One week of Youth Work

If I ever forget why I love youth work as much as I do, please, someone, remind me of this week. Send me this article, send me my Muddy Shoes, send me a pic or tell me a memory, and I should remember how happy - tired, but happy - I am while writing this.

I went to Baia Mare for a week. It was my Grandma’s birthday on the 11th (she turned 90) and, in typical Bea manner, I got to do a bunch of other things as well - one Active Bystander Training at the Youth Centre, one workshop/consultation with young people, one Active Bystander Training at a private high school/college, and plenty of time spent at the Youth Centre. It was a perfect week - exactly what I want my life to look like every week once I’m done with my MA and we have our own little DEIS UK Youth Centre.

Being on ‘the other side of the barricade’ is such a satisfying experience. Let me tell you what happened on Tuesday, and we’ll work backwards from there.

It was late in the evening, I was waiting for Diana and Bibi to come back so we could chit-chat once again before I returned to London. As I was waiting for them, I got talking with a few other volunteers. When Diana and Bibi arrived, they just joined the conversation. On the outside, it was just some youth workers and young people having an after-hours dialogue. On the inside, however, it was an informal* session about vocational guidance, leadership, teamwork, communication, relationships, and many more. Many, many years ago I was on the young people’s team, taking it all in, and enjoying every bit of the conversation. This time, I was one of the youth workers and I could see myself in the young people there - the anxious happiness when you’re told that you have valuable skills and possibly even a career in front of you, the sudden sense of relief when you finally say something that’s been on your mind out loud, and the regret you feel when you have to go home because it’s getting way too late and you have school the next day. As a youth worker, you feel the regret, but the sense of relief becomes a sense of understanding something new about a young person and the anxious happiness becomes the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve empowered a young person.

* This is a hill I’m willing to die on and I will keep repeating this until every person knows that there are THREE types of learning - INFORMAL as compared to FORMAL or NONFORMAL. Formal is the type of education that you get in school with clear curricula and assessments. Nonformal learning refers to workshops and other activities that have learning objectives but happen in more relaxed environments and without exams. Lastly, informal learning… just happens - there are no preset goals or plans of action.

That satisfaction was with me throughout this whole week. The day before, on Monday, I facilitated an Active Bystander Training at a private school in my hometown. Participation wasn’t voluntary for the pupils - their teachers brought them to the workshop, no excuses. I didn’t count how many young people were in the room, but it could’ve been 100. I told them to use their phones and speak without raising their hands. I asked them questions and validated their answers. I’ve been in their shoes too. I knew how boring and annoying these ‘outside the box’ lessons can be, so I tried to make this an interesting experience for them. I think I succeeded. The fact that even the perceived ‘troublemakers’ were quietly listening and the ‘I really enjoyed this’-s I received as the pupils were leaving the room, were priceless. During the break, I sat down with a group of girls who remained in the room and talked to them about their and my experiences with bullying and how frustrating it feels that too few people can/want to do anything to solve the real problems.

Listening to young people is so important. That’s what I don’t see enough of here, in London, and I can’t wait for the new year and to start doing some consultations with and for DEIS UK. On Saturday Bibi and I co-facilitated a workshop - Cities. Youth. Future. Young people created their ideal city and then Bibi and I swapped teams and became decision-makers, trying to impose change on those perfect communities. Our young people held on to their values and drove a really tough bargain - I couldn’t build factories to streamline production and Bibi couldn’t cut trees to make more bike lanes. After that, we talked about how it felt to create these utopias and negotiate change and then we turned to our real town and what it’s like to deal with real-life decision-makers. Young people these days… aware of the reality they live in, full of creative solutions, and ready to commit to the change they want to see if only the Adults would listen to them.

Young people these days are so ‘on the spot’. I noticed this especially at the Active Bystander Training I hosted at the Youth Centre. Unfortunately, we all live in a world full of abuse and wrongdoings. In my opinion, youth is much more mindful of all the negative things happening around them. After all, it’s during their teenage years that they finally face the world. However, young people are witty. I had 17 participants in the workshop, all voluntary, all interested in learning how to offer support when they see something that doesn’t seem right. And they do see a lot of things that don’t seem right.

I am a youth worker because my mission is to give forward everything I learn. But I am also a youth worker because I believe in the power of youth and because I know that when young people are given the right opportunities, they thrive. DEIS Ro is a society based on love and respect in which young people are valued, listened to, and involved. DEIS UK exists to create another one of these societies. And maybe one day there will be another DEIS that will create another one of these societies, until one day the whole world will be like this. Just give young people a space for themself and support them.