Purple PawPaw

You may have heard on the news that the UK Youth Parliament has been given permission to hold a debate in the House of Commons this summer. Last year a debate was held in the House of Lords and some of the young people our team work with attended, it was an historic occasion.

More information, plus some footage of the debate by MP’s as to whether this should happen is available on  the UK Youth Parliament website.

It was interesting to hear some of the negative comments- but then when you see the vote it was overwhelmingly supportive.The member of staff who covers this piece of work will be on maternity leave during the time when this event happens, maybe I’ll have to attend..I’ll have to take loads of tissues as there is no doubt at all that I will cry!!

I am spending some time trying to identify if there is any useful research or theories that can support me with a problem I have identified.

I work in the field of youth participation/empowerment and we are quite successful. I work for a county council who are taking the work very seriously and investing considerable money and time into ensuring that young people have voice and influence. However we are starting to identify tht young people are becoming a threat to some staff.

As young people recognise their power and use it effectively some staff are feeling concerned about what ‘might be said’. As a team we are able to support young poeple to use their power and influence responsibly and effectively however the gap still remains about how we support staff.

There is a school of thought which says that young people have the right to be heard and adults should handle whatever they say – but this just shifts the power balance and moves away from effective partnership.

I was thinking about banks and how they have moved from a place where a manager sat in a room with a pipe and worked limited hours and we were all beholden to his whims and relationships, to a situation where they are open 24/7 and work to the needs of the customer – but I seem to have drawn a blank.

I am looking at power theories but there seems to be nothing around on how as you empower one group another becomes potentially disempowered. Up until now I always saw the power as just needing to be redistributed.

Does this point to how staff feel themselves?

Are they disempowered?

 

I am struck more and more about how passionate colleagues are about their work and it continually impresses me. It seems that particularly colleagues who are younger have such fire in their bellies about making all that they do really good. I don’t know if I ever have been that keen to get it completely right, or whether I thought about things so much…

…and then I remembered the  things I got up to as a generic youth worker in my mid twenties; the hours I spent with young people, sometimes 7 days a week, the projects we developed and the experiences we had, which were life shaping.

I think the big difference is (and the thing that especially impresses me) is how these people work really hard and then play really hard – I never had the energy for so much balance – and I am envious!