Young Solutions International Free Report

Young Solutions international who we are and what we do

Happiness comes from successful personal relationships with family and friends and in the local community Professor Richard Layard This report outlines the purpose of Young Solutions international and our key tools and techniques.

Our Purpose The purpose of Young Solutions international is to realise the participation rights of young people in action and as we do so, balance their individual rights with a sense of social responsibility. We support all those working with young people, who we collectively call, educators in the use of a unique approach that respects the ideas, experiences and views of young people and involves them in making real changes that improve the health and well-being of themselves and others.

Children’s rights In 1979 most countries in the world ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The basic principle of the CRC is that society has an obligation to satisfy the fundamental needs of children and provide assistance for their development. The CRC expresses values about the provision of services for all children and about their protection AND participation. Its fifty four articles can be grouped into three broad areas: provision, protection and participation. Key principles include: •

Respecting the ‘best interests ‘ of the child,

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Respecting the views of the child (this being the participation principle);

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The right to survival and development; and

The CRC suggests a radical vision: that children are not adults in the making but are people who have fundamental rights in the here and now.

Participation rights a reality? We face many problems turning the CRC principles into reality. The problem with participation rights is that young people are usually perceived of unable or incompetent to make important decisions. We have few skills to develop responsibility and independence in young people. In spite of some efforts to engage young people, there is a difference between listening, hearing what they have to say and then enabling them to take action on what they propose. It has been said that in the developed world, young people are suffering an epidemic of misery and that the knock on effects of this epidemic are manifested in increasingly anti-social behaviour including drug and substance abuse, binge drinking, eating disorders, self harm, suicide and knife crime. When we look at the evidence base of health behaviour in school age children research suggests that not all the trends are upwards but they are nevertheless worrying. These are complex cultural problems linked to the speed at which societies are changing. There is much about the lives and culture of young people that is hard for parents, teachers, policy-makers and others to understand. School systems with its targets and tasks value academic results highly and do not attend enough to the many other key parts of young people’s development. Teachers often feel constrained, under fire and out of control. Neighbours look upon the youngsters around them with suspicion. The image of young people in the media is unrelentingly negative. Setting up effective participatory process is time consuming; it requires a high degree of staff involvement and skill. Educators need to do a certain amount of pre-project planning to set up the space for creative opportunities for participation. They need to think about the different roles they will play as coach, mentor and teacher and when to juggle between them depending on the age and experience of the young people with whom they work. They need to be honest with themselves about their own cultural assumptions around the ability of young people to participate fully. This is because effective youth participation counters many preconceived assumptions about adult child relationships. Changing the way in which we do things can be the

easier task: challenging underlying systems and cultural values is where the real challenges often lie. Of course there are many inspiring stories of young people’s strength and courage bringing about positive, lasting changes in their families and communities. There are many amazing individual teachers, social workers, voluntary group leaders, health professionals and others who inspire and champion the abilities and ideas of young people in society. These youngsters and those who support them, show us the way

Our Allies Since the ratification of the CRC many hundreds of projects and programmes aspire to involve young people more broadly and more deeply in their own and others development. A world leader in this work is The Child-to-Child Trust www.child-to-child.org a small organisation based at the University of London’s Institute of Education. Since 1979, the Child-to-Child has provided materials, advice and training to organisations working in the field. Millions of children worldwide are touched by its work. Young Solutions international has developed out of the work of The Child-toChild Trust. It brings the ideology and methods espoused by the Trust to work with programmes in the UK and Europe where the participation of young people has become more and more a part of community and youth development rhetoric. Another leading agency based in the UK, is Participation Works, www.participationworks.org.uk. This is a consortium of six leading children and young people's organisations in the UK that provides expert advice to those wanting to give a voice to children and young people. It is made up of the British Youth Council, Children’s Rights Alliance for England, National Children’s Bureau, National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, the National Youth Agency and Save the Children- England. One of their key resources is the Hear By Right, a self assessment tool that helps to map and plan the participation of children and young people at an organisational level.

The Benefits of Participation At YSi, we have the experience to know that when young people help to solve health and social problems they make a huge impact. Their energy and enthusiasm is unleashed to find creative, relevant solutions to the minefield of health and social problems that beset society. Young people love to be involved in something that is important and real. Doing so brings them happiness, fun, friends and powerful connections to those closest to them. It develops in young people citizenship skills and a sense of political engagement. It increases their confidence and gives them a real experience of community. In addition, the participation of young people can increase the cost effectiveness and delivery of relevant services.

How to ‘do’ Participation with Young People How to ‘’do’ participation with young people is the business of Young Solutions international.

The first step is to recognise three things: 1. That the non-engagement of young people is the norm in most societies (except in adult-prescribed settings) and decide to do something to change this; 2. The real part that young people can play in improving their own and others' health and well-being; and 3. The need to work with young people in such a way that their world and context forms a backdrop to their learning. We need to loose our fear. We need to trust. This is not a ‘handing over’ but an alliance. This alliance is built from a relationship between a young person and someone they want to learn from (this could be a parent, grandparent, other relative, a teacher, health professional, project worker youth worker) and the participatory process is a journey they go on together. The relationship feels different to a traditional teacherpupil relationship (although the best ones of these share many of its features). It is a symbiotic relationship between the educator and young person: a dialogue in which both parties listen and speak up. The educator starts the process with the understanding that the young person is the person most capable of finding solutions

for their particular issue and holds their capacity to do this up to them, like a large mirror. It is a non-coercive relationship and thrives in a non-coercive environment. The participatory process is like a road map that helps the educator and young person journey safely together. Like a good guide, the educator uses her experience to point this way or that but does not solve the problems for them. A crucial part of this and a key reason why it should be such a mutually satisfying process is that it is an alliance where both parties are able to deepen their skills and knowledge.

When educators have the skills and confidence to facilitate and to trust young people, or as YSi’s catchphrase expresses it…Give Them The Pen!... they can make change happen. Young people are tirelessly creative and resourceful. Working with their own ideas and with energy and enthusiasm, youngsters can make excellent choices for their own health, for that of their friends and for others in their family and community. As a result, relationships strengthen, respect develops and social cohesiveness is born.

Young Solutions international: our approach Young Solutions international has developed an approach that we call positive participation. We work with teachers, health professionals, community leaders, project managers and policy makers. We work with these groups to increase young people’s opportunities to understand and do something to improve issues that affect their lives. There are many people involved in the health and development of young people. In this handbook, we call this group, EDUCATORS. Educators can be teachers, educational administrators, youth workers, social workers, health workers and others. They may work in a formal educational setting or in an informal setting such as a project, club or group. Our positive participation approach builds the confidence and skills of educators to undertake high quality participatory work with young people. The approach is a synthesis of tools from the fields of teaching, training, facilitation, coaching and mentoring. This unique mix has come together as a result of 25 years experience working with education and health practitioners all over the world and from all walks of life.

From mentoring and coaching we borrow the idea that the young people we work with are resourceful, creative and whole. When educators use their supportive presence, active listening skills and their ability to ask powerful questions, they help young people create plans and activities to improve their own and others health and well-being. Inspired by appreciative enquiry we abandon a problem-centred approach and switch to celebrating and using the attributes of young people, families and communities. We focus on what works and use this to drive the development of better health and well being. The YSi approach has been designed with the 10+ age group in mind. However you can adapt the approach for any age group. The YSi approach is detailed in our 100 page handbook, our three training courses and the mentoring and consulting services we offer. See our website for details. The YSi approach falls into two distinct phases. Phase one is called Building Foundations.

Building Foundations develops educators’ skills and confidence in the way they work with young people. This is often the missing piece in participatory work with young people. Many of the ideas and activities can be transferred across to use directly with young people to equip them with the skills to lead participatory work. Building Foundations has two distinct sections: •

Section One: All about you: This section has six parts. These lead educators to reflect on what they have and what they bring to a positive participatory process; their ideas, experiences and beliefs about childhood, child development and the participation of young people in health projects. Each part includes two elements: content and action steps.

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Section Two: The Life Skills course: This section has seven parts. The course deepens educators skills, awareness and confidence to better able to position themselves alongside young people effectively. The focus of each part is what we call a ‘key quality’ such as respect, listening and appreciation. The educator is guided in how to bring each quality more deeply into their work with young people. The course can be used as a stand alone for anyone

wanting to deepen their communication skills with young people. An example of a life skills session is the one in which we work on educators’ ‘listening’ skills and awareness around listening. We discuss and demonstrate three distinct types of listening: Listening from your own point of view (common!); ‘listening to a point of view; and listening from a point of view. This last one is rare and powerful and an essential foundation skill for those wishing to implement projects with young people that are truly participatory in nature.

Phase Two: Stepping Forward This phase provides the educator with a framework to develop a positive participatory project. It includes the following eight steps: 1. Identify: Brainstorming, prioritising and identifying our health or social justice issue 2. Understand: What we already understand about the issue 3. Remember and Discover: What we have that helps us, our family and our community enjoy good health and well being. 4. Find out More 5. Dream and Plan: Goal-setting and planning how to move towards the dream 6. Take Action!: Moving towards the dream 7. Assess: How we did! 8. Story and a Symbol At Steps 4 and 6, activities take place outside where the young people meet to learn and share their ideas, what we call, the Learning Place. It is essential that the projects includes these community-based outreach activities as it is by connecting learning to where the young people live, that gives this process its power. At each of the steps we set out between one and three activities that take one or more sessions to conduct.

At Step 1, Identify! we outline a session to brainstorm and then prioritise health or social justice issues of relevance to the young people themselves. It sets out a tool we call The Opportunities Chart. After the initial session, youngsters use it with friends and family before selecting a focus for their projects. This tool has been used with groups of youngsters as diverse as children living on the streets in Addis Ababa, Somali youngsters living in a refugee camp in the Yemen and scout groups living in Alderney in the Channel Islands! At Step 4, we show you how to get young people out into the community as researchers to discover the treasures that exist there to build and strengthen their projects. At Step 8, the final step, we show how to build the achievements of the project into a story and a symbol that can continue to inspire action long after the project cycle is complete.

The Road to Health Bus As educators and young people work with the eights steps, we invite them to look upon their specific project as if it’s a bus taking them on a journey along the road to good health. This bus has four wheels that need to be in good shape and turning at the same time! Each wheel symbolises four key elements of any programme that seeks to inspire improvements or changes in young people’s health. These elements include: Information; Life Skills (ability to act); Inspiration and Motivation; and a Supportive Environment.

Many health development or participatory programmes fail because a good intervention is not supported by the other crucial elements that need to work alongside it, to support its progress. In recent years, Life Skills learning has become a key part of the strategy to prevent HIV and AIDS. However, even the best Life Skills programmes are not enough on their own! We would liken such an intervention to a bus having one good strong wheel. All four are needed.

How YSi helps support individuals and projects! If you are reading this, the chances are you are involved in some way in working with young people and on health or social justice issues, or you would like to! This report gives you a taster of what we do. Through our website we offer a variety of products and services. These include our comprehensive handbook, three training courses (delivered on on-line and supported by a mix of live events and tele-seminars), workshops and individualised mentoring and consultancy services.

We work with a wide range of educators and project managers living both in the UK and internationally. The YSi approach is useful to people from any field who wish to expand their repertoire of skills in working with young people.

YSi people The founder and director of Young Solutions international is Clare Hanbury, a trained teacher who has worked in classrooms in primary and secondary schools in Kenya, London and Hong Kong. Following her classroom teaching and for six years she worked as a full time member of staff with The Child-to-Child Trust. Here she worked to support international government and non-government organisations all over the world. She specialises in bringing innovative approaches to teaching and learning. She has worked with individuals and with groups of people in the formal and non-formal education sectors and in the health sector. She has developed and strengthened participatory approaches to health education programmes addressing general issues and specific health issues such as sexual health, landmine awareness and HIV prevention. Clare helped to set up the Consortium for Street Children and for two years was the director of the charity, Learning for Life. Clare has worked in many countries in East, West and Southern Africa as well as Cambodia, Columbia, Pakistan, Romania, Vietnam, Yemen and the United Kingdom. She lives in Cambridge, England with her husband and two children. Our associates YSi has a wide network of associates who work in the UK and overseas. They include experienced professionals from the fields of international development, health, education, mentoring and coaching. These people are called upon for different projects. If we need a specialist in coaching or in life-skills work with teenagers to become part of our team, we have one. If we need a medical advisor we have one. Each team is uniquely qualified to take on each unique task. Work with us! We hope you enjoy reading this. We always welcome feedback your comments and we look forward to working with you! Young Solutions international 32, Market Street Swavesey Cambridge CB24 4QG www.youngsolutionsinternational.com