Search results

In this chapter, we will look at how the indirect approach can enable us to find a way to learn about young people's lives. The setting for this chapter is informal youth work, reminding us of the value of a wide range of practices with young people, and the findings are equally relevant to formal and informal education as guiding principles for good practice. We will look at the skillful interactions practitioners establish with young people and how they can be developed and promoted. Reflective practice for practitioners is identified as beneficial in adding the value of young people's voice, whilst building relationships. The nature of young people's participation and power is argued to benefit from a co-constructed and socio-cultural understanding; majoring on the importance of context, indirect method and equality literacy framework. We will suggest how the indirect approach can improve young people's lives in schools and/or youth provision.

This article is based on two research studies exploring the everyday life experiences of young Asian, Caribbean and African disabled people. It suggests ways in which local agencies might help young people meet their social and emotional needs, particularly through the development of peer support groups.

Through association with a family member who uses substances, stigma and shame can be experienced by children and young people whose parents use substances. Such stigma and induced shame can lead to fear of being treated unfairly and for some young people the experience of bullying and discrimination from peers, adults, and practitioners. Within my research, young people often described feeling that they had ‘survived’ within their experiences of parental substance use, rather than ‘thrived’, leaving them feeling lonely and isolated from support. Stigma played a role in this survival. By understanding the stigma experienced by young people whose parents use substances, we can move beyond young people only surviving their experiences to supporting them to thrive. Within this chapter, experiences of delivering interactive workshops and teaching practitioners about the lived experiences of children and young people whose parents use substances are reflected upon. Young people who experience parental substance use want practitioners and learners to have four key takeaways when supporting or working with young people: realisation and awareness of the impacts on young people, recognition of ways young people cope, responding in ways of understanding, and resisting further stigmatisation and isolation of young people.

How confused are young people about cannabis reclassification? Who do they really trust when talking about drink and drugs? Do they believe the health warnings and ‘the messages’ to stay away from drugs? Michelle Duffin draws on her national discussions with young people to explore their perceptions of drugs and alcohol and to assess their awareness of young people services and preferred methods and sources of information for drugs and alcohol.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the work of the Children and Young People's Programme of Time to Change, which is England's biggest campaign to end the stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental health.

The paper draws upon research into the nature and effects of mental health stigma and discrimination on young people and also outlines the strategy of the Time to Change campaign and its initial outcomes.

The paper includes testimonies from young people with lived experience of mental health problems about the stigma and discrimination they have faced. It also outlines the aims, objectives and stages of implementation of the Time to Change Children and Young People's Programme. The paper particularly focuses on the campaign work undertaken in secondary schools, the social leadership programme for young people with lived experience of mental health problems and the process of designing effective campaign messaging for social media.

Time to Change is England's biggest campaign to end the stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental health. This paper provides a unique insight into the process of developing and rolling out an anti-stigma campaign for young people.

This article is based on a study of 100 young people who were regular marijuana users, which aimed to discover the impact of their drug use on key life transitions. The article identifies the implications for practitioners who work with these young people.

Youth homelessness has been recognised as a significant social problem since the late 1980s, and local authority homelessness strategies now include preventative services as a key area of development. However, youth homelessness prevention services are a relatively recent innovation in the UK, and there is only a small literature on their effectiveness. Safe Moves, developed by the Foyer Federation and Connexions during 2002‐2004, represents the first national youth prevention model and offers young people support with life skills, peer mentoring and family mediation. An independent evaluation by the Centre for Housing Policy, University of York concluded that Safe Moves was preventing homelessness for some young people, although the challenges of establishing projects in a predominantly crisis‐orientated culture were significant.

This article describes a project that explored the views, experiences and aspirations of young people with Down's Syndrome and their family carers. Each young person had gone or was going through the transition to adulthood. Following a scoping study, young people who were leading the lives of their choice, for example through use of person‐centred planning or direct payments, were interviewed, and their stories were published in a booklet. The next phase brought other young people and their families together in workshops to support them in planning for their future, based on the information from the booklet. Interviews with the young people and their families dispelled the myth that parents are obstacles to progress and change. All families actively supported their son or daughter to achieve their aspirations and had high expectations for them.

Describes using drama to raise some of the main health issues facing young people, inform them about local services and give them an opportunity to explore their fears and anxieties about accessing services in a rural area. The drama was targeted at 14‐15‐year‐olds on two consecutive years. In the first year, the drama was performed by actors; and the second year, the script was re‐written and performed by college students. The effectiveness of each year’s production was evaluated. Both years’ productions were seen by about 800 young people. In both years the evaluation showed that the drama was successful in informing young people about local health services and addressed their main anxieties; but in the second year, many of the young people commented positively on the age of the cast and how they identified with both them and their portrayal of the issues. As a result, the drama has become a regular yearly event in the secondary schools in this rural area.

Presents the attitudes of young people to participation in UK politics. Distinguishes five types of attitude to politics, ranging from cynical opposition to active commitment; there is no evidence that young people are one group which is politically unengaged. Outlines factors which put young people off politics, followed by suggestions to increase their interest, including the introduction of citizenship lessons in the National Curriculum and the establishment of government departments specifically aimed at youth. Concludes that a balance is needed between engaging young people in the democratic process and exerting undue pressure on them to participate, and that the young are anyway often involved in issues which are essentially political even if they do not regard them as such.