Becoming a Youth Worker - Akka's perspective - Working with young people - 11/21

The Factory Project got started by, basically, two strangers on the streets. They actually approached us, actually introduced themselves to us, saying who they are, what they did, what their purpose was. At that age we were quite young. We got interested, like what they said. Like, they run activities such a bowling, laser quest, going to camping trips, as well. So we got really interested and we thought, "Yeah, we'll go ahead with it." It was a small group to start off with but, eventually, we got more of our mates together and told them about it, what's happening. So they got interested as well. So I think it started from there, really. I used to be a regular member... ...go to activities, go to meetings and then Andrew told me it would be really good for my CV, for my portfolio and everything, if I became a volunteer, to help our with the Factory Group. So I thought it would be really good for my future career and that. So I thought I'd become a volunteer. I've just set up a portfolio. There's loads of modules in the portfolio. Every time I complete a module, he gives a certificate for it, which I think is really good because if I do get a job, I could show the certificates and say, "I did this." Being a member, I knew what I was out wanting from the youth workers. Now that I'm a youth worker, I can relate to my past and see what they want from us. In that, I can actually ask them, as well, what they want because time does go by and time does change what they want. What's wrong with your job? I don't know. I was distant, like. One of the main issues is employment. A lot of people in that area are from traditional families, very poor families, as well. Their parents tend to send their older kids to start to work. They'd probably be about 16, 17. And then they'd send them out to work but they don't have much experience or qualifications to go to a really good job and work. So they tend to go to a factory job where you don't need much experience and from there they get income to give to their families. That's one of the reasons that's stopping them going into higher education and to unis to study further to get a better job. Other issues can be the relationship with the family, with themselves. They might have problems like domestic violence or something like that. Other issues are *** relationships... For example, if they have some kind of family issue... me, as a Bengali, who understand the language, will probably make a home visit to their house and actually speak to their parents. We'll probably get somebody who's older than us, as well, so I'll be able to interpret what they're saying to them. So who's more experienced and you know what they're saying as well. We're on the streets. We're going to decide the consent forms for the... Some of the numbers are younger than us. and they see it us as youth workers. That helps them to come to us and raise issues with us, as some are the same age, or friends and that. They tend to come up to us and raise issues but they don't really raise in-depth issues like family issues and that, because they see us as friends. So they want to go to someone who's more older and has more experience. Yeh, they're all... Obviously, they're older than us and they don't really see us as youth workers. They see us like younger brothers. Sometimes it can be really difficult because we're not on the streets so we have more restrictions. For example, in the mini-bus, we have to tell them to wear their seat belts... ...going to places like laser quest. They have to... ...follow the rules. So we have to force them to follow the rules because it's not their area, it's not their territory any more. So we have to be strict with them. Like, not shouting or running around, or chucking litter or anything like that. So sometimes it can be difficult because they want to go all... All hyped-up and that. You can put in that you've left the programme space for dialogue and discussion. Have you written all that down then or what? Whatever we plan to do, we do it. After we've done it, we actually evaluate it at the end to see what went well and what went badly, to see what the outcome was. Sometime not everything does go to plan. So we do make some mistakes. From that mistake, we learn what mistake we made. Then we try to do it better next time round.