Jon Jolly

The latest issue of Youth Work Now came out today and my second ‘From The Frontline’ opinion piece is printed on page 9. I wrote it as a reaction to the government sponsored MyPlace initiative:

The government’s MyPlace initiative will provide £190m of capital funding to help create new youth facilities across England. For those of us who have experience of trying to run a table-tennis tournament in a drafty wooden hut during the winter months, this is clearly good news!

However I can’t help wondering if this investment in buildings is simply a case of throwing money at the sector while ignoring our most vital resource: the workers.

A key characteristic of informal education is that it can take place anywhere and is not limited to a particular space. While buildings are important, youth workers operate in a wide range of settings. We all know of creative educators who use whatever environment they are in to support and benefit young people - be that a local park or the open countryside. Yet there’s no doubt that youth clubs and other facilities are important assets and have played a pivotal role in the development of many young people. In fact, the history of our vocation is based on pioneers such as the YMCA providing safe places for young people to attend.

However, just because we can build and develop youth facilities, it does not necessarily follow that they will provide good quality youth work.

In my area we have a small skate park that was built as a response to the lack of facilities for skaters. It was a helpful contribution that was well received by the young people until they started using it. Although it was outdoors and available at any time, there was never any supervision provided.

This made it unsuitable for those wanting to learn and unsafe for the accomplished skaters as other groups would congregate there to drink. The wooden ramps soon became damaged and worn through misuse and eventually the equipment had to be replaced, costing far more than the original investment.

There are other brilliant facilities that are similarly going to waste because they are badly managed. Investing in youth facilities only makes sense if we have the correct people to manage them and the thriving success stories in youth work are those clubs that are led by enthusiastic and committed workers.

Therefore, while I welcome the MyPlace investment, I believe that there should be a more holistic approach to developing good practice that includes supporting reflective and passionate workers who will be successful with or without a building.

Recently I’ve been getting a few opportunities to write about my experience of working with young people. After writing an opinion piece for Youth Work Now back in January, I’ve been asked to write another one for the June edition. I’m focusing on the Government MyPlace investment into youth facilities.

In addition, as part of my involvement with The Rank Foundation I will be writing a chapter for an upcoming publication on the Foundation’s approach to youth work called Journeying Together. It’s planned for release next year and my outline should be complete by the end of the summer.

Before Christmas I was contacted by the monthly publication Youth Work Now to write an opinion piece for the January issue of the magazine. I decided to base my article on a post I wrote back in November about findings of ADHD medication. Here is my piece that was published in the magazine today:

Drugs don’t always work for ADHD sufferers

I’ve worked with many young people with behaviour problems and hyperactive disorders since I started out in youth work around eight years ago. I’ve lost count of the number of conversations I’ve had with concerned families about how their child is “out of control” or “needs sorting out” because they are unable to cope with the erratic behaviour.

Invariably over time, most of these families have turned to their GP for support and the young person has been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). They have then been started on a course of medication with varying results.

When working with medicated young people, I find that some practically become vegetables when their tablets kick in - they are virtually unable to hold a normal conversation or take part in sessions. Others become aggressive, depressed or suicidal as the effects wear off. At times I’ve had to work with parents to administer the medication at the right time in order to get the best possible behaviour from individuals. This convoluted effort just to get participation from a young person has always sat uneasily with me.

There are of course many who have been helped by ADHD medication, but to me it has always seemed an easy solution to a difficult problem. That’s why a recent long-term study into its effects got me quite excited!

The ‘Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD’ by the University of Buffalo in the US followed the treatment of around 600 children in the US from the 1990s. Although researchers found medication to be helpful for up to three years, one of the study’s co-authors said there were “no beneficial effects” of using the medication long-term. In fact, the impact was seemingly negative, as the children and young people involved failed to grow at the normal rate.

Much of our current ADHD treatment strategy is based on a 1999 report, which concluded that medication works better than behavioural therapy after one year. But the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is reviewing its stance on ADHD drugs, which should give rise to other options for families struggling to cope.

Hopefully this will mean fewer vegetative young people and less reliance on medication. It may also enable youth workers to be more creative in delivering activities to young people suffering from the disorder without betraying the values inherent in our work.

Last Sunday we ran a joint youth event with St Margaret’s Angmering and St Peter & St Paul’s Rustington called iWorship. The purpose was to hang out, have a meal and worship together allowing a chance for the youth to get to know young Christians from the other churches. It was a great event and we had a lot of fun together.

During the meal, we placed an image with corresponding scripture relating to some part of Jesus’ life onto each one of the eight tables. The young people were encouraged to read the passage while they ate. Later, as part of our worship together everyone was asked to reflect on that scripture and image, then to write or draw their personal thoughts about the passage onto post-it notes and stick it down.

Once everyone had a chance to finish, we laid out the eight images at the front in chronological order. Suddenly the young people could see a pictorial timeline of Jesus’ life and how their particular passage fitted into it. They were also able to read the various responses they had all written to what Jesus had done for them. At Christmas time, rather than just focusing on the birth of Jesus, we wanted to give them something of the significance of His life and why therefore we celebrate Christmas.

As an exercise in creative worship, it worked really well and might be something you can try with your groups throughout the year. I’ve prepared the images and scriptures we used as a download for you to print out and adapt. You can download it here (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader).

These are the eight points in Jesus’ life that we used:

• Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:1-20)
• Jesus as a boy (Luke 2:41-50)
• Jesus is baptised (Mark 1:4-12)
• Jesus calls his disciples (Mark 1:14-20)
• Jesus’ miracles and teachings (e.g. Matthew 14:22-33)
• Jesus is transfigured (Mark 9:2-9)
• Jesus’ death (Luke 23:32-47)
• Jesus’ resurrection (John:1, 11-17)

And these are some of the responses the young people wrote:

It’s all about Jesus coming into the world and how the saviour of the world was born from such poverty

It’s not always easy to follow Jesus. It can be a rocky road. we need to trust Him and have faith like Peter to step out of the boat.

Jesus picked normal people, NOT people who would usually be leading or have high respect in society

Thank you for calling me! Help me to be a fisher of men

A few weeks back I got a comment on this post about the Christian Blog Awards encouraging me to enter. Now not knowing much about the awards, I went to the website and followed the instructions half expecting to discover a scam! Then yesterday, I got an email saying:

Congratulations!

Your blog has gone through to the last judging stage of the Christian Web and Blog Awards.

To be honest I’m a bit stunned as there are some really excellent Christian blogs out there that are far more relevant than this rambling page. I can only imagine no-one else entered themselves. Has anyone else out there received a similar email or know any more about the Christian Blog Awards? If so, get in touch please. I’ll let you know the outcome.

Why is it that sometimes, simple tasks become such a burden that you find yourself doing anything else except what you need to? I usually find writing assignments, tidying the house, or doing the banking fall into this category. Right now I need to finish the 11-14’s teaching notes for Spring Harvest. They were due in last week. It’s not that they’re difficult or taxing, I just seem to keep drifting off. Still, there’s always tomorrow…

Well here I am on a Bank Holiday, writing another assignment for Uni . It’s an interesting subject though: Does culture work to convert people into it? Good question really seeing as there are so many overlapping cultures and sub-cultures in every aspect of our lives.

In many ways, we are the product of the various cultures around us. We quickly learn how to behave or act in certain environments and we accept the traditions, values and customs of these cultures.

Yet we also help to shape and influence the cultures around us. Think of your close circle of friends, there is a culture of which you are an intimate part and have a degree of influence into.

So do we get ‘converted’ into particular cultures? If by conversion we mean accepting and adapting ourselves to fit into specific patterns of belief then, I think, Yes we do.

The only problem is, I have to make this a 2000 word essay…

OK, I’ve just finished writing Assignment 5 for Uni! Something about my role as an Informal Educator in the Community and the quickest one yet. I’ve had to get it in 2 weeks early as I’m on holiday from 10pm tomorrow. I hope they like it.

Just a Breakfast Club, Parenting Course, some admin and the church youth club to go…