Background
I
have been working part-time in this new role for thirty-five
days. Together, FYT and my own lifetime experiences conceived
the opportunity for this work. My early formative years were
spent abroad, except for a brief interlude in this country living
in prefab housing. My parents aimed at moving to a post-war better
life, from working class community life around the railways,
the navy and suffering the general strike.
This left me struggling for stability, stereotyped as
a failure by English education but getting recognition later as a youth
peer leader - mediating in conflicts between skinheads, mods and rockers,
secondary mod school, grammar lads and girls.
A
commitment at fifteen years to the Christian faith brought a vocational
living and identification with the poor in the inner city of Birmingham
- before, through and since the riots. I was working to offer opportunities
with young people, having qualified as a youth worker. I have also represented
the Voluntary Sector in the Child and Youth Workers Union. I have studied
history, multi-faith curriculum, Islam in the modern world, religious
experience and spirituality, celebrating (and affirmed by) multi-cultural
and multi-faiths experience, developing a local community and bringing
up a large family.
I took a brief interval as Worcester Diocesan Youth Officer, gaining
Youth Service management and training-the-trainer qualifications, while
undergoing again the pain of culture conflict - a shire experience and
living in a concrete condemned council house estate.
Context
Already
immersed in the conflicts and issues, I come to this work during
a time of renewed attention. The 'missionary zeal' of transforming
the Youth Service, - with all the current developments and issues
such as Connexions, community cohesion, strategies with regard
to refugees and asylum seekers, international relations, post-modernism,
globalisation and Inclusion of young people and rights - has
made the work daunting!
Community
experience teaches me to work with others to empower young people
and find a way for them to have real ownership of the work, methodically
and carefully, avoiding raising hopes that are all too often
dashed by disempowering structures, or by groups and power-hungry
people who use issues and politics of the day (deceitfully or
ignorantly) to strengthen their own positions, rather than to
empower.
When
writing and producing resources on faiths, a colleague shares
the fear of being written off or offending by almost every word
that he writes. A Diocesan Adviser for Other Faiths warns not
to quench a smouldering wick. Issues of culture and faith, (and
the vulnerable position of the youth service over the two years
taken to deliver funding for this project), have been of such
significance that they have driven me to the reactions of panic
- flight or fight!
Initial
Stages
I've
been researching, writing and rewriting 'safe' principles underlining
the work. Ive been connecting the project to the established
and new structures for inter-faith development. I was inducted
to the work alongside a young volunteer, enthusiastic to be part
of a process which enables the project to have young people leading
it. I have been developing or seeking new relationships, with
the pressed and hard-to-find workers already active across cultures
with young people who are at risk or excluded. Ive been aiming
at sharing openly, in order to learn of successes and mistakes,
encouraging others and seeking to develop the work. Ive been
trying to offer something practical by supporting the organisation
of weekend residentials in Birmingham for youth workers and young
people to further faith and cultural exchange and combat ignorance.
It
seems a very small drop in the community work ocean - nevertheless
a small opportunity to reflect and work on important issues relating
to community, racial and religious harmony, and to explore the
links between youth work, young people and the promotion of greater
tolerance. I'll try to keep you posted - but if you have views
or ideas that you would like to share, please post them on FYT's
new message board - www.fyt.org.uk
.
