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Towards the end of last year, I had the pleasure of working with young people at the Wilderness Foundation. Providing a fun and informal workshop for 10 teenagers. The experience was great. Many of these young people have been through so much but yet so kind and willing to engage in the work. For a few of them it took a while to settle and get comfortable with the activities, however within an hour the few that took no interest changed and made attempts to overcome their fears or over come their own resistance.

To see them laugh and speak openly in the group was something special. Among the other activities we spoke about emotional wellbeing and what that looked like to them. How they see themselves in the future and also what were their expectations of other people’s emotions. Even the mentors said new ideas of their own emotions were looked at in a new perspective which was amazing. Overall, emotional wellbeing is something that needs attention throughout our lives whether we come from a challenged background or not.

The emotions of others and the new environments and situations in our lives can always test and challenged are emotions and it’s always nice to check in with ourselves from time to time

 

Living with a family friend for 3 years who was a social worker when I was kicked out at 18, saved my life. Ten years later I was in a long-term relationship with a Social Worker who explained in-depth the work Social Workers do for our community. It wasn’t until then that I realised how lucky I was to be supported and mentored indirectly by a family friend who took me in when I had nowhere to go as a teenager. I could see myself going down the wrong path, and was dealing with depression and trauma from a difficult childhood.

Social Workers are like super humans helping our community. They have immense  emotional intelligence, emotional availability and empathy. The are often demonized by press and not so supportive social workers. However, there are so many social workers doing great work to support young and older people in our community. I don’t think they get the credit they deserve. They work long hours, have numerous of caseloads and take on emotional distress without sometimes getting clinical supervision. Throughout their work, I have seen that they are passionate about helping and supporting people. Without our social workers, young people and families would not have the protection and guidance needed to move to a positive direction. Child protection and safeguarding is essential to the welfare of our people. Social workers keep doing the great work you are doing as you constantly save lives!

Libraries are becoming a thing of the past in my county which is currently Essex. I believe in the feel and experience of a real book. E-books are great but there is something relaxing in holding and reading a book. I never appreciated them as a teenager. I feel books on self-development (soft skills) given to younger people would give them a new insight to reading and expand their interest in books. As young people, we tend to read formal educational topics and fiction. I recently attended an innovation, contribution meeting in my local community that was held by Essex council. The two questions they were tackling were;

1. What does your community need?
2. What role can libraries play?

1. An increase of mentors/support groups to encourage and inspire young people to enjoy reading, writing and expression. Young people are focused on social media and messaging and lack social engagement and the enjoyment of simple activities. They tend to look for short cuts and this can affect their attention span, skill development, cause isolation and affect their emotional intelligence

2. Libraries could play a vital role in being a learning hub, the place where young people or adults want to go to feel connected to their community, to enjoy reading, writing, expression, debate current issues that are important to them and self-development. Libraries represent research and reading. Young people are looking for social media entertainment and also how to express themselves online. Libraries could be the driver for young people to explore self-education, self exploration, and becoming an active citizen within their community 

Self help books may give young people as well as adults something to look forward to when reading. It’s nice to have a variety of topics to read on. Furthermore, a Human Library held at a local library would be a great way for people to learn about human experience and listen to stories in a unique way

 

When someone we love suddenly makes a change in a long-term relationship it is one of the most difficult things to deal with. When your partner has decided that they no longer want to be in a relationship with you and you weren’t aware, it can create feelings of low self-esteem, confusion, and a sense of rejection. Furthermore, you can look at your partner in a new way; not only because they made a sudden change which you wasnt prepared for. It is actually the fact that they didn’t keep you in the loop of their recent feelings that they may have harboured for some time.

If your partner felt that the need to make change for whatever reason but didn’t consider you in that change and expressed this to you at the very last moment, that can cause a lot of anger and resentment. Therefore, being in communication with your partner from time to time in regards to how they feel in general is vital and essential to know how they feel about the relationship. There is no harm in checking in with each other.

Do not feel that by asking your partner how they currently feel, will come across as insecure or anxious. Asking these more difficult questions within the relationship can help both of you tremendously. Your partner may not have the courage to be open and honest about how they feel within the relationship so it’s quite healthy to check in with your partner from time to time to make sure everything is okay. If you find out that it’s not okay, then you can find common ground or find a solution to the current issue within a relationship. Allowing your partner to express how they feel comfortably without the need to hide their agenda.

 

Over the past week encouragement has come up a lot within the team and my peers. Encouragement is such a powerful tool to support someone when they are feeling low or need motivation. However, encouragement is rarely used in the other context of allowing the person to be comfortable in the present situation they are in. Meaning encouragement is more powerful when letting one know its ok not to have all the answers, its ok to fail, its ok to start again. We live in a society that rewards us for being strong, always being on top; The idea of mind over matter or survival of the fittest.

When looked at in depth this can be counter-productive to an individual, especially in a world that has immense pressure to succeed, to be top of the class, handling your own affairs, and not being emotional as compared to logical. 

It’s quite detrimental to our young generation to constantly apply pressure to be a master of your ability or to always be competent. We need to be warm, patient, loving, understanding and aware that we all have different sensitivity levels. Therefore, just by being humane and gentle they can gain control over their present situation, whether it be trauma, challenges or blockages. This kind of encouragement can reassure the person that eventually everything connects or will pass. This will implant strength in another way to find hope and faith that they can get through the troubling events.

 

 

 

It’s been a while and since our last blog; we have been looking into the topic of Informal Education! What does Informal Education consist of? 

Informal education is used to cultivate a learning atmosphere. This is done through conversation mostly and direct experience. These ways of working all entail learning – but informal education tends to be unpredictable – we do not know where it might lead – and it can be spontaneous.

Conversation

Informal education, we argue, is driven by conversation and being with others. It develops through spending time with people – sharing in their lives – and listening and talking. Catherine Blyth has described conversation as ‘the spontaneous business of making connections’ (Blyth 2008: 4). It involves connecting with both ideas and other people. When we join in conversation it is often difficult to predict where it will lead. As such it can be a very powerful experience – ‘conversation changes the way you see the world, and even changes the world’ (Zeldin1999: 3)

As well as talking and listening to others, we also have conversations with ourselves. We can watch ourselves as we go about our lives, as we talk and think. People ‘have, as it were, two internal voices, so they can both create new ideas and look at them, criticize and admire’ (Zeldin1999: 57).

When we put conversation at the center of education something very important happens. It is the exchanges and the thoughts they provoke that leads us – not some predetermined curriculum or plan. In conversation, educators, have to catch the moment where they can say or do something to deepen people’s thinking or to put themselves in touch with their feelings. For the most part, educators do not have lesson plans to follow; they respond to situations, to experiences.

‘Going with the flow’ opens up all sorts of possibilities for educators. On one hand they may not be prepared for what comes, on the other they may get into rewarding areas. There is the chance, for example, to connect with the questions, issues and feelings that are important to people, rather than what we think might be significant.

Picking the moment in the flow is also likely to take educators into the world of people’s feelings, experiences and relationships. While all educators should attend to experience and encourage people to reflect, informal educators are thrown into this. As such they look to what lies at the heart of education. As John Dewey once wrote,the‘business of education might be defined as an emancipation and enlargement of experience’ (1933: 340). Our task is to work with people so that they may have a greater understanding or appreciation of their experiences. Through coming to understand what might be going on people can begin to be ‘set free’ – not be dictated to by, or victims of, experience (Jeffsand Smith 2005: 58-9).

A focus on conversation is central to building communities – and forms of cooperation that enhance the quality of social life (Sennett 2012: 273). The values and behaviors needed for conversation to take place are exactly what are required if neighborliness,cooperation and democracy are to flourish. What is more, the sorts of groups informal educators such as youth and social action workers work with – voluntary, community-based, and often concerned with mutual aid – are the bedrock of democratic societies. They also place where friendships can flourish, support be given and received,interests deepened, and changes made. As Hemmings (2011: 280) has commented ‘remarkable things can happen when we come together in small groups’.

Finding a mentor is so important, “One good mentor could be more informative than a formal education, forward thinking for mental and emotional decsions and more valuable than a decades income“