benbell

Meeting with Bob

Bob Mayo came to meet with us on Tuesday to help us think through some of the issues that have been facing us re. Youth Work. Issues such as what shape the project should have, how it is managed, how the workers get supported, how it relates to the wider church community.

It was a fantastic afternoon, with lots of challenge and lots of affirmation for us, the workers! Now that’s what we like.

Bob stressed the importance of people other than the workers taking some of the responsibility for the management of the project. This means that there would be meetings of the management committee without the workers present and they would have to work out what they wanted and then negotiate with the workers at a later date.

His point is that Management and Delivery need to be recognised as separate things and when a person or even persons have a hundred percent of the responsibility for management and delivery they often buckle under the pressure.

I can see a way through the mess we find ourselves in, although I think it’s going to get messier first as the management committee work out what management is!

Hoodies

Young people + hooded tops + baseball caps = YOBS

This is the equation that was presented time and time again last week as the media jumped on the story of Bluewater shopping complex imposing a ‘dress code’ banning all wearers of hooded tops and baseball caps which has been supported by the government.

I have been disappointed by the way the mainstream media has tackled this issue supporting the opinion that young people wearing hooded tops are YOBS.

I am amazed at the narrow mindedness of so many journalists. It has been the case for at least a couple of decades a high percentage of young people committing crime have disguised their identity by putting on baseball caps and putting their hoods up. Now because it is fashionable in many areas of youth culture to wear hoods up the perception promoted by the press is that we have loads more criminal young people than we used to.

The Facts .....

7-0

The huge generosity of my friends has meant that I have been to Highbury twice in four days. I saw Arsenal comprehensively beat Liverpool on Sunday but It was last night that was the really special one. Arsenal 7 Everton 0 !!!!!!!!!!!!! A fantastic last home game of the season with Bergkamp on top form, involved in so many of the goals. Great to see Henry back from injury and dancing his way round the pitch.

What Lois thinks...

Thanks to Lois who has posted some great points here .
Lois works with me here In Islington and is great at helping me think through some of these issues.
She identifies the issue of how 'the church' (the institution and it's leadership) views young people as a factor to be considered when looking at why youth workers often feel unsupported.

It seems to me there is something deeper here to do with ageism in the church and in society at large. Why is it that we are so sensitive to racism and sexism (getting there anyway!) but prejudice and misunderstanding of the young goes unchallenged?

This is a fantastic insight and one which we can be working on here. Unless the church community and it's leaders are able to see young people as we (the youth workers) do, then they are never going to understand our practices and methods and so will not be able to support us.

There should be a book written on all this stuff (the relationship between a church and it's youth ministry), anyone fancy writing a chapter?

Mentoring

I was talking to three local girls aged around 15 about Mentoring.

Their school have set them up with mentors, they don’t rate them at all though. As mentoring is a key part of the work we do with young people I was keen to find out what a ‘good mentor’ was in their opinion. Here’s what they offered as advice on how to be a good mentor based on their experiences of being mentored.

Nitin Sawhney

Saw Nitin Sawhney present his new album 'Philtre' at the Shepherds Bush Empire last night. WOW, it blew me away. Once again he has gone to the pick-and-mix store of musical genre and thrown a lot in his bag, trip hop, classical Indian, flamenco, drum and bass and jazz. There is no sense of poaching or import here though, he is a master of all these traditions and more. His presentation is not the 'bag of all sorts' it could easily be but a sound that is uniquely his. Political  Poignant  Brilliant.

Can Church Support it's Youth workers? UPDATE

see Youthblog for thoughts on starting well when seeking to employ a Youth Worker/Minister. good tips which will help to avoid problems later on.

Miz comments

‘Management and support sounds crucial here. I wonder whether there is a way of putting together a list of models that work... almost laying out good work practice and guidelines. The trouble with everything seeming negative and reactionary is that people who should listen very often don't.’

I think agree that Management and support are crucial and often lacking in a situation where church leaders ‘JUST DON’T GET IT’

I will keep chewing it over, if anyone is ever in London and wants to help me chew just shout!

MORE ...... Roy and Youthblog give us more to think about.

Richard Billingham - Black Country

I was introduced to the work of Richard Billingham by a good friend of mine a few years ago. I found his work ‘Ray's a laugh’ (portraits of his family life) compellingly raw, it ran against the grain of pretty. Splinters of the ordinary and often alarming were presented in disposable camera colour-beauty and held together with a wordless narrative of family and reality.

Billingham’s new exhibition at the Anthony Reynolds Gallery continues to explore his environment and sense of place with a series of day and night landscapes. This is a must for anyone who sees beauty (or desires to see beauty) in urban and everyday scenery.

The luminous quality of the night images are stunning.

“Here, there are photographs taken in the daytime, 1997, and photographs taken at night, 2003. They were all taken in the small industrial town of Cradley Heath in the Black Country, West Midlands where I was born and grew up.