A few thoughts on…

Digital Youth Work and Communicating with Young People

What social media is in this contextCommunicating with young people; the youth work contextWhy does this interest meYES success, a case studyHow do we do it – 2 barriers and overcoming them

What is Social Media?“Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content, or to participate in social relationships, interactions and networking.”

The 4 Cornerstones

Youth work, according to me is based on:

Finally – who am I and why do I like to think about this?

The thirst for knowledge and ideas from other youth workers IS STILL THERE

COLLABORATORS

YES Success

Work with young people who are NEET

Track young people as they leave college/school.

Where ‘YES’ fits in to the Youth Service

Detached Team

Teenage pregnancy and Sexual Health

Targeted Youth Work

TeamOpen Access Team

(youth clubs)

Participation Team

Advocacy Team

YES

INVITED TO DROPP-IN, TRAINING,

APPOINTMENT, SUPPORT SESSION

OR WORKSHOP

ONLINE INFORMATION,

ADVICE, GUIDENCE

AND SUPPORT

INDIVIDUAL WORKER PROFILES

PUBLICLY SHARED POSTS,

SHARES, PICTURES

FRIEND REQUESTS

FACEBOOK CHAT

YES FACEBOOK

PAGE

Initial contactYoung people ‘funneled into the ‘medium’ for online work

The ‘work’

So, Social Media is:

A ‘means’ to an ‘end’

A tool for doing the actual youth work through online

communication

A tool for promoting the service

An automatic multiplier

An efficient and effective way to contact young people

A way to support young people in a time of need

SAFEGUARDING INTELLEGENCE

Two common Barriers

• Knowing what medium to use – keeping up

• Keeping young people and youth workers safe

Barrier 1: Keeping up

Young peoples

leadership group

Facebook poll

Ask young people whilst they are with you

Young peoples

communications group

standing item during team meetings Trend watching blogs

Be present! Be on twitter – if it’s new and

happening someone will be tweeting about it

Standing item on team meetings

• During regular team meetings

• During supervision or 1:1 worker support sessions

• Informally – any info is good info

• One person (not a manager) responsible for keeping track of any intelligence on social media trends

Young Peoples’ committee

• Young people know a lot about being a young people

• Young people know a lot about social media

• They can help with doing the work!

• Keeps staff teams focused and on track. Young people given the remit to hold staff and managers to account.

Youth Centre

West Beach Point

Bridge

Hopefully…

Barrier 2: Protecting yourself, colleagues, team and young people (and management!)

Scope. How will Social media be used to further the aims of the project.

How will social media not be used

Risk assessment. What are the risks to young people of having adults communicate with them on social media in a youth work context

What are the risks to workers.

How will these risks be minimized

What should use of social media look like. What would bad use of social media look like.

Youth worker friendly

• Create a simple and portable ‘using social media for staff’ guide

• Make checklists for staff

• Make accountability processes concrete and transparent

Checklist

How to keep up

Keep safe

Thoughts, feedback, questions

• What are your thoughts and comments?

• Any questions to me?

• Any questions to the rest of the group? Thank you from me!

Keep me posted with updates and goings on @youthworkandme Coming soon: youthworkandme.com