solas2010 was class
you should have been there.

great music, speakers, weather, activities, and fun for all the family.
it was great to be a part of something like this.
where sourcing affordable, local produce, sold at affordable prices, (£2 for an organic venison burger. nice!) was as important as getting the right band. Where giving the festival the right feel & vibe was more important than having a pub.

It was a delight and joy. I still can’t quite believe how well everything went. Someone gave me feedback based on turning Solas from a 4star festival into a 5star. Trust me, a 4star rating is deserved and accurate. It really was good. You should have been there.

thanks to lots of people I worked directly with including,
Dominic,
Hoggy & Gordon @GBR,
Ben & E&MS crew,
Bill,
Sam,
Martin & Dave,
Jonny @Wiston
and the solas directors.

Here’s to many more.

PS Becoming a Solas Saint would be very helpful. please consider helping Solas to grow and develop the conversation between Arts, Justice & Faith, http://www.solasfestival.co.uk/give.php

I wrote a letter…
It was accepted.

Changes.
They come in some unexpected places.

You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow
We had our mindset
(I made a lot of mistakes)
All things know, all things know
(I made a lot of mistakes)
You had to find it
(I made a lot of mistakes)
All things go, all things go
(I made a lot of mistakes)

At school yesterday we were asked to imagine the following senario;
on a plane trip to austrailia the plane crashes. the pilot dies and the survivors as washed up on a desert island. from this we were asked to work out what the rules we would make the group live by would be.

I was working 1 to 1 with a young person who came up with three rules. I came up with seven others (I had a fair idea where the session was going), so here fro you i present our rules for a group of survivors lost on a desert island somewhere.

1 – No eating people
2 – No murder.
3 – Only talk about yourself in the third person
4 – create tribes
5 – rotating leadership structure
6 – share food
7 – compusary fitness classes
8 – no ugliness
9 – national dance to be performed everyday.
10 – you must keep the rules

If you would like to come and live on our desert islan I am selling tickets at £1000000000.99 per person, available from the usual outlets!

During the training course it became clear to me that youthworkers are broadly similar in many respects.

the way YW’s try and deal with situations.
the areas YW’s choose to work in.
the young people YW’s work with.
the things that frustrate YW’s.

this really hit home in one exercise we did .
the first part created a continuum between the words ‘flight’ and ‘fight’
we were asked, ‘in relation to conflict, what is your initial response’
Accepting the flaws that the false dichotomy raises, I took part.

I stood close to the ‘flight’. my initial reaction is to avoid conflict, not to rush headline into or cause it knowingly, (there are exceptions…). I was quite far away from everyone. and quite noticeably not part of a group near the flight side, there was quite a group near the fight category though.

The second part of the exercise was similar but instead of a continuum the trainers set up a large triangle with the words ‘out and shout’ , ‘silent and hidden’ & ‘talk and sort’ at each point. “these are the tree responses to conflict. Thinking about your childhood what were you brought up with.”

This statement annoyed me. First the way the language is used in the three point statements is flaws the entire process and creates a ‘correct answer bias’. Secondly I am not sure that these are the main three ways to deal with conflict. But as I had decided not to overthink things, i tried to get over that. It was the subsequent questions of ‘ What approach do you use’ which was significant.

As there was a sudden rush to the ‘talk & sort’ sign. I didn’t rush. I went kind 50% on the line between ‘talk & sort’ and ‘hidden & silent’. Again I was on my own, nearest to the ‘hidden & silent’ sign and quite clearly out of the crowd.

The reality for me is that sometimes I need to be quiet and deal with things. Youthwork is build on communication and working together. Creating space for reflection, learning, growth and understanding within the relationship. To be me within that relationship I need to be me. ‘Talking and sort’ isn’t me.

So where does that lead me. It does confirm my suspicions that I am not the A-typical youthworker, but the conclusions to my thoughts aren’t fully formed, but I am theorising. I have some ideas but don’t quite know how they form together yet into a coherant thing.

As soon as I know…

Picture of behaviour I find Challenging

“there is no such thing as challenging behaviour, just actions, and how you respond to them.”

last week I ended up in Ayr for two days of training run by LEAP, organised by YouthLink Scotland and paid for by the Scottish Government.

The LEAP philosophy revolves around provoking personal reflection and change coming from yourself.so every discussion is very focused on the participant, their feelings, their reactions, their thoughts and their processes. as all you have the power to change is yourself. I did think about preforming the entire second day only speaking about myself in the Third person but decided that maybe not taking the process seriously!

some reflections

It was good to be able to take time and think about the work I do.
The course was entertaining with a good mix of theory and practical stuff to do.
My aims at the beginning of the course was to take time to think/reflect and to be challenged. I think i achieved this (This seemed to set me apart from everyone else who seemed to be asking for new techniques and solutions to problems.)
It was good to meet with different people who were prepared to work to be honest and open with each other.
It was good to be geographically somewhere new.
I quite enjoyed the role play stuff.

Several things occurred to me outwith these direct reflections. one thing was that i have been to training with a different organisation who work with LEAP, and their training course was an almost complete ‘lift’ from what LEAP did and do. this got me thinking about how fair a critique of youthwork being a profession which is happy with ‘simulacre’ was.   This copying is prevalent in some of the youthwork I hear about and see. Perhaps I am being judgemental because I am comfortable thinking about things,  writing my own material for everything, being creative with a topic, and trying to engage with people in new ways. not every worker can do this comfortably. ‘Simulacre’ seems to be growing though and everyone can be subject to it. I should point out I am unsure if this is the fault of the worker, the manger or the employing agency. (By ‘simulacre’ i mean copying without giving credit, or knowing who credit should go to.)

Youthworkers are remarkably similiar. (why?)

the way i choose to work with young people seems to be affirmed by being on this course. (I think…)

I need to think more….(hmmm. more later possibly?)

anyway all in all a good two days. nice people, good time to think, good to paddle in the sea,

Good to be

Why do people go to meetings when they don’t want to or need to?

I was at a meeting today and I didn’t really fell a part or i had much to contribute to the meeting. so i listened followed the conversation and asked questions when I didn’t understand or something was unclear. I had read the minutes of the previous meeting and the agenda for the one coming up. My one bad habit in meetings is regularly checking my phone/twitter. but when I say often maybe once in a 2hour meeting. (yes thats once too often but still.)

I don’t really see this stuff as rocket science.

Yet I have meetings with people who in a group setting cannot have a meeting. it ranges form playing on phones, not contributing when asked, not preparing anything, watching off topic youtube videos during meetings, to actively having conversations on the other side of the table.

If you don’t want to be at a meeting don’t go

But in meetings sometimes i can be like that Often in meetings I will take notes on my phone. it is handy as it allows for syncing later or I can e-mail my notes to myself. I wonder if people assume I an just playing games/surfing internet/etc on my phone? sometimes i will be

Should I get annoyed at someone doing what i sometimes choose to do?
what if at every other meeting i am the annoying one.

wondering….

A Tale of Two Youth Workers: A Youth Ministry Fable – by Eric Venables

Due to the combination of having a birthday, and having an amazon wishlist, I managed to get some books i was looking forward to reading. SO I got this one and read it one evening!

This book is a fable around the clash of youth ministry ideologies. One Charactor Wes has just moved to a mega church style church and taking one approach with a large youth group. And Britt an older youth worker who has a much smaller group. and their conversations as they discuss youth ministry and how it is done.

some obersvations

It was a good book. The story is readable. It is short enough to read in one sitting, (It takes about 2hours to read this book, while watching TV.) and I know what the book was trying to get me to realise at the end.
It helped to reinforce some of the things i believe and how i try to work.

Two small things bugged me about the book.
firstly the story struggles to stop feeling like an illustration for the points the author was trying make. It felt like a youthworkers story with the points signposted so everyone knows what you are meant to know by the end.
secondly chapter end with statements like this.
“What neither of them knew is how significant both Melanie and Britt would become in their lives – but not in the way they imagined.”
Stop it. It’s just bad to do that. I think the term bad comes to mind.

anyway I don’t read much fiction, but I did enjoy this, despite my frustrations. It was a fun easy read, which made me laugh at points, feel better about the work i do and glad about the fact i had read it again. Interestingly (for me) it used some of the language I had been using to describe my way of working over te last 5 years almost term for term.

so if you can read it, it is a decent read if you are interest in youth ministry.

on the 20th of december third sunday is looking at the 4th commandment, Keep the Sabbath holy. I have once again stayed up late with a beverage of my choice and did some advertising which is displayed below for you delectation and delight! (I do kinda enjoy doing this stuff although if i was better at it i may not enjoy it so much perversely)

I wonder if thinking about proving youth work is inherently wrong as an approach to youth work.

Evaluation, in its original Latin sense, meant to strengthen. In recent years, evaluation has often come to mean something else. It has become a tool of funders wanting to judge what is ‘successful’, what ‘works’ and what should or should not be invested in.

Evaluation is a key issue for youth work. But to often evaluation (as stewart cutler pointed out) has become a code for proving youth work works.

Yesterday it was suggested that for a youth work session I was taking yesterday I could use Susan Boyle as a my theme and make a big point over her.

I didn’t like it as an idea and said no. I just don’t like it as a story/point.
Due to all the hype I know what she looks like, but like Paul Potts before her, i have missed the performance and the event totally.

Cheryl Lawrie posted this on her blog yesterday

I was as moved as anyone, but wordy, the woman just wants to sing. Do we have to make her the pin-up girl to promote all our own moral agendas? Aren’t we just using her as much as the show is itself?

I am inclined to agree with her entirely.