope it will be a place where we can support, encourage and resource each other. So join up and tell your friends.
I think I’ve decided to do my research for my masters on the use of social media in church-based youth work in Scotland. I could of course change my mind again but on reflection this seems to be something that would be both interesting and worth doing.
I’d still like to have a go at ‘does youth work work?’ but think that might make a better large scale project for me and my lovely colleagues at the URC.
So, If you’re reading this and are involved in church-based youth work in Scotland let me know so I can come and interview you and your young people some time in the new year.
Anyone with any ideas and/or suggestions, please feel free to contribute said ideas anytime you like.
Barnardo’s released a report called Break The Cycle today. The research conducted by YouGov shows that:
just under half (49%) of people believe that children are increasingly a danger to each other and adults
43% agree something has to be done to protect us from children
45% think that children are feral in the way they behave.
A survey conducted amongst Barnardo’s young people – just over half of whom have been in trouble – found that most of them thought that young people get into trouble because of boredom and peer pressure.
Of the 393 youngsters, aged between 10 and 23:
44% said bad behaviour is encouraged when the media portrays their peers as misbehaving
84% said young people get into trouble because of boredom
88% said having more things to do and places to go might stop young people getting into trouble
32% would go to friends for help if they were in trouble
This report reminded me of a couple of things.
The first is that very wise saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. Children are not aliens. They don’t materialise on the streets from outer space. They are ours. Our children, grandchildren, cousins, newphews and nieces and friends.
The Scottish Children’s Commissioner found last year that 64% of adults would like to volunteer to work with children and young people but only 5% actually do.
The blame, if there is any blame to be had, is squarely with us, adults. We ignore our children. We leave them to do what they please because it suits us. We don’t get involved with them. We don’t provide clubs, organisations, sports, art, music or education because we can’t be bothered. We’d rather watch tv and complain.
It takes a village to raise a child means that the whole of society is responsible. We all need to take an interest, provide opportunities, volunteer. Not someone else, you. We’re happy to drop our kids off at clubs and organisations and Sunday School but how many of us offer to help out?
Our chat is being recorded as part of the Something Beautiful podcasts so I’ll try to speak clearly and even make sense. All I’ll say for now is that I liked the audio book and it resonates with lots of the things I’ve written about and spoken about over the past few years so expect lots of soapbox rants!
The other day my colleague emailed to say that he was working with a church who were considering employing a youth worker but they had asked a question that had stumped him.
‘Will employing a youth worker make a difference?’
It stumped him because they were asking for hard proof. Not a series of anecdotes. Not some platitudes or fob offs. They really wanted to know.
So, that’s my question. Does employing a youth worker make a difference? How do you know? Who says?
I’ll post some thoughts soon but I’d like to hear your stories, evaluation methods and research.
125 years ago in a church hall in Glasgow William Alexander Smith gathered together a group of young men because he was worried that there was little for boys to do and that idleness would lead them into trouble.
Sound familiar?
What became of that meeting was the Boys’ Brigade (note the position of the apostrophe!), an organisation which has endured the decades, serving countless boys like me.
I grew up in the BB. My parents and their friends started a company when I was 5. There was only a short time between then and my 18th birthday when I wasn’t a member and that was because we moved house. I have many brilliant and precious memories of my time in the BB, as both a boy, an officer and in my present role as a denominational youth officer.
I was at the youngest boy at the Centenary international camp at Scone Palace, I spent four of the worst days of my life on Arran completing my Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award, I was awarded my Queen’s Award and our company won the Battalion Flag and the National drill competitions. I was one of the people responsible for Crossover, a weekend festival of music, worship and activities attended over its 10 years by thousands of young people.
Those are all great memories but the thing I remember more are the people. John Shaw, Iain Barnstaple, Iain Patterson, George Arbuckle, Eddie & Rita Wright, Liz Laird, Alex and Margaret Linton and so many other grown-ups who invested their time and energy in me and my friends. I remember the Boys too. The older boys I wanted to be like, my peers and those younger boys entrusted to my care in my squad or at camp and later the boys of the company I was an officer in.
The BB gets a hard time because of the drill and the uniforms and the caricature of the shouting officer. Those are things that are easy to mock but they are far outweighed by the good things.
‘The promotion of the habits of obedience, reverence, discipline, self-respect and all that tends towards a true Christian manliness.’ That is the object of the Boys’ Brigade. Those are bold aims. High ideals. I wonder often if I live up to them. But I also know I would be a different person in probably a different place in the world if I had not been a BB.
I’m pretty sure that if grown-ups are willing to invest some of their time and energy in the Boys of the Boys’ Brigade, or Pilots, Scouts, Guides or Girls’ Brigade then the world would be a better place because the same problems that Smith wanted to address are still the problems of our world all those years later. Boys with nothing to do and no-one to take an interest. Boys lacking in confidence, skills and self-respect. Boys who don’t get enough exercise, who have few friends and who know little about faith.
Perhaps this 125th anniversary is an opportunity for the BB to look back at all that has been good and take those lessons forward to create a Boys’ Brigade for the next 125 years. I do hope so.
At Nairn last weekend we spent some time talking about accompaniment. Being with the young people in our groups, not to entertain them but to be with them on their journey.
These clips from The Legend of Bagger Vance seems to me to show the role of an accompanier.
The first clip is where Bagger (Will Smith) and Hardy are out pacing the course ahead of the match.
In the second clip Junuh (Matt Damon) is struggling. His new caddie, Bagger Vance, has watched him play the first of four rounds and let him make all the mistakes he can make. Now Junuh is ready to listen, to hear and to accept Bagger’s advice. Bagger starts the process of helping Junuh find his swing.
The thing for me about these clips is that Bagger only gives advice when asked. Advice comes as part of a conversation. Hardy must enter into the scene and swing the club. Bagger makes his comment about ‘the field’ but it’s then up to Junuh to respond. How many times do we give advice to people who don’t need it or don’t want it? Maybe it is good advice but just not the right time to give it.
Our role as youth workers is a privileged one. Young people allow us to accompany them. We need to make sure that we don’t misuse that position and that we are there for the long haul.
This clip comes three rounds later…
We all fail. We all fall down. Who are the people who will pick us up? Is that you? Do we pick people up when they fall or do we criticise and blame people for not getting it right?
In the end Bagger leaves. He leaves when Hardy is ready to take his place and when Junuh is ready to go on. That’s what accompanying people is all about. Traveling the part of the way we share.
Not so much an upgrade as an add on… Two chances for you to explore some nice tools for getting your church / group / self online. We’ll explore WordPress, the power behind this site and iChurch, as well as some social media tools. Both the Glasgow and Edinburgh workshops are limited to 8 people and you need to bring your own wireless enabled laptop. Both workshops are free.
To book a place email me at the address on the poster.
I know there are some of you out there… You youth workers doing your thing and blogging about it.
Chris is new to the blogosphere and in his enthusiasm has suggested that we should try to network Youth Ministry Bloggers in Scotland. I know there is a Scottish Christian page with lots of links to Christian bloggers somewhere that I can’t find now but I haven’t come across anything for Youth Work.
I’m happy to link to people from my site but if we find more than a few of you would anyone be interested in a collective blog where we could share ideas, resources and thoughts? I’d be willing to set something up if people are interested.
Leave a comment with your blog url if you’re interested and pass the word if you know anyone else who might be.
The rest of Sunday’s session went ok I think. We got into some of the upside to Open Source church and talked about how we could use social media to continue (or start) conversations like we have with Facebook and Twitter.
Sunday night was Christmas!!! We had a full Christmas dinner with turkey and all the trimmings followed by a Hootenany, a party where people get up and entertain the masses. It was great fun with ‘The Unknown Magician’ and Ishbel’s completion of Tam O’Shanter definately the highlights.
Monday was debate day. The deliverences (motions or statements) were presented by Avril for Healthy Relationships, Me for Media, Kenny for Sustainable Living and Angus for Future Church and you can see them on the wiki.
There was lots of discussion and lots more around the social media one than I thought there might be. People were really in favour of the church engaging with the web and the communication tools available. We suggested a weekly ’sabbath’ from tech to remind us that face to face relationships are important and that we shouldn’t be at the beck and call of our email. I got the feeling people didn’t really get the idea of a sabbath with some people thinking we were suggesting not using technology on a Sunday.
We tried using twitter as a back-channel with NYA2008 as our keyword and put the feed on screens at either side of the room. It worked really well… but around lunchtime got very silly in a hurry and was pretty distracting so the screens went off. As you will see from the previous post we got pretty prolific… and made it to the top of Twitter’s trending list.
Thoughts of moving on filled the end of the day. We recognised Robert Paton, a young disabled man who through his faith, his dignity and his quiet persistence has changed both the Youth Assembly and the General Assembly to places which are much more aware and welcoming of people with disability. Robert has reached the grand old age of 25 and is too old to return next year. He was presented a ‘Friend of the Youth Assembly’ award and during communion he and those others who are too old to come back next year were annointed and prayed for as the step out beyond the community into the next phase of their church life.
Communion ended the day and included another great input from Mark Yaconelli. It was great to meet Mark and I wish I had more time to speak to him. I met his dad Mike years ago and suggested that Mike come to Youth Assembly. We met at Greenbelt and even though Mike was 10 minutes from doing a session to hundreds of people he insisted we go and find somewhere we could sit and talk. Most people give you their agent’s email address, but not Mike.
Mike sadly died just six weeks after his trip to Scotland and Mark told us how much the chance to visit Scotland had meant to his father. Mark was presented with the same gifts we presented to his dad, a bottle of finest Scotch whisky and a quaiche, a Scottish cup of friendship. A fitting gift for a gifted man.
It’s too soon to reflect with much clarity on the weekend but there are some things that will probably occupy my thoughts over the next while:
Did the new debate structure work? The programme felt too full… was that just me or was more space needed? Are deliverences the best was for Youth Assembly to say what it thinks? If they are, is there a way to not spend all of the discussion changing a word here and there? Could the debate teams have been a little more informed?
My personal reflection would be that I didn’t seen to have time. I’d have liked to speak to more people, especially Mike. I’d have liked to relax a bit more but I think that may be my fault. I did get to spend a little time with Neil, Laura and Chris and I valued that.
My favourite part? Staff worship, especially the first service where we were commissioned. Linda created a space where we were affirmed and equipped and valued and heard beautiful words and thoughts from the Psalms.
I am Stewart Cutler, a Youth and Children's Work Trainer with over 15 years of experience working with volunteers, students and professionals in the Christian Church and in communities around Scotland.
Welcome to my blog and website.
I hope you find this site helpful. Let me know what you think.
Stewart
The opinions expressed in this website are those of the author, Stewart Cutler. They do not necessarily represent the views of his employer, the United Reformed Church, or any of the agencies he works with.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 UK: Scotland License.
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